I am a 29 year old female. I want to go back to school.  I have been told that I have a *very* good chance at getting into a very good graduate computer science program (machine learning, AI, robotics, theoretical cs, so many algorithms... it's the real deal here, you guys).  Due to cost, the fact I need to work full-time and giving myself the best chances for success, I will be doing this at a very slow, part-time pace.  

As an undergraduate, I saw woman drop out for family, so my question is:

**How common is it for women to drop out of graduate school because they have children?**

I'm preferentially looking for answers that draw on personal experience or statistics. 

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Some additional background you might find relevant:

My boyfriend/fiance/partner of 10+ years died about a year ago.  I don't know what I'm doing about all that yet. 

I have been out of school for a while.  You don't really need a degree in IT and I hadn't really considered going back because it didn't seem manageable or practical with the rest of my life.  But... now that life is gone, it's cool because it has to be, and I would have never even dared to dreamed about being able to enroll in this graduate program before.  

I don't necessarily care if I have a family and/or kids but I'm fairly positive it will not happen on accident.  To me, being with someone or married does not automatically mean having kids, either.  For the sake of the question, when I am ready, I feel it will be very logistically easy for me to date again.  

Articles like these motivate my question: 

  - [In the Ivory Tower, Men Only][1]
  - [Work and Family on the Rise among College Graduate Women][2]
  - [When Girls Don't Graduate][3]
  - [For Female Scientists there's no good time to have children][4]

  [1]: http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/06/female_academics_pay_a_heavy_baby_penalty.html
  [2]: http://www.nber.org/digest/aug04/w10331.html
  [3]: http://www.nwlc.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/when_girls_dont_graduate.pdf
  [4]: http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/07/for-female-scientists-theres-no-good-time-to-have-children/278165/