Undergraduate Economics Program Enhancements to Increase Doctoral Program Participation by Under-Represented Students

Abstract

The economics profession as with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines has recognized that it faces a “pipeline” problem of low numbers of under-represented minorities (URM) completing PhDs. The ancillary described in this article addresses the economics pipeline problem by using strategies modeled after University of Maryland Baltimore County’s (UMBC’s) STEM focused Meyerhoff Scholars program. These strategies include identifying URM students in early stages of their undergraduate careers with the ability and motivation to pursue graduate work, providing information about career opportunities for those completing PhDs, guidance on course selection and on undergraduate research opportunities. UMBC’s Predoctoral Fellows in Economics Program prepares students for successful admission into well-regarded PhD programs by enhancing their likelihood of successful applications to predoctoral programs in economics. URM undergraduates who maintain strong grades in mathematics, statistics, and economics and who engage in productive undergraduate research experiences and produce high-quality research output should find exciting predoctoral, doctoral and career opportunities.

Keywords

pipeline problem under-represented minorities STEM disciplines academic and social integration predoctoral programs A11 A22

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

American Economic Association . (2023). Report of the committee on the Status of minority groups in the economics profession. American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings, 113, 794–814.

Jesse

(2006). The poverty of the pipeline metaphor: The AAAS/CPST study of nontraditional pathways into IT/CS education and the workforce. In McGrath Cohoon

Aspray

(Eds.), Women and information technology. Research on underrepresentation (pp. 239–278). MIT Press.

Schlauch

Startz

(2018). The path to an economics PhD. Economics Bulletin, 38(4).

Sharpe

(2017). We’ve built the pipeline: What’s the problem and what’s next? CSWEP News, 2017(2), 10–11.

Sharpe

(2018). We’ve to build the pipeline. What’s the problem? What’s next? The remix. The Review of Black Political Economy, 45(3), 191–215. https://doi.org/10.1177/0034644618822500

Stolle-McAllister

Sto Domingo

M. R.

Carrillo

(2011). The Meyerhoff way: How the Meyerhoff scholarship program helps Black students succeed in the sciences. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 20(1), 5–16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-010-9228-5