Trying to Fit In: Barriers to Degree Completion for Part-Time Graduate Students

Abstract

This research explores factors that affect the persistence of part-time graduate students and how the part-time students at one large research university experience moving through their programs. Data collected though a survey administered to full- and part-time graduate students helped illustrate areas of struggle for the part-time graduate student population. Although all graduate students experience barriers to degree completion, part-time graduate students at ‘traditional’ research institutions often follow a non-traditional path to degree completion and therefore face increased and unique barriers to completing their degrees, different from their undergraduate and full-time graduate counterparts.