Growing College Kids

Here is some new and interesting research on college students and career development:

1.A recent Gallup poll that examined the relationship between college experiences and life after graduation found that what mattered most to ending up engaged at work and having a sense of well-being was real support from faculty / mentors and experiential learning (i.e., projects, internships, extracurricular activities/organizations) while in school. Sadly, only 3% of those surveyed strongly agreed that all of these were part of their college experience.

2. Research by Katherine Milkman, Modupe Akinola, and Dolly Chugh found that when prospective grad students reached out to tenure-track faculty for a meeting, the requests of women and minorities were ignored by faculty at a higher rate than the requests coming from men. Interestingly, the bias against women and minorities was greater in higher paying disciplines and at private institutions. They found little discrimination in the humanities, more discrimination in the natural sciences, and much discrimination in business schools.
If we generalize the Gallup research mentioned above to grad students, this difficulty women and minorities experience establishing a mentoring relationship is even more troubling.

3. Speaking of business schools, gender, and careers, research by Laura Kray examines why women may opt out of high-paying business careers. In an interview on NPR’s Morning Edition, she shared her findings about b-school students saying “men tend to have more lenient ethical standards than women, and secondly, that negotiators are more likely to tell a blatant lie to a female counterpart than a male counterpart.”
This is a fascinating study and it would be interesting to know if the gender differences in ethical standards and behavior are true for business school faculty as well. I’ve written previously about ethical behavior while in college and believe it has many long-term implications. 

Finally, (disclaimer: it’s my alma mater) what a fantastic way to develop college students – Earl Leonard, a UGA alum mentors students in UGA’s college of business.

Does this research reflect what you are seeing in the universities you care about and with the college kids in your life? Would love to hear your thoughts on this.