Many URM students are hesitant to apply to PhD programs. However, when they do apply to doctoral programs at the UofSC, we find that URM students usually do as well as their non-URM counterparts even though their credentials may be less competitive. Reasons for the low number of URM students who apply to and enter doctoral programs include: • Perceived poor qualifications, particularly as a result of poverty and resulting poor education (2) and the perception, often accurate, that the student’s qualifications such as GPA or GRE score are inadequate. • Little research experience, especially when the student has attended a small undergraduate school rather than a major research university. • Little information about biomedical research careers and the financial support available to pursue a doctorate. • Family financial considerations, something that is a major problem in regions with a high URM population. UofSC PREP addresses these issues. Each year we will admit eight Scholars from under-represented backgrounds who will be hired as full-time temporary research employees. The Scholars will work full time in a research laboratory and will take one graduate course per semester. After completing a summer and a fall graduate course, the PREP Scholars will have a graduate transcript with a good GPA so that they can gain acceptance into graduate PhD programs even though they might have a marginal undergraduate GPA. In addition, they will have had the opportunity to show that they can do research at a level that is typical of a beginning graduate student. Our previous success indicates that more than 75% of the UofSC PREP Scholars will gain acceptance and matriculate into PhD programs in the biomedical sciences.

Minority groups are generally under-represented among scientists who are conducting biomedical research. However, research benefits from interactions among scientists with diverse perspectives. Therefore, the success of UofSC PREP at increasing the pool of well-trained minority scientists will greatly benefit biomedical research.