Chatham University is a private institution with an undergraduate enrollment of around a thousand students, located in Pittsburgh, PA. With a two-year, overall retention rate around 75%, a cohort program to increase retention in chemistry, biochemistry, and biology was begun in 2015. Features of this program, funded by an NSF S-STEM scholarship grant, included a session for first-year students prior to University orientation, a 3-week research experience in May of the first-year, and continued group activities and support throughout the four years. In addition, a 50-item survey on attitudes toward science was developed and administered to S-STEM and other science students in the first week of their first year and again when students were juniors. The first cohort from this program will graduate in the 17-18 academic year and preliminary data strongly support the advantages of both a cohort approach and early introduction to research in promoting student retention and student success in science. One possible confounding factor is Chatham’s transition from a single-sex (women’s) institution to becoming fully co-educational in the second year of the program. Aspects of this are also discussed.

Four-year student retention and success in the Chatham University (NSF S-STEM) scholarship program

255th National Meeting (2018)

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