Role of Scholarships in Improving Success Rates of Undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Majors

Based on the Bureau of Labour and Statistics (BLS) employment projections, more and more technology-driven jobs will be created and, therefore, demand for highly-skilled technologically-trained professionals will increase. What is being done in the United States (US) to ensure a steady flow in the dwindling pipeline of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) workforce? The US has a number of initiatives along this line. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has some programs to guarantee an increase in number of STEM-trained graduates. Texas Woman's University recently received an award from NSF with the aim of increasing STEM majors and graduating them in a timely manner. This paper hypothesizes that these federal grants, which focus on both financial and academic support, do increase the probability of graduating STEM majors, improve completion rate in the STEM-related fields, and, therefore, contribute to the goal of encouraging citizens to be highly innovative in a technologically-competitive world.