Although graduate-educated engineers are essential for the professoriate, technological advancement, and the growth of the U.S. economy, there is concern about the shortage of future PhD-holding engineers pursuing careers in academia and industry. This shortage relates, in part, to high levels of attrition among engineering graduate students. It is important to explore why these students are departing from their graduate programs before receiving their intended degrees. This dissertation examines graduate-level engineering attrition through psychological, sociological, and structural lenses through a series of mixed methods and qualitative methods. The first study, published in the "International Journal of Engineering Education (IJEE)" characterizes the stressors students experience as they persist through their programs and the coping mechanisms they use to mitigate those stressors. The second study, published in the "Journal of Engineering Education (JEE)" explores the costs that students associate with persistence and how those costs factor into decisions to persist or depart from graduate engineering programs. The final study, in review for "JEE," examines underlying structural factors beyond students' control that influence attrition. These studies use semi-structured interviews and multiple qualitative data analysis methods to interpret engineering graduate student attrition. Results demonstrate that students experience negative mental health and questioning departure stress and try to cope agentically using multiple coping strategies. They also associate mental health and identity-informed opportunity costs with persisting but use the sunk cost fallacy to minimize their attrition considerations. Finally, advisors' benign negligence and departmental policies and practices related to degree requirements significantly contribute to students' attrition. Implications for multiple stakeholders and opportunities for future work are presented in chapters corresponding to each study. As a collection of work, this research provides a more holistic and in-depth understanding of engineering graduate attrition and emphasizes the importance of reflection and considerations of structural reform for students, faculty, and administrators. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]