2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Mentorship programs play a pivotal role in nurturing personal and professional development of students. Initiatives such as the UMBC Meyerhoff Scholars [1], Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) [2], McNair Scholars [3], and GradTrack Scholars [4], [5], programs exist to prepare undergraduate students for graduate school. The GradTrack Scholars program is a comparatively new initiative, and it has evolved over the past 3 years to establish itself as a strong virtual mentoring program committed to the preparation of undergraduate students for graduate school [4]. While GradTrack has demonstrated positive impacts on participants’ preparation for the graduate application process, the question remains: what impact does GradTrack have on participants’ success once they matriculate into graduate school?

The GradTrack Virtual mentoring program pairs 2 graduate student mentors with 4-7 underrepresented minority (URM) undergraduate students in mentoring circles [4]. In the 3 years of GradTrack’s existence, at least 6 seniors have been awarded the NSF GRFP and 65% of sen ior-level participants have matriculated into graduate programs. A previous assessment of the program showed that GradTrack prepares participating undergraduate students for the graduate application process while helping them build community [5]. An outstanding question is whether this increased community from GradTrack helps students transition to graduate school and succeed in their first semester and/or year. While graduate school transition and support programs exist at institutions across the country [6]–[8], this study explores whether GradTrack stretches between the silos of a) undergraduate preparation for graduate admissions and b) graduate school support and success, due to its unique structure of engaging both undergraduate student mentees and graduate student mentors.

The purpose of this study is to understand how undergraduate focused programs, like GradTrack, help set students up for success in graduate school. This study’s longitudinal approach follows participants into their graduate studies, providing much needed insight into the longer-term impacts of this program. Through focus groups and survey data, this study assesses the impact of GradTrack program completion on the success of students during their first semester to year in graduate school. We will discuss what topics and structures within the program were helpful for minority undergraduate students during their matriculation into graduate school. We will also discuss what additional needs students experienced that were not addressed. Results of this study will inform the continued enhancements of the GradTrack program and could lend additional insights and suggestions of best practices into other transition and first-year graduate success programs.