Improving Cadet Success at the U.S. Air Force Academy by Identifying Factors Associated with Persistence among STEM Graduating Seniors

Scott Alsid¹, Daniel O’Keefe², Wilson González-Espada³, Robert L. Lloyd¹, and David Meier⁴

¹ Department of Physics and Meteorology, U.S. Air Force Academy

² Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, U.S. Air Force

³ Department of Engineering Sciences, Morehead State University

⁴ Quantitative Reasoning Center, U.S. Air Force Academy

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Abstract

As the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA) fulfills its mission, it must understand the causes of attrition and persistence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduate programs. This mixed-methods study reported how 37 USAFA graduating STEM seniors overcame five challenges previously identified as responsible for undergraduates leaving STEM programs. Almost half of the responses indicated cadets persisted in STEM through a combination of extensive prioritizing, managing time, and seeking academic assistance from peers, instructors, and extra instruction (EI) from the Quantitative Resource Center (QRC). About 6% of the responses stated that even as graduating seniors, some cadets who persisted in STEM continue experiencing serious challenges to degree completion. Based on the participants’ recommendations, USAFA should consider (a) explicitly teaching freshmen time management skills, study habits, and mental well-being strategies in the context of a military university workload; (b) developing efforts to destigmatize the use of QRC/EI support; (c) revising teaching methods in core classes to focus on interactivity, engagement, and contextual relevance to Air Force needs; (d) revising admission requirements, like ACT scores; and (e) helping more cadets validate honors/advanced placement classes.

 

The commonly used expression “there is no such thing as a free lunch” illustrates that achieving an adequate proficiency level in a conceptual understanding, task, or skill require an unavoidable investment in time, effort, and the ability to overcome numerous struggles (Duckworth, 2016). Whether it’s 10,000 hours of practice (Gladwell, 2008) or factors like quality of engagement and learning curve difficulty, a person’s persistence or grit is key to achieving success (Toyama, 2024). Several authors define grit as an “effortful persistence” because it combines a passion to invest sustained effort in the same goal and perseverance that pushes people to continue working toward the goal (Duckworth et al., 2007; Lechner et al., 2019; Von Culin et al., 2014). However, there is a lack of consensus among researchers regarding the relative weights of consistency or perseverance in characterizing grit, and whether other factors like self-control, cognitive ability, study habits, race or ethnicity experiences, and academic adjustment should be incorporated into the grit construct (Abuhassàn & Bates, 2015; Credé et al., 2017; Locks et al., 2023). Regardless, the grit concept has been useful to better understand what drives people to persist in several contexts such as workplaces (Ion et al., 2017; Meriac et al., 2023), athletics (Dunn et al., 2021; Harnar et al., 2021), and academic competitions (Duckworth et al., 2011).

In the last decade, grit has interested researchers and practitioners, including the U.S. Military Academy (Bartone et al., 2013; Buller, 2012; Kelly et al., 2014; Maddi et al., 2017, 2012), the Virginia Military Institute (Whipple & Dimitrova-Grajzl, 2024), U.S. Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) programs (Johnston, 2010), the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (Kelly, 1994), and the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA; Stoddard, 2019, 2020). This interest has emerged for two main reasons. First, grit is associated with college GPAs, educational attainment, and retention (Alan et al., 2019; Tang et al., 2019). Second, since grit can be a predictor of several positive outcomes relative to student learning and academic achievement, educational interventions aimed at fostering individual agency, performance, and success can be designed, implemented, and evaluated (DiNapoli, 2023; Lechner et al., 2019; Wolters & Hussain, 2015). Of interest in this study is the potential relationship researchers have identified between grit and success in receiving a college degree (Hodge et al., 2018; Rogalski, 2018), military education (Roach, 2023), and, particularly, majoring in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines (Bazelais et al., 2016; Hacisalihoglu et al., 2020; Moreno-Hernández & Mondisa, 2021).

The U.S. Department of Defense, and particularly the U.S. Air and Space Forces, has identified a vigorous STEM workforce as essential for success in increasingly complex national and international security environments (Coe et al., 2023; Harrington et al., 2014; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2015; National Research Council, 2014; Ross et al., 2020). Given USAFA’s mission of educating, training, and inspiring the next generation of Air and Space Force officers tasked with leading these military institutions, it is crucial to maximize both the quantity of STEM graduates and their quality, including their scientific literacy (Gooding & Metz, 2011; Laugksch, 2000; National Science Board, 2018; Osborne, 2023). Recent studies on STEM degrees at USAFA have focused on attrition, shedding light on factors associated with cadets switching from STEM to non-STEM majors, or declaring non-STEM majors even though they were initially STEM-interested in high school or as first-year cadets (González-Espada et al., 2019; O’Keefe et al., 2022, 2023). However, there is a lack of research studies associating grit as a construct and STEM degree completion at USAFA.

At a U.S. service academy, completing a STEM undergraduate degree competes for a cadet’s time among competing military and athletic demands, making grit essential. The purpose of this study was to investigate what academic and nonacademic factors graduating cadets in a STEM discipline identify as important in their decision to persevere and finish their undergraduate degree. The research questions that guided this study were

• What factors did cadets identify as most relevant in their decision to complete a STEM degree?
• How did cadets overcome situations that commonly push cadets away from STEM majors?
• What actions would graduating STEM cadets recommend USAFA take to support persistence?

Learning how cadets graduating with STEM majors overcame these issues that caused other cadets to leave these disciplines is essential in helping shape intervention and mentoring strategies for future USAFA cadets who eventually serve in multiple technology, government, and military leadership positions.

Method

Participants

A random sample of 160 graduating STEM cadets (40 male Caucasian cadets, 40 female Caucasian cadets, 40 male non-Caucasian cadets, and 40 female non-Caucasian cadets) received email consent information and a survey link during the USAFA Spring 2024 Directed Survey and Assessment Time. Thirty-seven cadets agreed to participate in the study; however, not all completed all survey questions. To protect cadets’ identities, the survey was anonymous.

Survey

A survey methodology was selected because it allowed the researchers to learn from the cadets’ unique experiences and narratives, rather than being concerned about generalizability (Check & Schutt, 2012; Creswell, 2012). In the first part of the survey, cadets were asked to read eleven common reasons for undergraduates to declare a STEM major (identified from similar surveys reported in the literature) and rank their top three reasons for selecting these majors. In the second part of the survey, cadets were asked to read eight common influences that kept undergraduates motivated to finish a STEM major and rank their top three influences that best explained their motivation to finish the major. The third section of the survey provided a list of five main reasons why USAFA cadets switched from STEM to non-STEM, identified from a previous study (O’Keefe et al., 2024), and the cadets were asked to describe how they were able to overcome these five challenges and persist in the major. If some of these reasons were not challenging to them, cadets were asked to explain why. Cadets were also asked to add any other challenges they had to overcome to persist and graduate in STEM not listed above.

Analysis

The quantitative data was analyzed using the descriptive statistics tools of percentages and response frequency. The open responses were analyzed and coded manually using the phases of thematic analysis: (a) familiarization with the data, completed through repeated readings and actively searching for meaning and patterns among emerging noticeable traits on words and phrases collected; (b) initial code generation, to begin identifying core recommendations; (c) sorting and collating relevant data and searching for themes; and (d) review of themes, where the major themes were clarified and named for a user-friendly interpretation (Braun & Clarke, 2021; Saldaña, 2021; Nowell et al., 2017).

Findings

STEM Pull Forces

More than three-fourths of the participants (28, or 77.7%) decided to pursue a STEM career in middle or high school, while the rest did so during the first (3, or 8.3%), second (5, or 13.9%), or third (1, or 2.8%) semester at USAFA. In terms of major changes, 29 (78.4%) kept their initial STEM major compared with 8 (21.6%) who switched between STEM majors. Only one out of 37 cadets switched from a non-STEM to a STEM major.

Cadets highlighted interest, enjoyment, and abundant career prospects as the top three reasons that attracted them to declare a STEM major. In the open response section, cadets indicated other reasons for majoring in STEM, including pursuing medical school, the opportunity to pursue a challenging major, the broad opportunities for engineers, and the opportunity to solve problems. Table 1 summarizes the lists of top 10 reasons by frequency of responses.

Cadets reported that career goals, personal motivations, and a desire to pursue their chosen major were the primary influences that kept them motivated to persist and finish an undergraduate STEM degree. Other motivating influences not listed in the original survey were fear of failure, finishing what was started, and competition with peers. The full list of influences by frequency of responses is included in Table 2.

Surmounting Challenges

Given a set of common push factors away from USAFA STEM majors, cadets explained whether each factor was a challenge and how they prevailed over it or explained why the factor was not a challenge. Although cadets were instructed to answer only one of the statements, several cadets responded to both. Other cadets included several reasons within their response. All responses were coded separately, meaning that the number of responses is not the same as the number of cadets who responded.

USAFA’s STEM Class Pace. Participants were asked to describe how they were able to overcome and persist in their major, since STEM classes are perceived to be taught at a rapid pace. Of the 30 responses, the most frequent theme was to prioritize and manage their time to maintain class engagement, stay ahead of the content, and complete homework. Recognizing the need for academic assistance was the second emerging theme. Other themes included emotional self-motivation and switching to a more suitable STEM major. Two negative themes were identified: sacrificing well-being and a sense of impotence and acquiescence to USAFA.

Other cadets indicated that they did not perceive the STEM coursework pace as a challenge to them. Their 26 responses are consistent with the prior themes, except for the peer help and prioritizing subthemes. Two additional and opposing themes about explicitly disagreeing with the statement’s premise and indicating that STEM coursework was still a challenge were noted. The list of themes and subthemes are included in Tables 3 and 4.

USAFA’s Quantitative Core Classes. Participants described how they overcame the difficulty of the Calculus sequence, Physics I, Chemistry I, and other quantitative core courses. Of the 27 participant responses provided, the most common themes were seeking academic assistance, mainly from the USAFA’s evening tutoring center, the Quantitative Reasoning Center (QRC), and peers. Prioritizing and time management continued to emerge as a prevalent theme, along with emotional motivation. Two new themes were identified; one reflected the cadets’ discussions about learning to study better or differently (coded as study habits) and the second emerged from a cadet who validated quantitative advanced placement (AP) or international baccalaureate high school coursework.

Other cadets did not perceive these core classes to be challenging. About a third of the thirty-four responses were classified under the theme of high school background, which included completing a rigorous curriculum that prepared cadets for the quantitative core and validating AP/international baccalaureate classes, skipping to sophomore level STEM coursework. A second prevailing theme was explicitly disagreeing with the statement’s premise, which predominantly related to the participants’ precollege STEM background. Tables 5 and 6 summarize these findings.

USAFA’s Intense Workload. Cadets were asked to describe how they overcame and persisted in their major, even though the academic, physical fitness, military, and leadership duties workloads at USAFA are perceived as excessive. Of the 34 responses, five themes emerged, with the theme of time management and prioritization mentioned by more than two-thirds of the participants. Recognizing the need for academic assistance and seeking it out was the second emerging theme. Two negative themes, sacrificing well-being and a sense of impotence and acquiescence to USAFA, emerged as well.

Other cadets indicated that they did not perceive the academic, physical fitness, military, and leadership duties workloads at USAFA as challenging. The analysis of the 18 responses again identified time management and prioritization as a frequent theme. Two contrasting themes represented cadets for whom the workload was not excessive and cadets who, even within weeks of graduating, perceived the intense workload as still challenging. The researchers included the list of themes, subthemes, and frequencies in Tables 7 and 8.

USAFA Instructor Quality. Participants described how they overcame the limitations of some instructors who seemed unapproachable, unhelpful, or limited in teaching skills. Twenty-three responses were provided, with the most common theme being seeking academic assistance. A few cadets mentioned that they sought instructors other than their assigned ones. The rest of the responses were coded under the theme of agency, as cadets realized that they could learn the material on their own.

Most cadets stated that they did not perceive instructors as unprepared, unhelpful, or unapproachable, and strongly defended them. Academic support from peers and other instructors was a second theme, followed by cadets indicating that instructor interactions are still challenging. Tables 9 and 10 summarize these findings.

GPA Disparities at USAFA. Participants described how they persisted in their major knowing that STEM cadets tend to have lower GPAs than cadets in non-STEM majors, which limits access to certain USAFA benefits and opportunities accessible to high-GPA cadets. Of the 23 responses, prioritizing and managing time emerged as the principal theme, followed by a theme coded as missing opportunities, where cadets decided to not participate or quit these opportunities because of workload. Other cadets did not perceive that GPA was an obstacle to USAFA benefits, like clubs, airmanship, and leadership opportunities. The list of themes, subthemes, and quotes are included in Tables 11 and 12.

Additional Challenges. Finally, cadets provided fourteen responses that stated additional challenges they had to overcome to persist and graduate with a STEM degree. Many themes overlapped with prior ones. Notably, new themes of perceived morale issues, discrimination against two female cadets, and absences due to athletics commitments emerged.

Retention Strategies

The survey requested cadet feedback on recommendations that USAFA could implement to attract undecided cadets to declare a major in basic sciences and engineering. Improvements in freshmen cadet advising and several ways to improve the curriculum, instruction, and assessment in core classes were the cadets’ two main recommendations. Expanding USAFA academic support, establishing outreach and partnership efforts with high schools, and implementing changes to upper-level STEM coursework rounded the top five recommendations. Table 13 summarizes these findings.

Recommendations

Fostering Intrinsic Motivation

Both in terms of the cadets’ high frequency of responses and weighted ranking, factors like an interest in their STEM major, confidence in their capability and talents, and STEM enjoyment showed prominently in the survey data. These factors can be understood in the context of internal or intrinsic motivation (Di Domenico & Ryan, 2017; Herlambang et al., 2021; Messerer et al., 2023). DeCharms (1968) argued that internal motivation is strengthened by experiencing competence (doing well academically and improving STEM skills) and autonomy (pursuing STEM authentically without external pressure). A common perception amongst cadets is that leadership, grit, and persistence are learned from experience and not taught in the classroom. However, the researchers argue that the cadets’ metacognition and grit could increase by becoming aware of what drives them and why sometimes they feel unmotivated and suggest that these topics be taught in the appropriate first-year class, possibly USAFA’s Behavioral Science 110, which already covers topics like perception, cognition, learning, and the biological basis of behavior (U.S. Air Force Academy, 2023).

Teaching Time Management

About 32% of all the cadet responses across all five challenges to STEM persistence mentioned time management and prioritization as critical strategies. In general, students frequently struggle to manage their study time and their workload, and procrastinators are more likely to get behind on projects, study for fewer hours and closer to the exam date, and turn in assignments late (Humpherys & Lazrig, 2021; Lay & Schouwenburg, 1993). From the responses, it can be inferred that cadets who persisted in STEM tend to manage time and set priorities in more efficient ways compared with cadets who did not and had to switch to non-STEM majors. The literature is clear that time management skills can be taught explicitly to college students (García-Ros et al. 2004; Hafner et al., 2015; Humpherys & Lazrig 2021). Although it is recommended that USAFA consider implementing a time management curriculum before or during the first semester and keep cadets accountable to these strategies, several logistical and practical obstacles must be overcome.

Destigmatizing Academic Support Services

About 17% of the cadets who persisted in STEM responses indicated that seeking timely academic help outside of regular class, such as instructor office hours (extra instruction, or EI) and tutoring at the QRC, helped them overcome the five challenges to STEM persistence. Research provides evidence that accessible tutoring that is received as soon as students start to struggle academically can produce sizable learning gains for students (Collins & Sims, 2006; Robinson et al., 2021).

Because of perceptions of denial, resistance, stereotype threat, fear of failure (Ciscell, 2016; Gray & Holt, 2020; Massey & Fischer, 2005), or the culture at military institutions, cadets tend to be reluctant to look for EI/QRC assistance. Winograd and Rust (2014) categorized these personal feelings of inadequacy or fears of negative judgments under self-stigma for academic help-seeking. Regardless of the cause of tutoring stigma, the institution should implement strategies to destigmatize seeking academic support, particularly the use of EI and the QRC. Possible approaches include (a) reframing EI/QRC use as self-improvement educational and professional development experiences for all cadets and (b) train tutoring staff and instructors to see themselves as “academic coaches” or “talent developers” (Arendale, 2011) and to share their own academic help-seeking experiences (Chou et al., 2019; Hinshaw, 2007).

Maximizing Major Transfer Permeability

Several responses indicated that one way for cadets to persist in STEM at USAFA was to identify and transfer to a related STEM major that would be better suited to the cadets’ knowledge, skills, abilities, and career interests. In education research, this is known as permeability (Caves & McDonald, 2024; Caves et al., 2023; Messerer et al., 2023). One of the authors has noticed the lack of program permeability firsthand. Cadets currently must declare their major no later than October of their sophomore year. If they are not already taking advanced mathematics courses that semester, they will likely have to take too many major and prerequisite classes at once, like Calculus III (multivariable calculus) and Differential Equations, to catch up. USAFA should critically examine how each STEM program is mapped to maximize permeability, allowing cadets to find their best-suited STEM major without the additional academic workload.

Recruiting and Retaining High-Quality Instructors

USAFA could recruit and retain high-quality instructors in three main ways. A first step may be to objectively identify the USAFA instructors who are most effective in the classroom by ramping up the faculty observation program and sharing advice on teaching. Effective instructors are characterized in several ways that go beyond their subject-matter expertise. Instructors need to be dedicated to cadet success, well-prepared for each lesson, organized in presentation, and able to clearly communicate challenging concepts. Cadets provide detailed feedback at the end of each course, which is made available to supervisors and department leadership. Review of the feedback for recurring themes, coupled with classroom observations, allows department leadership to track which faculty members are effective in the classroom and which will benefit from additional mentoring from more experienced faculty members. Core courses should preferably be taught by proven, effective instructors, since these courses are where cadet morale may be most impacted and the decision to remain STEM majors or not is made.

Second, USAFA should consider expanding the Senior Military Faculty (SMF) program. The SMF program at USAFA allows academic departments to select a limited number of officers to serve on extended faculty assignments (U.S. Air Force Academy, 2015). Most active-duty military faculty members are assigned to USAFA for three to four years, but the SMF program provides the opportunity for select faculty to remain in place for as long as 10 years, filling leadership roles and enhancing the continuity of USAFA’s academic program. Extensions for SMF faculty members are coordinated with the individual’s career field. In some cases, the Air Force or Space Force needs require the faculty member to return to their career field, but more often the career field is able to release the faculty member for the extended tour (eliminating the need to provide a replacement).

Given the fact that academia is not the primary career path for military personnel, the rotational nature of military faculty, and that civilian faculty tend to have doctoral degrees and can bring many more years of teaching experience compared with military faculty (Keller et al., 2013), a third recommendation may be to expand the targeted recruitment of the most experienced and high-quality civilian instructors for core classes. Part of this recruiting process is communicating how a faculty position at a service academy differs from more traditional academic positions. The academy has a smaller research focus than many universities, but faculty enjoy the opportunity to prioritize their teaching and mentoring roles, helping cadets succeed and watching them develop the skills that will serve them as military officers.

Prioritizing Honors/Advanced Placement and CLEP Validation

At civilian universities, incoming freshmen are encouraged to validate some of their high school classes through programs like advanced placement and College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) testing to reduce their financial burden, avoid taking coursework they already completed, and move to more advanced coursework in their majors. While there is no mention of CLEP testing in the academy’s course of instruction (U.S. Air Force Academy, 2023), it could be an alternative to validate high school coursework (College Board, n.d.). It is worth pointing out that CLEP tests cost about $100 each and USAFA would have to examine whether cadets will pay for this service.

Other Recommendations

The first recommendation is to expand QRC funding to support additional personnel, extended hours, upper-level tutors, tutors traveling with cadets during athletics commitments, and EI opportunities. At USAFA, the QRC provides EI and small group sessions where cadets participate in workshops focused on specific STEM topics to improve quantitative literacy to help cadets overcome challenges and fine-tune their STEM academic performance. These services, unfortunately, are constrained by finding and personnel issues.

Our second recommendation is to identify undecided but STEM-interested cadets as early as possible and provide timely information about academic and peer support to help them thrive in core classes and long-term career opportunities. Each department has officers who serve as advisors in charge and their role includes providing an honest view of the struggles some cadets face as they juggle their multiple academic, military, and leadership tasks. Professional development opportunities in advising and counseling theories and best practices could increase their influence and communication with STEM-interested cadets.

The third recommendation is to provide pedagogical professional development for instructors to make core classes more interactive, with more Air Force-centric examples and less expository lectures, so that instruction can move toward a “mastery for all” approach. Mastery learning is a research-supported strategy that proposed that, given the appropriate time, learning conditions, formative assessments, active-learning strategies, and explicit recommendations for improvement, nearly all students can achieve content proficiency (Bloom, 1983; Guskey, 2010).

The fourth recommendation is to advocate for keeping science and engineering graduates doing technical work longer rather than management by endorsing Project Arc. Project Arc is a grassroots effort aimed at keeping as many officers as possible in Air Force and Space Force science and engineering operational units rather than in management roles (Air Force Research Laboratory, 2024).

Conclusion

This research study investigated what academic and nonacademic factors graduating cadets in a STEM discipline identify as important in their decision to persevere and finish their undergraduate degree. Cadets identified interest in their academic majors, enjoyment of science, engineering, and mathematics, and the availability of great career opportunities as influential in their decision to declare a STEM major. They identified career goals, personal motivation, and a desire to pursue STEM majors as common motivations to finish their STEM degree. Even though cadets who switched to non-STEM majors likely experienced similar factors, the grit of cadets who persisted in STEM was one mediating factor in their decision to remain in their respective programs.

Cadets described how they overcame the challenges of STEM majors by establishing priorities, managing their time efficiently, seeking additional academic support, maintaining their intrinsic motivation, switching to more personally relevant STEM majors, learning to improve their study habits, and leveraging their precollege academic preparation. While some cadets indicated that the five challenges did not apply to them, others struggled with the challenges until the present day. Finally, to retain STEM-interested cadets, recommendations included improving freshmen advising, revising the content, teaching quality, and assessment of core classes; expanding academic support opportunities; fine-tuning the admission requirement of STEM-interested cadets; and researching how to minimize disparities that could impact certain cadet groups.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by the Department of Physics and Meteorology, United States Air Force Academy and through the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Summer Faculty Fellowship Program®, Contract Numbers FA8750-15-3-6003 and FA9550-15-0001. Approved for public release: distribution unlimited. Public Release Number USAFA-DF-2025-42. This study has been reviewed and approved by the USAFA IRB (FAC20210108E). The views expressed in this article, book, or presentation are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the United States Air Force Academy, the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.

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