Enhancing Pathways to the PhD in the Mathematical Sciences

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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.