Ariana Garcia, a CGS summer intern, is originally from a big city in New Mexico, but she was raised in a small, college town in Washington State. Her dad moved the family to Pullman for the protected environment and better opportunities. As Garcia says, “It was definitely a safe town, which was great, but I could count the people of color on one hand. That experience brought a whole other set of issues, including an identity crisis, as I tried to find my place. So, when I went to college, I wanted to meet other people of color, more people who looked like me.” Garcia chose to do that at Washington State University, in her hometown, but she found her real home in WSU’s McNair program.

The WSU McNair director, Raymond Herrera, encouraged Garcia to consider the program. He knew she would be a great fit, and they both knew that with aspirations to become a counselor, Garcia would need to go to graduate school to be able to practice. Learning to be a researcher is a key part of McNair, and while Garcia knew that it would be great preparation for her advanced study, it wasn’t something she had much interest in at the time. As Garcia says, “I thought to myself, I don't want to do research, but I do want to go to grad school. So, I'll do this program and the research, but just to help me get to grad school.”

Then Garcia joined a research project that looked at how media was related to sexual violence in relationships, and how media informed adolescent college students and their perception of relationships. She got involved in the project and started presenting her findings at undergraduate research conferences. She fell in love with it, but she still wanted a career that would allow her to help people.

So, Garcia applied to master’s programs in counseling and chose to attend Colorado State University, where she earned her master’s degree in counseling. “I liked it, but it wasn't fueling me. The only time I felt very passionate about what I was doing was when I was doing research. I always joke that McNair bamboozled me into liking research and set me on a whole different trajectory,” says Garcia. She started working in realms where she could use her counseling skills, but not as a therapist, and ended up in student affairs. She worked with scholarship groups for First Generation college students and undocumented students and enjoyed it, but she missed research. “I noticed the CSU students were having similar challenges as the WSU students. I realized these are such large systemic issues, and that's what compelled me to pursue my PhD.”

Now, Garcia is a doctoral student in higher education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, focusing on equity in graduate education. Each year, she also mentors five undergraduate students who are interested in graduate school. She enjoys working with the students and helping them navigate the hidden curriculum of graduate education. She credits her mentor, Dr. Herrera, for setting an example of good mentorship. He still calls her the first week of classes to check in and see how she’s doing. Garcia believes that having a good advisor and mentor improves your entire experience. She hopes to continue that work as a faculty member after she finishes her doctorate.

Garcia says her best advice for prospective graduate students is to talk to as many people as possible and to connect with people who are in roles similar to your interests. But, she says, “The number one thing is to look for funding opportunities. Most people have never heard the word assistantship before. When I was beginning my master’s at Colorado State, I met with a professor, who ended up being my advisor, and asked about available assistantships. She said that she was actually looking for someone, and then she hired me. I was the only person in my cohort who had an assistantship and everyone wanted to know how I got it, and all I did was ask. I credit that to McNair, because they prepared me. They told me to ask.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                                                                 Contact: Katherine Hazelrigg

August 12, 2021                                                                           (202) 461-3888 / khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu

Washington, DC — Today the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) announced awards designed to catalyze innovation in the preparation of humanities PhDs for diverse careers. Through a competitive sub-award process, a committee selected ten U.S. doctoral-granting institutions to join The Humanities Coalition, which will develop and assess initiatives for better supporting humanities PhD students transitioning from graduate programs into the workforce.

Universities will be working in one of two areas: grant-writing and resource development, and building professional networks. One set of universities will prepare current humanities doctoral students to identify and cultivate funders of research, scholarship, and programs and to develop successful proposals for financial support. This area of focus, which will support Howard University; Loyola University; Purdue University; Southern Mississippi University; University of California, Irvine; and University of Texas at El Paso, is designed to prepare doctoral students for careers in areas such as university sponsored programming, non-profit leadership, and corporate relations. 

A parallel group of awardees—City University of New York, University of Arizona, Wayne State University, and Michigan State University— will develop programs to help current humanities doctoral students build professional networks and relationships. Activities will include building programs that connect current doctoral students with PhD alumni in a broad range of careers, developing opportunities for doctoral students to build networks that inform and advance their career goals, and piloting modules that help humanities PhD students develop their professional networks. 

This latest project is an expansion of prior work that included developing and supporting a network of 75 U.S. doctoral institutions as they collect data from STEM and Humanities PhD students and alumni about their professional aspirations, career pathways, and career preparation. In general, data from the project yield a positive picture of humanities doctoral education. Most alumni reported that they are engaged in meaningful work and believe their doctoral work prepared them for their current job responsibilities. However, data also indicate that humanities PhDs who were employed in business, non-profit, or government, particularly those in the early stages of their careers, feel less prepared than their peers working at universities.

“Building on the extraordinary work of the PhD Career Pathways project, The Humanities Coalition will develop, expand, and scale up a suite of programs and practices in key areas of need. We’ve been conducting research in career diversity for nearly a decade, and this work will take the next logical step from better understanding aspirations to preparing for successful careers,” said Suzanne Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools. “We know that humanities PhDs have many possible career paths in front of them. We need to make sure they know their options, how to access them, and that they’ve developed the skillsets necessary for success.”

The Humanities Coalition includes grantees as well as universities that submitted competitive proposals to participate. The full list of participating organizations, includes: Arizona State University; CUNY Graduate Center; Howard University; Indiana University Bloomington; Loyola University Chicago; Michigan State University; Purdue University; Texas A&M University; The University of Southern Mississippi; The University of Texas at El Paso; University of Arizona; University of Arkansas; University of California, Irvine; University of Missouri; University of Rochester; University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Wayne State University.

The current project builds upon three earlier phases of CGS research: a feasibility study supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; a survey development phase supported by the Mellon, Sloan, and National Science Foundations (NSF #1534620); a survey implementation phase supported by the Mellon Foundation and NSF (#1661272); and an examination of factors likely to impact retention and persistence in STEM careers, particularly for underrepresented students, supported by NSF (#2000750).

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Philip Hieter is an award-winning biochemist currently working at the Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British Columbia. By using yeast as a model to understand the causes of genome structure and sequence changes underlying tumorigenesis, Hieter has identified genetic vulnerabilities in tumor cells “that could be exploited for therapeutic benefit in the treatment of cancer.” In addition to being elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the National Academy of Sciences, Hieter won the 2018 George W. Beadle Award from the Genetics Society of America for his work facilitating collaboration and community among life sciences.  

Before his accomplished scientific career, Hieter was a doctoral student at Johns Hopkins University and winner of the 1981 CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award. We sat down with Dr. Hieter to learn more about his work and any advice he has for students who want to make the most out of their time in graduate school. 

What are you currently working on?

Genome instability distinguishes cancer cells from normal cells and as such can be exploited as a genetic vulnerability to develop therapies that selectively kill cells exhibiting genome instability. Over the past 35 years, my lab has been studying the molecular components required for chromosome transmission in yeast, with the over-arching goal of relating our work in yeast to human cancer. We are currently fascinated by the finding that inhibitors of the cancer drug target, PARP1, cause cytotoxicity in BRCA1 mutated cancer cells, not because of the loss of PARP enzyme activity per se, but rather from the trapping of the PARP protein on DNA that causes a toxic lesion. We have recently developed a yeast-based screening system that exploits point mutations that more accurately mimic the activity of chemical inhibitors that trap their protein target on DNA. We believe this approach will increase the chance that drug targets will translate into effective therapies, and opens a new avenue for target screening that will identify novel therapeutic targets that would be missed by current approaches.

How did your graduate training shape your current career?

My thesis advisor, Phil Leder, was an inspirational, creative scientist and mentor to me, who truly shaped my approach to research, and opened the doors that I was fortunate to have available to me as my career developed as an independent scientist. The Leder laboratory had incorporated all the cutting-edge recombinant DNA technologies of the time (in the late 70’s; bacteriophage lambda DNA library construction, restriction enzymes and plasmid vectors, DNA sequencing), and had them working very efficiently. This suite of technologies enabled us to tackle previously unapproachable problems in antibody gene structure and function. My experience as a graduate student in the Leder laboratory impressed upon me the critical importance of technology development and its implementation in driving research productivity.  As a result, technology development has been a major theme in my independent laboratory and a key to the success of my students and postdocs over the years. 

What was the most valuable piece of advice that you received in graduate school?

Towards the end of my graduate research work, Phil Leder told me to take time, to explore, talk with people, and try to figure out who I wanted to work with during a postdoctoral fellowship.  Phil Leder’s advice was to pick an exciting research area that was taking off, and that complemented my expertise and knowledge, so that I could “connect the dots” in a unique way for whatever next step I would be taking longer term.  After much consideration and consultation with colleagues, this led me to Ron Davis’s lab at Stanford, moving from the study of mammalian antibody genes using recombinant DNA technology as a graduate student, to the study of yeast chromosome biology using yeast genetics (including the newly developed methods for DNA transformation and gene replacement in yeast) as a postdoc. The intersection between these diverse approaches turned out to be highly productive, and had a positive impact on my career in the long term.

If you could provide one piece of advice to a current graduate student in your field, what would it be?

Pick an important problem, surround yourself with good colleagues (mentor, lab mates, academic environment, collaborators), and go deep. If possible, include a “horizontal” component to your research in which you develop technology that is broadly applicable to the research community. The “vertical” component will be the application of technology to an important problem to go deep into the biological mechanisms.  During your academic journey, be grateful for having the privilege to pursue a research problem as a member of the international community of scientists, and definitely make time for yourself to have fun outside the lab.  Work hard, play hard, and remember - sleeping is highly over-rated!

To learn more about Philip Hieter's work, visit his faculty page on the University of British Columbia website. 

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: Katherine Hazelrigg | (202) 461-3888/ khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools applauds the bipartisan reintroduction of the Expanding Access to Graduate Education Act, introduced by Representatives Annie McLane Kuster (D-NH-02), Fred Upton (R-MI-06), Kim Schrier (D-WA-08), and Tim Burchett (R-TN-02). The legislation would provide graduate students, who received Pell Grant support as undergraduates, the ability to apply remaining semesters of Pell support towards a graduate degree, if they remain income eligible. CGS has championed this proposal to modernize the Pell program, thereby improving access and diversity within graduate education and strengthening the workforce.

Currently, the Pell Grant program is only available to undergraduate students, and eligible individuals can receive up to 12 semesters’ worth of grant awards. However, a growing number of graduate students are former Pell recipients. According to the Department of Education, in Academic Year 2015-2016, nearly 46 percent of first-year graduate and professional students received some level of Pell support. While a greater number of students from lower socio-economic means pursuing graduate degrees is an encouraging indicator, over one-third of them did not use all 12 semesters of their grants. This bill would expand support for Pell recipients by encouraging timely completion of their undergraduate degrees and preserving an option for financial assistance through their graduate studies.

“The reintroduction of this legislation highlights a commitment to maximize the Pell Grant program and ensure that individuals with exceptional financial need can pursue higher levels of in-demand education,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “Since the COVID-19 pandemic, a lack of financial support is a top concern for prospective graduate students, particularly from underserved backgrounds, so it is paramount that our nation’s investments include expanding access to more students from these communities.”

“The high cost of graduate school is a barrier for many qualified and highly capable students from furthering their education and pursuing careers requiring an advanced degree,” said Rep. Kuster. "The Expanding Access to Graduate Education Act will help level the playing field for post-graduate opportunities, reduce student debt, and ensure workers have the skills they need to help fill the jobs of the future — a win-win for students and our economy."

“It just makes sense to let Pell Grants carry over to graduate school,” Rep. Burchett said. “This is a sensible way we can encourage folks to pursue their education whenever possible.”

“The Pell grant provides considerable financial support to our student body. At the University of New Hampshire over 1,000 of our undergraduate students graduated with remaining Pell eligibility. Of those students, 112 have returned for graduate study. Extending Pell eligibility to graduate students would be enormously significant for those students who could be using Pell rather than taking on additional student debt,” said Dr. Cari Moorhead, dean of the Graduate School at the University of New Hampshire.

“A well-trained workforce is essential for economic growth, and employers are demonstrating increased need for workers with graduate degrees. The Expanding Access to Graduate Education Act would provide increased access to graduate education for Americans wishing to pursue advanced degrees, said Dr. Dixie Thompson, vice provost and dean of the Graduate School at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. “If passed, this Act would advance our commitment to workforce development and to greater access to graduate education regardless of a person’s socio-economic status.”

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On April 13, CGS joined a coalition of higher education organizations on a statement that underscores the importance of expanding suffrage to include more U.S. citizens. The statement outlines the role colleges and universities play in expanding civic participation, particularly for postsecondary students.

On April 8, CGS submitted comments to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) UNITE Initiative in response to a Request for Information inviting insights and suggestions to advance and strengthen racial equity, diversity, and inclusion in the biomedical research workforce and to advance health disparities and health equity research. CGS recommended several measures intended to support NIH's charge to combat racism in the scientific enterprise, including programs to support graduate students whose research and career prospects may have been disrupted due to the pandemic; expanded mental health research; and grant opportunities to address the COVID-19 pandemic's disproportionate impact on minority populations.

New Advocacy Opportunity: Send a FY22 Appropriations Request to Your Member of Congress

CGS has created this resource to assist Council members in submitting appropriations requests to their Members of Congress for programs of importance to graduate education and research. Supplemental resources, including a guide to submitting a request form and a sample form letter, are available here. 

Pleases reach out to Matthew Smith (msmith@cgs.nche.edu) with any questions.

APRIL 15, 2021 | CGS Research-in-Brief

By Janet Gao, Research and Program Associate, Council of Graduate Schools

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns on graduate education access and success have not gone unnoticed (Flaherty, 2020a, 2020b). To examine how prospective students and enrollment management professionals may be responding to the pandemic, the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), in partnership with NAGAP, The Association for Graduate Enrollment Management, fielded the 2020 NAGAP/CGS Survey of Graduate Enrollment Management Professionals. The survey, which was sent to active NAGAP members in November and December 2020, asked a series of questions, including U.S. graduate enrollment trends in Fall 2020, outreach efforts, and graduate school pipeline issues, among other topics. A total of 217 GEM professionals working across the graduate schools, university office of admissions, professional schools, academic colleges, and academic programs responded to the survey. Approximately 60% of them identified themselves as lead GEM professionals on their campuses. (Figure 1) 

Data Source: NAGAP, The Association for Graduate Enrollment Management & Council of Graduate Schools, Survey of Graduate Enrollment Management Professionals, Fall 2020, Data Table 1.

Key Findings

• Campus Climate & Work-life Balance. Approximately 66.3% of survey respondents agreed that students of color have shown greater concern about campus culture and climate than their majority counterparts.  About 63.2% of respondents reported that work-life balance was a very important concern for students overall, with the percentage being somewhat higher for female students (66.7%) and students of color (64.9%). (Figure 2)

Data Source: NAGAP, The Association for Graduate Enrollment Management & Council of Graduate Schools, Survey of Graduate Enrollment Management Professionals, Fall 2020, Data Table 2.

• Exacerbated Affordability Concerns. Overwhelmingly, 82.2% of respondents agreed that more prospective domestic students had expressed concerns about the affordability of graduate and professional education since the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority (61.1%) noted that more prospective domestic students have chosen to defer their graduate or professional education since the onset of the pandemic.
• Questions About the Value of Graduate Education. Few respondents agreed that prospective students have been losing interest in graduate school. However, the number of respondents who agreed that more prospective domestic students are questioning the value of graduate education outnumbered those who disagreed. 
• More Funding, More Career Development Support. Overwhelmingly, 95.9% of respondents cited the importance of the availability of additional funding opportunities to reduce student loan debt as a way to maintain the interest and motivation of prospective domestic students of color to pursue a graduate degree. Additionally, more information on career opportunities (83.0%) and opportunities to connect current students with alumni for informational interviews (68.3%) received high ratings. (Figure 3)

Data Source: NAGAP, The Association for Graduate Enrollment Management & Council of Graduate Schools, Survey of Graduate Enrollment Management Professionals, Fall 2020, Data Table 3.

• Use of National Outreach Resources. Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program was the most highly used (36%) program for student recruitment according to the survey respondents. However, over half of the respondents did not engage with any programs to promote graduate education among prospective students of color. (Figure 4) 

Data Source: NAGAP, The Association for Graduate Enrollment Management & Council of Graduate Schools, Survey of Graduate Enrollment Management Professionals, Fall 2020, Data Table 4.

• Program Suspension for Fall 2021. With regard to the plan for the Fall 2021 admission cycle, respondents at large did not report any suspension in admission across all the broad fields. However, it should be noted that 6.5% reported that they would be suspending admission to some master’s or research doctorate programs in arts & humanities fields. The suspension plan was also noted in social & behavioral sciences fields. (Figure 5)

Data Source: NAGAP, The Association for Graduate Enrollment Management & Council of Graduate Schools, Survey of Graduate Enrollment Management Professionals, Fall 2020, Data Table 5.

Key Takeaways 

• Consistent with the pre-pandemic time, affordability of graduate education continues to be a concern among both prospective graduate students and graduate schools. The availability of financial incentives to maintain students’ interest is considered one of the most compelling drivers of graduate enrollment.  

• There appears to be a growing question about the value proposition of graduate education. Making the connection between graduate programs and potential career outcomes is more important than ever. National efforts such as the CGS Understanding PhD Career Pathways for Program Improvement Project, AHA Career Diversity for Historians Initiative, and the Coalition for Next Generation Life Science support graduate institutions and programs to better communicate the career opportunities and outcomes of their graduates.  

• The survey data suggest that programs designed to encourage and prepare traditionally underserved students to pursue graduate and professional degrees were utilized by less than half of GEM professionals. Efforts such as National Name Exchange and McNair Scholars List are available platforms and resources for graduate institutions and programs to identify a pool of qualified underrepresented graduate students to successfully recruit, develop and retain. 

• Consistent with other reports (Flaherty, 2020b; Zahneis, 2020), there has been a temporary moratorium on academic programs, particularly in some of the arts & humanities and social & behavioral sciences fields. Admission suspensions, as well as enrollment size reductions, will likely have a longer-term impact (Zahneis, 2021).  

• Beyond the data points shared in this brief, the graduate education community also faces a larger volume of deferred admissions of international graduate students (Zhou & Gao, 2021), which may interfere with the continuing cohort and new enrollment in the 2021 admissions cycle and beyond. This is another challenge graduate schools and programs, and GEM professionals, likely face in the coming months.

Conversation Starters

• In response to COVID-19, what efforts do your institution and graduate programs take to maximize funding and career resources that increase access for prospective graduate students while ensuring success for current graduate students? 

• How are your institution and graduate programs re-envisioning and revising plans, strategies, and efforts that enforce diverse and inclusive virtual learning environments for minority students and accommodate female students with other needs or demands? 

• How do you evaluate the effectiveness of these approaches and resources in motivating and engaging prospective graduate students?  

• How do your institution and graduate programs plan to provide continuous support to retain and reboot graduate enrollment in a post-pandemic future?

References 

Flaherty, C. (2020a, April 7). What About Graduate Students? Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/07/graduate-students-seek-time-degree-and-funding-extensions-during-covid-19 

Flaherty, C. (2020b, June 1). Pausing Grad Admissions. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/06/01/some-departments-plan-suspending-or-limiting-graduate-cohorts-year-or-longer-free 

Zahneis, M. (2020, September 28). More Doctoral Programs Suspend Admissions. That Could Have Lasting Effects on Graduate Education. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/more-doctoral-programs-suspend-admissions-that-could-have-lasting-effects-on-graduate-education 

Zahneis, M. (2021, February 15). The Shrinking of the Scholarly Ranks. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-shrinking-of-the-scholarly-ranks 

Zhou, E., & Gao, J. (2021). International Graduate Applications & Enrollment: Fall 2020. Council of Graduate Schools.

CGS has created a summary of key provisions included in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which President Biden signed into law on March 11, 2021. The legislation provides roughly $1.9 trillion in economic relief and $40 billion for colleges and universities. 

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Katherine Hazelrigg (202) 461-3888 / khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu

Graduate Applications Flat, First-time Enrollment on the Rise Overall
 

Washington, DC — Graduate degree holders representing diverse backgrounds will play a key role in driving innovation and discovery in the U.S. workforce, and new data from the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) on graduate enrollments and degrees provide a revealing snapshot of the country's progress in meeting these demands. According to a CGS report released today, graduate applications were flat (-0.6%) and first-time graduate enrollment (2.5%) increased overall for the Fall 2019 semester. While graduate schools reported  overall increases in the first-time enrollment of minority students between Fall 2018 and Fall 2019 (Latinx +5.7%, Black/African American +5.5%, Asian +5.3%, and American Indian/Alaska Native +3.5%), students from these demographic groups remain substantially underrepresented as percentage shares of the graduate student population, particularly in STEM fields. These data are part of the latest CGS/GRE Graduate Enrollment & Degrees: 2009-2019 report.

“The growth in first-time enrollment rates for a second year, along with the continued increases in first-time enrollment among Latinx, Black/African Americans, Asians/Pacific Islanders, and American Indian/Alaska Natives graduate students are encouraging,” said CGS President Suzanne Ortega. “But we still have so much work to do. I’m particularly concerned about the disproportionate economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on underrepresented minorities (URM). The modest gains the U.S. has seen over the past ten years in URM and first-generation graduate student enrollment and degree completion are in real jeopardy.”

In an effort to examine the obstacles URM students have faced in their matriculation, persistence, and completion of STEM graduate programs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, CGS, the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE) and the Council of Historically Black Graduate Schools (CHBGS) are collaborating on an NSF-funded RAPID Investigating Challenges to Matriculation and Completion for Underrepresented STEM Graduate Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic. According to Ortega, “The pandemic has introduced a new set of challenges that we need to understand and be prepared to address quickly, but there are a number of things we already know we could be doing better, including recruiting and retaining a more diverse faculty, fostering a more inclusive learning environment, and addressing the financial barriers to degree completion.”

First-time Enrollment in Engineering Rebounds, Continued Growth in Health Sciences and Mathematical and Computer Sciences

After declining in the previous four years, first-time enrollment in Engineering increased 4.8% at the doctoral level and 5.1% at the master’s level between Fall 2018 and Fall 2019. The overall growth in first-time enrollment of international students (3.8%) contributed to rebound in engineering fields, which reported a 3.3% increase in international students. Other trends by broad field of study are generally consistent with the last few years. In addition to the broad field of Engineering, the largest one-year gains in first-time enrollment by broad field of study were in Mathematics and Computer Sciences (5.7%), Health Sciences (3.5%), and Other Fields (6.9%). In contrast, first-time graduate enrollment in Education over the same period flattened (+0.4%) after previous years of growth.

Institutions responding to the CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment & Degrees for Fall 2019 enrolled more than 1.8 million graduate students. Nearly three quarters (73.5%) of total graduate enrollment was in master’s programs. Over one million of those graduate students, or 58.5%, were women. The three largest broad fields of study (education, business, and health sciences) were also the fields with the largest proportions of part-time graduate students (Ed: 63.7%; Bus: 51.7%; HSci: 41.2%).

About the report

Graduate Enrollment and Degrees: 2009 to 2019 presents the findings of an annual survey of U.S. graduate schools, co-sponsored by CGS and the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) Board. It is the only annual national survey that collects data on graduate enrollment by all fields of study and is the only source of national data on graduate applications by broad field of study. The report includes responses from 561 institutions and presents statistics on graduate applications and enrollment for Fall 2019, degrees conferred in 2018-19, and trend data for one-, five- and ten-year periods.

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