A Multi-Phasic Approach to Increase Diversity Among Doctoral Candidates in Biomedical Engineering

Lacy White; Carly Eressy

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Graduate Studies Division Technical Session 1
Page Count: 8
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40809
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/40809
Download Count: 241

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Paper Authors

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Lacy White University of Texas at Austin

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Lacy White is the Graduate Program Coordinator for the Department of Biomedical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. She earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology and a master's degree in Clinical Psychology from The University of Texas at Tyler. Lacy is interested in best practices in graduate recruitment and retention to ultimately increase the diversity of the biomedical engineering workforce.

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Carly Eressy University of Texas at Austin

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Carly Eressy is a Graduate Research Assistant in the Biomedical Engineering department at the University of Texas at Austin. She is pursuing her Masters degree in Learning Technologies, expected Spring 2023. She earned her Bachelor of Arts from the College of the Holy Cross in Studies in World Literature, with a concentration in Latin-American Studies, and a minor in Studio Art. Most recently, she worked as an Instructional Designer for the MD & MD-PhD programs at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her research interests include equity in education, technology integration, policy development and leadership & engagement.

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Abstract

Over the past four years our graduate program has used a multi-phase approach to increase the recruitment of doctoral students who identify as Black/African American, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders (shorted to “diversity groups” in the remainder of our paper). To evaluate our efforts, we divide our recruitment strategy into three phases: the application, admissions, and acceptance phases.

In the application phase, our goal is to reduce real and perceived barriers to the application to encourage more students from the diversity groups to apply. We attend conferences such as AISES, SWE, SHPE, ABRCMS and SACNAS to connect with prospective students and make application fee waivers available. Owing to a lack of quality mentorship at their undergraduate institution, many students may not be prepared for the graduate school search. We publicize application tip sheets and recorded step-by-step application videos, and host Q&A webinars with faculty on how to submit a competitive application. The GRE was waived due to Covid in 2020 and completely removed from our program’s admissions process in 2021. As a result of these combined efforts, the number of applications received from the diversity groups increased four-fold, from 18 to 79.

In the admissions phase, our goal is to reduce individual bias through a standardized review. Our committee uses a holistic review process where every application received by the deadline is reviewed by at least two committee members using mutually agreed upon criteria. Applicants complete a structured personal statement that includes a diversity and Covid-19 impact statement. We think this strategy increases equity as applicants are guided to write a statement of purpose that matches our review criteria. Finally, we offer pre-admission one-on-one interviews to students from diversity groups and first-generation college students to give them an opportunity to explain parts of their application that may not be representative of their current ability. As a result of these practices, the number of admitted students from the diversity groups has increased four-fold from 5 to 22.

Although our applicant numbers have increased over the past four years with a corollary increase in the percentage of admissions, the number of students from the diversity groups who joined our program remained low. In the acceptance phase, our primary goal is to increase the number of students in the diversity groups who accept our offer of admission. Based on feedback from post-recruitment visit surveys, we hypothesized that increased visibility of student support resources and diverse faculty would increase the likelihood that students from the diversity groups would join our program. In 2020, we began hosting a DEI Townhall as part of our recruitment event and launched a new DEI website within the department. We highlighted the Graduates for Underrepresented Minorities (GUM) student organization and invited students from GUM to speak at recruitment events. As a result, the 2021 cohort was one of the most diverse in our graduate program’s history, with 20% of the cohort identifying as a student from a diversity group.

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White, L., & Eressy, C. (2022, August), A Multi-Phasic Approach to Increase Diversity Among Doctoral Candidates in Biomedical Engineering Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40809

TY - CPAPER
AB - Over the past four years our graduate program has used a multi-phase approach to increase the recruitment of doctoral students who identify as Black/African American, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders (shorted to “diversity groups” in the remainder of our paper). To evaluate our efforts, we divide our recruitment strategy into three phases: the application, admissions, and acceptance phases.

In the application phase, our goal is to reduce real and perceived barriers to the application to encourage more students from the diversity groups to apply. We attend conferences such as AISES, SWE, SHPE, ABRCMS and SACNAS to connect with prospective students and make application fee waivers available. Owing to a lack of quality mentorship at their undergraduate institution, many students may not be prepared for the graduate school search. We publicize application tip sheets and recorded step-by-step application videos, and host Q&A webinars with faculty on how to submit a competitive application. The GRE was waived due to Covid in 2020 and completely removed from our program’s admissions process in 2021. As a result of these combined efforts, the number of applications received from the diversity groups increased four-fold, from 18 to 79.

In the admissions phase, our goal is to reduce individual bias through a standardized review. Our committee uses a holistic review process where every application received by the deadline is reviewed by at least two committee members using mutually agreed upon criteria. Applicants complete a structured personal statement that includes a diversity and Covid-19 impact statement. We think this strategy increases equity as applicants are guided to write a statement of purpose that matches our review criteria. Finally, we offer pre-admission one-on-one interviews to students from diversity groups and first-generation college students to give them an opportunity to explain parts of their application that may not be representative of their current ability. As a result of these practices, the number of admitted students from the diversity groups has increased four-fold from 5 to 22.

Although our applicant numbers have increased over the past four years with a corollary increase in the percentage of admissions, the number of students from the diversity groups who joined our program remained low. In the acceptance phase, our primary goal is to increase the number of students in the diversity groups who accept our offer of admission. Based on feedback from post-recruitment visit surveys, we hypothesized that increased visibility of student support resources and diverse faculty would increase the likelihood that students from the diversity groups would join our program. In 2020, we began hosting a DEI Townhall as part of our recruitment event and launched a new DEI website within the department. We highlighted the Graduates for Underrepresented Minorities (GUM) student organization and invited students from GUM to speak at recruitment events. As a result, the 2021 cohort was one of the most diverse in our graduate program’s history, with 20% of the cohort identifying as a student from a diversity group.
AU - Lacy White
AU - Carly Eressy
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - A Multi-Phasic Approach to Increase Diversity Among Doctoral Candidates in Biomedical Engineering
UR - https://peer.asee.org/40809
DO - 10.18260/1-2--40809
ER -