| This dissertation examines how departments contribute to doctoral students' academic career aspirations. This study uses a conceptual framework based on the graduate student socialization literature to examine the effects that individual, student-experience, and departmental variables have on doctoral students' academic career aspirations. Through hierarchical linear analyses, the study suggests that students' academic aspirations are lower in departments with more structure. With only a few exceptions, doctoral students' presumably positive experiences enhance their likelihood of aspiring to an academic career whereas presumably bad experiences relate negatively to academic aspirations. The study also indicates that the variables related to students' academic aspiration differ significantly across disciplines. Data from this study are drawn from a nationwide survey of 2000 doctoral students in 97 departments in four academic disciplines at major research universities. |
