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The impact of college STEM summer bridge programs is not well understood. This nationwide study pooled data from 27 colleges and universities involved in the NSF's STEM Talent Expansion Program to model changes in college career aspirations for 2 groups: 383 STEM summer bridge program participants and 15,464 controls. Propensity weighted modeling revealed that college STEM summer bridge programs double the odds that students plan to pursue a STEM career, compared with students without program exposure. We found this to be true across a range of demographics and student background characteristics. Implications for college educators, practitioners, and policymakers are discussed.
Kitchen et al. (Mon,) studied this question.