New Survey: What Motivates College Students to be STEM Majors

This summer, my research team had six incredible interns, four women and two men. As they head back to college, and as I look at my own two high school aged children, I find myself wondering, what motivates young folks to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) degrees and careers, and what can we do to make STEM and computer science more appealing to more people?

Getting the facts, according to the Aug. 2011 study on the Gender Gap of Women in STEM from the U.S. Department of Commerce, of 44 million college graduates with jobs in the US; there were only 6.7 million males and 2.5 million females with STEM degrees. Of those, only 2.7 million (40 percent) men and 0.6 million (26 percent) women work in STEM jobs. In other words, we could be doing better! Of 44 million college grads, only .6 million women have STEM degrees and STEM jobs.

To see the rest of this story, read today’s post on the Microsoft Unlimited Potential Blog.

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