The graduate school environment: Student satisfaction and involvement as predictors of academic success

The purpose of this study was to compare the satisfaction and involvement levels of graduate students and their academic success at selected colleges and universities in the southeastern United States. The investigation involved 439 graduate students who attended both historically white institutions and historically black institutions. In addition, this investigation ascertained the effect of sex, ethnicity and type of institution attended upon student satisfaction and involvement and their academic success.;Graduate student satisfaction and university involvement was measured by the use of a combination of two instruments; the College Student Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSSQ) and the Graduate Student Involvement Questionnaire (GSIQ). The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was the statistical method used to determine the significance of the main effects: academic success (GPA), sex identification, race identification and type of institution attended.;The results indicated that although white graduate students were academically successful at both types of institutions they were less involved with faculty members and professional organizations at historically black institutions than at white institutions. A similar trend was observed for black graduate students at historically white institutions. The hispanic graduate student was more involved with faculty members and professional organizations at historically white institutions than at historically black institutions.;The graduate students were satisfied with the recognition they received from historically black institutions as compared to historically white institutions. In the areas of policies and procedures and the recognition graduate students receive, white graduate students indicated that they were satisfied with the historically black institutions.