Our goals are to reduce entry barriers for MGE, enhance degree completion, generate leaders for SME careers, and create a culture that welcomes diversity. MGE has been limited by the numbers of students qualified for admission under current GRE standards and by inadequate measures to retain enrolled students. We will develop alternate strategies to identify students who can succeed in graduate study and will generate outcome data to address concerns. Outreach to students in minority and majority institutions and opportunities for participation in summer programs are designed to provide undergraduate exposure to research and graduate education and to create an environment conducive for MGE. Clusters, modeled after the successful Spend a Summer with a Scientist program, will be expanded across science and engineering at Rice University and established in engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison to provide a year-round community experience that encourages enrollment, supports degree completion, and exposes students to rigorous academic discipline. Outside evaluation will determine factors that affect application of this model in different settings. Together with strong institutional commitments by Rice University and UW-M, this proposal is designed to alter the culture of the institutions so that the fundamental change continues past the life of the project.
