Stanford University Seeks to Boost Black Enrollments in Ph.D. Programs

According to the Graduate Diversity Action Council at Stanford University, the number of minority students in Ph.D. programs has not increased over the past decade. The percentage of all Ph.D. students who are black or members of other underrepresented minority groups has declined during the period.

In an effort to boost black enrollments in Ph.D. programs at Stanford, the university is holding two recruitment weekends instead of one. One will be geared toward prospective students in the biosciences and the other will target students in engineering and earth sciences.

Individual faculty members will be able to allocate $500 for travel expenses to bring a prospective underrepresented minority student to campus. There is no preset limit on how many students may be invited to campus under this program.

A third program will encourage black and other minority undergraduate students at Stanford to consider applying to graduate education programs at the university. This program will include faculty lectures, career development seminars, and field trips.

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