By taking the step to talk openly about his failure, the author stumbled upon one of several important lessons that he learned from this experience. The author recognized that he did not have to pretend anymore. In this article, the author shares his story of developing a "growth mindset" to overcome his own failure and support his…

This study examined the relationship of the scores on the Practice Exam & Assessment Tool (PEAT) to the scaled scores on the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE). A correlation analysis examined the relationship of the exam scores from three cohorts of Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students on the PEAT and NPTE. This study sought to…

For decades, the cohort model has been utilized to bring graduate degrees to working adults who cannot put their family lives and careers on hold to attend a university in the more traditional way. With the growing access to reliable digital tools, some cohorts have taken advantage of the ability to meet online with live-streaming applications…

This article proposes that a queer reading of failure might offer opportunities to re-think the affective-political practice of doctoral writing. It examines data from one case in Aotearoa New Zealand to illustrate how a doctoral student negotiates "failure" in relation to their writing practice and identity. While higher education…

This general qualitative study examined how people with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) were able to navigate adversity and ultimately pursue doctoral programs. The research focused on the academic experiences of doctoral students who had 4 or more ACEs and explored how resiliency helped these participants navigate the educational system. The…

There is a dearth of literature in physical therapy education regarding factors students believe to influence success, and little to no literature describing such beliefs related to hybrid education in the health professions or specific to physical therapy. The overarching purpose of this investigation was to determine students' perceptions of…

Navigation and completion of a doctoral degree presents numerous challenges, including managing and understanding the faculty advisor/advisee relationship. Research shows faculty advisors are a critical aspect of the doctoral student experience; however faculty advisors and doctoral students do not always have the same perceptions of the…

To determine if demography impacted the success of graduate students in the online learning environment, this non-experimental study used age, gender, ethnicity, enrollment status, financial dependency, employment status, program (master's or doctoral), and marital status as the independent variables to determine their impact on four dependent…

Certain racial and ethnic groups, individuals with disabilities, and those from low socioeconomic backgrounds remain underrepresented (UR) in the biomedical sciences. This underrepresentation becomes more extreme at each higher education stage. To support UR scholars during the critical transition from baccalaureate to PhD, we established an…

Doctoral students leave their programs early due to lack of mentoring relationships needed to support degree completion and success. However, how mentoring contributes to Ed.D degree completion is not widely studied. In this qualitative narrative study, we sought to explore how multiple mentoring relationships reduced attrition in an Ed.D program.…

As higher education changes to reach larger numbers of students via online modalities, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, the issue of student attrition and other measures of student success become increasingly important. While research has focused largely on undergraduate online students, less has been done in the area of online…

By focusing on the problem of graduate student persistence, researchers have tended to either discount or ignore the impact and value of advising relationships as a context for the successful completion of a doctoral program. Little information exists regarding the advising experiences and relationships between African-American female doctoral…

Few studies have explored the positive characteristics that motivate doctoral students to pursue and complete their degree; research has historically focused on doctoral student attrition. To fully understand doctoral student success, research must focus on factors that contribute to completion. Based on Seligman's theory of explanatory style,…

Although admission criteria such as GRE scores and undergraduate GPAs (UGPAs) have been shown to moderately predict success in graduate school for students in other academic disciplines and in MSW programs, no published research has examined factors associated with success in social work PhD programs. This article reports the findings of a pilot…

Based on ethnographic interviews with 48 doctoral students and 22 faculty members in science and engineering, this study examines the ways in which doctoral students and faculty make market, symbolic, and social meaning of the presence or absence of money in doctoral student socialization and of funding from governmental and industrial sources.…