UNPREPARED SPACES: A LONGITUDINAL EXAMINATION OF BLACK AND LATINÉ STUDENTSâ FIRST YEAR IN DOCTORAL ENGINEERING PROGRAMS

Increases in the representation of Black and Latiné students in doctoral engineering programs over the past decades have not yet led to long-term success in achieving parity with the population's demographics. Although graduation rates show such students are recruited to such programs, they remain underrepresented due to their early departure due to unreconcilable differences in institutional cultures being exclusive of their identities. Although the socialization experiences of first-year doctoral students can predetermine their success or failure, scant research has looked at Black and Latiné students in engineering programs. This longitudinal qualitative case study explores the first-year program experiences of such students and how their minority identities influenced their socialization. We present the experiences of sixteen engineering graduate students from various institutions who met in virtual focus groups throughout their first year. We found that Black and Latiné students' racial-ethnic identities influence how they experience the first year of their doctorate. This influence extends from how they perceive their sense of belonging and qualification to be in such programs to how and where they seek support when facing racialized experiences. Moreover, participants shared how their programs were not equipped to support their identities and potential contributions to their fields. These findings are key to the engineering context, where representation is starkly limited for these students. Our implications for institutions focus on the needed cultural shifts to ultimately diminish the barriers that Black and Latiné students face while pursuing doctoral degrees.