Perceptions of university recruitment strategies by female students in STEM

As Caucasian, middle class women growing up in suburban areas, we never looked at ourselves as outside the majority. But the moment we decided to enter the field of engineering, we became part of a minority: women who pursue degrees in STEM. In this paper we discuss our experiences of the common societal misconceptions about women in STEM disciplines that girls and young women must face as they make decisions about their future career paths, such as “engineering does not benefit humanity”, “you must be a genius”, and that “there are no women in engineering”. We describe our experiences of college recruitment activities for STEM programs, and as incoming students in engineering. We review activities by colleges that positively influenced our degree path decisions, or served as deterrents, and our experiences are compared with the recommendations of other authors.