The effort of the college to open access to transfer students comes at a time when increasingly sophisticated methodological methods are being developed to forge connections across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This project acts as a catalyst for these developments and offers up to 20 transfer students a pathway to achieve bachelor degrees. This project is motivated by the institutional objective to better attract and retain science concentrators in STEM fields. Additionally, a core team of faculty, whose work investigates questions in computational science, artificial intelligence, and the biological sciences, are interested in building structural and cultural cohesion around concentrators who may already be motivated by work and life experiences to excel in STEM fields.
Intellectual Merit: While the college has done well attracting underrepresented students in STEM fields, the overall attrition rate for underrepresented groups is somewhat high. The college has begun to take deliberate and careful measures to address these attrition rates. This project allows the college to offer a more robust financial aid package to help to attract and retain transfer students. These transfer students provide diversification, which strengthens the overall demographic makeup of the college and offers a more diverse range of perspectives in the classroom.
Broader Impact: The inquiry-driven, cross-disciplinary approach to teaching science at the college has demonstrated success in attracting students from diverse backgrounds to STEM fields. According to recent admissions data, the college graduates more science concentrators (15%) than it initially attracts (10%). Moreover, from 2005-08, women and students from underrepresented groups comprised 70% of science concentrators. Many of these students enter a range of scientific and medical careers, or pursue graduate study upon matriculating. This project allows faculty to work with a greater number of students and is expected to result in higher numbers of talented graduates prepared to make meaningful contributions to national and international scientific challenges.
