TY - JOUR
T1 - Proxies for Success
T2 - How the Application Process Correlates to PhD Pursuit for a Small Diversity Research Program
AU - Whittington, Dawayne
AU - Wallace, Latricia E.
AU - Shadding, Cherilynn
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This Opportunities in Genomics Research (OGR) program is supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute-R25HG006687 awarded to Susan Dutcher. OGR has been approved by institutional review board (IRB; HRPO 10-0529)
Funding Information:
Benefits of postbaccalaureate (postbacc) research. Even after the baccalaureate is completed, many URM students lag behind their non-URM counterparts who, in addition to having more advantages at the start, continue to add to their skills and opportunities over the course of their undergraduate and graduate training (McGee, Saran, & Krulwich, 2012). To address remaining gaps, postbacc research programs were created to provide additional experiences for recent URM college graduates. Postbacc programs that focus on graduate education as a successful outcome exist in many institutions. These programs provide a subset of experiences that include research, coursework, and GRE preparation to better equip students for PhD or MD/PhD program matriculation. The most notable postbacc programs are those funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS): Postbaccalaureate Research Education Programs (PREP) established in 2000. The limited published data on benefits and outcomes of postbacc programs come mostly from the PREP programs. McGee et al. (2012) showed that over one half of the PREP participants at Mount Sinai School of Medicine entered PhD or MD/PhD degree programs where the PREP program focused on developing talent rather than accepting students expected to succeed (McGee et al., 2012). A report from the NIGMS showed that the national PhD matriculation rate of PREP alumni was 65% and the PhD completion rate was 63%, indicating that PREP participants likely contribute to the diversity of the STEM workforce (A. Hall, Mann, & Bender, 2015).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017.
PY - 2017/8/1
Y1 - 2017/8/1
N2 - Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) diversity research programs seek to make progress in increasing the number of underrepresented students that pursue STEM at the highest degree levels. Yet few programs have outlined their path to help students achieve the STEM PhD. Our program, Opportunities in Genomics Research (OGR), showed significant increases in PhD matriculation over 8 years of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. We explored typical measures, which include grade point average (GPA), institution classification, and graduate school ranking, and found that these measures alone do not explain the improved outcomes. We examined changes in the application materials as proxies for commitment to a PhD degree. These data show a significant correlation of desired degree pursuit to increased proxies and proxy type (open- or close-ended questions answered by applicant or referee). We demonstrate that changes in application procedures for diversity research programs correlate to improved program outcomes with statistical significance.
AB - Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) diversity research programs seek to make progress in increasing the number of underrepresented students that pursue STEM at the highest degree levels. Yet few programs have outlined their path to help students achieve the STEM PhD. Our program, Opportunities in Genomics Research (OGR), showed significant increases in PhD matriculation over 8 years of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. We explored typical measures, which include grade point average (GPA), institution classification, and graduate school ranking, and found that these measures alone do not explain the improved outcomes. We examined changes in the application materials as proxies for commitment to a PhD degree. These data show a significant correlation of desired degree pursuit to increased proxies and proxy type (open- or close-ended questions answered by applicant or referee). We demonstrate that changes in application procedures for diversity research programs correlate to improved program outcomes with statistical significance.
KW - STEM
KW - application process
KW - diversity program outcomes
KW - postbaccalaureate research
KW - undergraduate research
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85030782406&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/2158244017727040
DO - 10.1177/2158244017727040
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85030782406
VL - 7
SP - 1
EP - 15
JO - SAGE Open
JF - SAGE Open
SN - 2158-2440
IS - 3
ER -