San Francisco State University (SFSU), and the University of California (UC), Davis (UCD), UC San Francisco, UC Los Angeles (UCLA), UC San Diego (UCSD), Harvard U., Northwestern U., Stanford U., U. Wisconsin called """"""""PhD Partners"""""""" hereafter, have developed a cooperative graduate program to increase the number of underrepresented minorities (URM) that pursue biomedical research careers. Our program goals are to provide URM students with a quality and focused master's degree education that prepares them to be competitive for acceptance and successful in top-ranked biomedical science doctoral programs. The objectives are to ensure that the master's degree Bridge students: 1) pursue a critical and exhaustive examination of discipline subject matter graduate courses that lead to an MA/MS degree in a biomedical science (i.e. biology, biochemistry or chemistry) in two-three years;2) achieve competitive scores on their ORE exams to ensure acceptance into a high quality biomedical PhD programs;3) receive intense advising and the support necessary to become confident and successful graduate students;4) participate in significant research experiences and acquire the skills required to communicate the results of those experiences in the form of theses, presentations at national scientific conferences and in peer-reviewed journals;5) develop strong skills in science writing, and 6) receive continual exposure to successful minority scientists to build the confidence they will need to become outstanding scientists. These objectives will be successfully met through the combination of an excellent curriculum, close and careful advising, workshops designed to provide the students with a well-rounded and in-depth knowledge of all aspects of biomedical sciences, and a nurturing and productive research experience with Bridge mentors. These activities will prepare URM students for entry into high quality PhD degree programs, and/or biomedical research careers. Sixty-eight graduate students have received Bridge program financial support since 1992. Forty-nine have entered doctoral programs, four second-year Bridge participants will apply to PhD programs in fall 2006 and four first-year Bridge students will apply in Fall 2007 for entrance in Fall 2008. Thus, 78% (53/68) of all past and current SFSU Bridge participants are in position to complete/enter doctoral degree programs. Over the past fourteen years we have placed 49 Bridge participants in doctoral programs. To date, 16 Bridge participants have graduated with a PhD degree, 3 have received a PharmD., one graduated with an MD, another with a MPH degree and four have withdrawn for personal reasons. Nineteen are currently enrolled in doctoral programs.
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