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Proxies For Success–How Application Changes Correlate To PhD Path Pursuit For a Small Diversity Research Program
Author(s) -
Shadding Cherilynn R.,
Whittington Dawayne
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.751.15
Subject(s) - matriculation , diversity (politics) , proxy (statistics) , medical education , psychology , medicine , political science , statistics , mathematics , law
STEM diversity research programs have shown progress in increasing the number of underrepresented students who pursue STEM at the highest degree levels. While many programs have delineated gains of program participants, fewer programs have outlined the path to their outcomes, namely the STEM Ph.D. Our program, Opportunities in Genomics Research (OGR) through two cycles of NIH funding showed significant increases in Ph.D. matriculation from cycle one to cycle two of funding. We explored typical measures such as GPA, institution classification, and graduate school ranking of participants and compared by cycles and found that these measures did not alone explain the improved outcomes. We examined changes we made to our application materials, where we increased the number of questions serving as proxies for gauging interest in pursuing a Ph.D. Our data show a significant correlation of pursuit of the Ph.D. path to increased proxies and proxy type (open‐ or close‐ended questions answered by applicant or referee). We believe that we are the first to statistically demonstrate that changes in application materials for diversity research programs correlates to improved program outcomes. Support or Funding Information 2R25HG006687‐05