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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the following question: To what extent would a nationally competitive scholarship program increase science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) degree awards to our “best and brightest”? This inquiry is prompted by a 2006 report of a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel, “Rising Above the Gathering Storm,” which proposed a national STEM scholarship program to improve United States competitiveness. Using the Department of Education National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS-88), high school graduates from the class of 1992 who would potentially win such a scholarship were identified using ACT/SAT/AP test scores, grade point averages (GPA) and class standing, high school classes completed, and science fair participation. NELS-88 college transcript data indicated a lower bound estimate of between 60% to 80% of students likely to win the merit scholarships are already completing STEM degrees.
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Baker et al. (2008) studied this question.
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