Guide

The learning curve that accompanies educational transitions can involve culture shock as students adjust to new environments, demands, networks, and responsibilities. Educational institutions have unwritten, implicit rules and expectations within their culture—otherwise known as the “hidden curriculum.” Navigating the hidden curriculum is part of what can make the transitions to college and graduate school challenging. 

This rubric checklist came about as a result of listening to the needs of both IGEN and EGE workshop attendees, as rubrics are one of the tools that our Equity in Admissions workshop series attendees most frequently adopt following their workshop participation. The use of rubrics can help to create more equitable admissions processes, but it can be difficult to know how to design and implement them to be effective.

This toolkit is an invitation for you to engage in deeper thinking about how mentoring relationships in graduate education can embody equity-mindedness. Whether you consider yourself a current mentor or a mentee, or whether this role is yet to come, mentoring is an essential part of the higher education landscape. Yet, to ensure that mentoring is a mechanism of advancing opportunity (rather than limiting opportunity to a select few), mentors and mentees must engage in active learning, constant reflection, and the adaptation of tailored practices (NASEM, 2019).

Intersectional Privilege Article Summary

The intersectional privilege of white able-bodied heterosexual men in STEM.

By Erin A. Cech

Date & Time of Journal Club: Tuesday, October 18th, 2022 at 10amPT/1pmET

Dos and Don’ts for Submitting a Successful AGU Bridge Partner Proposal. 

Remember that the goal of the AGU Bridge Program is to improve equity in geoscience graduate education, representation will follow. Seek equity first rather than focusing solely on numbers of historically marginalized students. Consider reasons behind low representation of historically marginalized students in your department

The American Physical Society Bridge Program has compiled these tips for drafting an effective letter of recommendation for a student seeking
admission into a graduate program.

When graduate admissions committees meet to review applicant files, letters of recommendation are one component of the holistic review process that provides information about the applicant’s previous work, personality, and potential for success as a doctoral student. In order to ensure that letters of recommendation are effective tools for enhancing equity, we must critically assess how we write, read, and solicit letters of recommendation.

Successful bridge programs share certain key components and exist within a supportive institutional context. These contextual and programmatic components build on one another to provide students with a complete educational experience, from admissions and induction to research and mentoring.

If you’re considering graduate school, there is a lot you can do to ensure your success... and it’s never too early to start. Most important is completing a rigorous undergraduate curriculum, such as one that meets the requirements of an ACS-certified degree. Since chemistry research is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary, taking electives in other scientific areas of interest can be good preparation for interdisciplinary graduate work.