IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0199720.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exposure to multiple career pathways by biomedical doctoral students at a public research university

Author

Listed:
  • Ambika Mathur
  • Christine S Chow
  • Andrew L Feig
  • Heidi Kenaga
  • Judith A Moldenhauer
  • Nisansala S Muthunayake
  • Mathew L Ouellett
  • Laura E Pence
  • Victoria Straub

Abstract

The Broadening Experiences in Scientific Experiences (BEST) program at Wayne State University was designed to increase doctoral students’ awareness of multiple employment sectors beyond academia, improve their knowledge of transferable skills required to succeed in any career path, provide opportunities to explore diverse career paths, and gain in-depth knowledge about those paths using experiential learning opportunities. We devised a three-phase program that ranged from providing students with a broad introduction to multiple career opportunities to immersive experiential learning in a specific career sector. Importantly, program content was developed and delivered by alumni and industry experts in five employment sectors–business/industry, communication, government, law/regulatory affairs, and undergraduate/PUI teaching–in partnership with WSU faculty. This article provides data on two notable outcomes: doctoral students participate equally in BEST activities regardless of gender, race, and citizenship status, and student participation in BEST activities did not correlate with lower GRE ratings, lower GPA, or increased time-to-degree. Further, a “halo” effect of the program is evidenced by participation of students from all disciplines, not just the biomedical sciences. Centralizing BEST activities within the Graduate School will allow faculty and individual programs to save resources and time.

Suggested Citation

  • Ambika Mathur & Christine S Chow & Andrew L Feig & Heidi Kenaga & Judith A Moldenhauer & Nisansala S Muthunayake & Mathew L Ouellett & Laura E Pence & Victoria Straub, 2018. "Exposure to multiple career pathways by biomedical doctoral students at a public research university," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(6), pages 1-13, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0199720
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199720
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0199720
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0199720&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0199720?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Henry Sauermann & Michael Roach, 2012. "Science PhD Career Preferences: Levels, Changes, and Advisor Encouragement," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(5), pages 1-9, May.
    2. Liane Moneta-Koehler & Abigail M Brown & Kimberly A Petrie & Brent J Evans & Roger Chalkley, 2017. "The Limitations of the GRE in Predicting Success in Biomedical Graduate School," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, January.
    3. Ambika Mathur & Annmarie Cano & Michael Kohl & Nisansala S Muthunayake & Prassanna Vaidyanathan & Mary E Wood & Mustafa Ziyad, 2018. "Visualization of gender, race, citizenship and academic performance in association with career outcomes of 15-year biomedical doctoral alumni at a public research university," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-16, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ambika Mathur & Annmarie Cano & Michael Kohl & Nisansala S Muthunayake & Prassanna Vaidyanathan & Mary E Wood & Mustafa Ziyad, 2018. "Visualization of gender, race, citizenship and academic performance in association with career outcomes of 15-year biomedical doctoral alumni at a public research university," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-16, May.
    2. Linda Sealy & Christina Saunders & Jeffrey Blume & Roger Chalkley, 2019. "The GRE over the entire range of scores lacks predictive ability for PhD outcomes in the biomedical sciences," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(3), pages 1-17, March.
    3. Giulio Marini, 2021. "The employment destination of PhD-holders in Italy: non-academic funded projects as drivers of successful segmentation," DoQSS Working Papers 21-16, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    4. Corsini, Alberto & Pezzoni, Michele & Visentin, Fabiana, 2022. "What makes a productive Ph.D. student?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(10).
    5. Jeongeun Kim & Molly Ott & Lindsey Dippold, 2020. "University and Department Influences on Scientists’ Occupational Outcomes," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 61(2), pages 197-228, March.
    6. Margaret E Blume-Kohout & John W Clack, 2013. "Are Graduate Students Rational? Evidence from the Market for Biomedical Scientists," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(12), pages 1-13, December.
    7. Nora Hesse, 2015. "Students' Career Attitudes - How Entrepreneurial Are Prospective Scientists?," Working Papers on Innovation and Space 2015-03, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    8. Marie K. Norman & Colleen A. Mayowski & Steven K. Wendell & Michael J. Forlenza & Chelsea N. Proulx & Doris M. Rubio, 2021. "Delivering What We PROMISED: Outcomes of a Coaching and Leadership Fellowship for Mentors of Underrepresented Mentees," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-9, April.
    9. Jack Hart & Caleb C McKinney, 2020. "An institutional analysis of graduate outcomes reveals a contemporary workforce footprint for biomedical master’s degrees," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(12), pages 1-16, December.
    10. Hayter, Christopher S. & Parker, Marla A., 2019. "Factors that influence the transition of university postdocs to non-academic scientific careers: An exploratory study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 556-570.
    11. Nathalie Duval-Couetil & Michael Ladisch & Soohyun Yi, 2021. "Addressing academic researcher priorities through science and technology entrepreneurship education," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 288-318, April.
    12. Stefano Bianchini & Francesco Lissoni & Michele Pezzoni & Lorenzo Zirulia, 2016. "The economics of research, consulting, and teaching quality: theory and evidence from a technical university," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(7), pages 668-691, October.
    13. Ganguli, Ina & Gaulé, Patrick & Čugalj, Danijela Vuletić, 2022. "Chasing the academic dream: Biased beliefs and scientific labor markets," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 17-33.
    14. Ana Sofia Morais & Wasilios Hariskos, 2018. "Academic coaching and decision analysis: Ways of deciding whether to pursue an academic career," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-18, November.
    15. Carolina Cañibano & Richard Woolley & Eric J. Iversen & Sybille Hinze & Stefan Hornbostel & Jakob Tesch, 2019. "A conceptual framework for studying science research careers," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(6), pages 1964-1992, December.
    16. Sandra L Petersen & Evelyn S Erenrich & Dovev L Levine & Jim Vigoreaux & Krista Gile, 2018. "Multi-institutional study of GRE scores as predictors of STEM PhD degree completion: GRE gets a low mark," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(10), pages 1-15, October.
    17. Massimiliano Tani, 2022. "Same degree but different outcomes: an analysis of labour market outcomes for native and international PhD students in Australia," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 56(1), pages 1-18, December.
    18. Tim Maloney & Kamakshi Singh, 2017. "Using Validated Measures of High School Academic Achievement to Predict University Success," Working Papers 2017-10, Auckland University of Technology, Department of Economics.
    19. Baruffaldi, Stefano & Visentin, Fabiana & Conti, Annamaria, 2016. "The productivity of science & engineering PhD students hired from supervisors’ networks," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 785-796.
    20. Sauermann, Henry & Roach, Michael, 2014. "Not all scientists pay to be scientists: PhDs’ preferences for publishing in industrial employment," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 32-47.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0199720. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.