Students at Harrison University indicated that "belonging" was influenced by:

• The STEM building being old and far away from other buildings, causing them to feel deserted from other students. Their schedules: only STEM majors had class on Fridays. The workload was really high. Students couldn't recall a STEM major ever being on an honor roll. Maintaining a good GPA is really hard, a lot of students drop out. This all led to segregation from their peers in the institutional environment.
• The computer science department only consists of a dozen faculty members. Dr. Tisdale (teaching computer science introductory course) noted that the 2 classes he teaches are small which gives the students an opportunity to ask a lot of questions. One class consisted of mostly male students and the other class mostly female students. The teacher described the class with a female majority to offer more meaningful interaction. The teacher's accessibility and collaborative teaching method led to female persistence.

Students at Grand Lakes University indicated that "belonging" was influenced by:

• The class size. Each class consists of 300 students causing for less time for questions and limited interaction between the teacher and the students. Students were also less likely to ask questions due to sounding unknowledgeable and having self doubt.
• Their class time. They had two lectures and one lab each week, allowing for limited coding practice and overflowing office hours. This caused students to drop out.
• Mr. Melzer (teacher). His teaching style used references that were unclear to students, especially female students.
• Male students overall have more previous coding experience and therefore had less problems in the class than female students.