Demographic and Financial Trends Among Southeastern Universities in the U.S.A.

This Work-In-Progress (WIP) research paper summarizes and compares institutional demographic and financial trends among five Southeastern engineering institutions through 2000-2015. This WIP is part of a larger study investigating the effect of institutional characteristics on first- to second- year retention among undergraduate engineering students. Using two databases, we compared institution demographics, number of degrees granted, and institution expenditure both at the university level and engineering college level. The authors will use the results of this WIP to further investigate the effects of these variables on engineering students' academic performance by using these results and applying additional quantitative models to a longitudinal and multi-institutional database.