Program Lead/Presenter: Ed Clayton, Training
Council Date: February 16, 2024
Goal:
The goal of this initiative is to offer a postbaccalaureate program to support recently graduated college students who seek to gain additional research experience before applying to and commencing a graduate or professional program in the visual sciences. These students, primarily from groups historically underrepresented in STEM, would gain sufficient research skills to make them competitive for research programs, thus increasing the number of underrepresented scientists in the vision field.
Rationale:
A recent analysis of the NEI T32 portfolio revealed that students admitted to affiliated graduate programs had conducted, on average, over two years of full-time research before being admitted to graduate school. This raises an important question: who can fully dedicate two years of full-time research before graduate school? In most instances, the likeliest pathways are A) students at Research intensive (R1) universities with strong programs in their desired field, and who have the time and resources to dedicate to laboratory research; B) terminal MA programs; C) recent college graduates who spent two years or more as a research assistant/postbaccalaureate researcher. In each of these scenarios, students from underrepresented backgrounds tend to be at a disadvantage. Undergraduate students from low-income backgrounds may not have the resources needed to dedicate to a full-time laboratory position, even if at an R1 university with research opportunities. Students at smaller colleges likely do not have the research infrastructure necessary to receive a meaningful research experience, and those schools may not even offer research opportunities in a desired field. These students are likely to explore summer research experiences, but those only offer eight to ten weeks of research, not the two years of research seemingly needed to be competitive for graduate school. Also, while MA programs offer terminal degrees, these are often cost-prohibitive and only well-resourced students are likely to enroll.
As NEI is committed to a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible workforce, this is an opportunity for young scientists to gain the research experience needed to be competitive for, and successful in, graduate and professional programs in visual science.
Objectives and Scope: The objective of this initiative is to offer Universities the opportunity to propose postbaccalaureate programs for students from historically underrepresented groups to prepare them for admission and success in graduate and professional programs in visual science.
Types of programs that could be supported by this initiative include:
- Program for students interested in MD/PhD programs and expected to pursue ophthalmology residencies.
- Program for students interested in pursuing an OD or OD/PhD degree.
- Programs for students interesting in pursuing a PhD in a visual sciences field.
Programs developed under this initiative would support recently graduated students with an expectation that they will apply for a graduate or professional program at the completion of their postbaccalaureate training.