Longitudinal studies of engineering student pathways show that engineering keeps more students on average than other groups of disciplines (business, social sciences, etc.). The big difference is that engineering doesn't attract many new students. Overall, women graduate in engineering at rates similar to men, and racial differences are not significant when socioeconomic factors are considered. While these findings are all true in the aggregate, differences are observed by institution and specific engineering discipline, and the method used to measure persistence can create a bias toward reporting the experience of majority students.