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The Graduate College Office (GC) for Recruitment and Diversity furthers UIC’s commitment to an intellectually and socially enriched educational environment. We recruit, retain, and ensure the success of underrepresented minority graduate students through advising, funding, mentoring, and professional development.
Our programs and services include the Urban Health Program (UHP) through which we recruit academically high-achieving underrepresented minority students. UHP supports our collaborative efforts with a network of faculty and staff who administer NSF, NIH, and other federally funded undergraduate research programs for graduate recruitment purposes. Further, we recruit at the American Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS), Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), and American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES). The UIC GC is a member of the National Name Exchange (NNE), a recruitment consortium of 55 leading research universities. Collectively, the NNE produces a database that contains the academic profiles and interests of 9,000 prospective graduate students. As a member of the Council of Graduate Schools, the GC obtains the McNair Scholars Seniors’ database which holds more than 2000 academically talented first-generation, low income, and underrepresented minorities seeking doctoral study in all disciplines. Each year, the GC provides these two databases to the faculty and staff at UIC.
Our staff members consult with individual faculty and staff in academic departments regarding minority recruitment. We also present workshops to student groups on a variety of topics pertaining to graduate school such as: graduate admissions, funding your graduate education, and thriving in graduate school.
Another graduate recruitment mechanism is the GC’s Summer Research Opportunity Program [SROP]. SROP is also an eight-week research experiences for undergraduates during which faculty can recruit students to their graduate programs. The Graduate Pathways to Success Program [GPS] is the GC’s academic year graduate school preparation program.
Our three minority graduate fellowships are another means through which we recruit to diversify the graduate student populations at UIC. The Access to Excellence Fellowship, the Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois Fellowship [DFI], and the SROP Early Admissions Fellowship allow the GC to offer financial support to 50 new and continuing minority graduate students each year these fellowships.
The Fellows Mentoring and Support Initiative aims to aid in retaining graduate students of color. Staff meet regularly with newly and currently enrolled fellowship recipients to assess and encourage their academic and personal success through individual advisement meetings, professional development events, and other funding or employment opportunities.