Enhancing Pathways to the PhD in the Mathematical Sciences

该项目将通过支持亚利桑那大学、德克萨斯大学里奥格兰德山谷和加州州立理工大学波莫纳的高成就、低收入、有经济需求的学生的留校和毕业，来促进国家对受过良好教育的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。这三所学校都是西南部的拉美裔服务机构，涵盖了Very High Research、High Research和大型硕士院校。合并后的团队包括已建立的桥梁到博士、硕士和博士项目。重点是两个重要的过渡：从本科生到研究生的过渡和在博士学习的头两年取得成功。一个有目的的合作规划程序将使团队能够建立更深层次的联系，以解决低收入学生被录取并完成数学科学博士学位的最大障碍。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生的STEM学位完成率。研究表明，来自少数族裔群体的学生、女性和经济困难的学生面临着不申请适当的项目、不被顶尖项目录取、在他们进入的项目中不成功的风险。这个项目将调查导致研究生学习成功的最佳环境，特别是完成博士学位和随后的就业安置。主要目标是研究机构干预的有效性，并调查低收入学生在研究生阶段坚持并取得数学科学成功的条件。该项目目前的范围仅限于这三所学校，将用于规划一个项目，目的是形成一个导师社区和方案结构，以促进在数学、应用数学、统计学和数据科学的研究生学习中取得成功的最佳环境。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学业成功、留住、转移、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at University of Arizona; University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley; and California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. The three schools are all Hispanic-Serving Institutions in the Southwest and span the spectrum of Very High Research, High Research, and Large Masters institutions. The combined group contains established Bridge-to-PhD, Masters, and PhD programs. The focus is on two important transitions: the transition from undergraduate to graduate study and success in the first two years of PhD study. An intentional, collaborative planning procedure will enable the team to develop deeper connections to tackle the most significant obstacles for low-income students to get admitted and complete PhDs in the mathematical sciences.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Research shows that students from underrepresented minority groups, women, and students with economic hardship are at risk of not applying to the appropriate programs, not being accepted at top programs, and not succeeding in programs they enter. This project will investigate the best possible environments leading to success in graduate study, especially toward completion of PhD and job placement afterwards. The primary goal is to study the effectiveness of institutional intervention and to investigate conditions under which low-income students persist and succeed in the mathematical sciences at the graduate level. The current scope of the project as limited to these three schools will be used to plan a project with a goal to form a community of mentors and programmatic structures that advance the best possible environment for success in graduate study in Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, and Data Science. This project is funded by NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.