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EEC Foundation
EEC Foundation
Research
Opportunity Awards Research

In 2007, with the encouragement of Kansas State University (KSU) College of Engineering leadership, the Foundation studied the effectiveness of the loan guarantee award in motivating female engineering students to persist to graduation in undergraduate engineering. 

Dr. Kimberly Douglas-Mankin, director of KSU’s Women in Engineering and Science Program, studied the loan guarantee program by matching 20 pairs of female engineering students in their early semesters. The participants were matched on the criteria of first generation to college and minority status.

By random selection, in each pair one student was given the Opportunity Award and one was not. 

Results:

  • 18 of the 20 students who received the Opportunity Award graduated in engineering 

  • 8 of the 20 students in the control group with no loan repayment guarantee graduated in engineering. 

  • The GPA of the control group students was higher than those in the experiment, suggesting that the availability of loan repayment did induce recipient students to persist to degree completion, despite lower grades.

See Grauer, B. (2013). Carter Opportunity Award: Effects of the Carter Opportunity Award on the academic achievement of female students in the Kansas State University College of Engineering. Retrieved from krex.ksu.edu

View the full manuscript here