VISION STATEMENT: The vision of the LSMAMP Bridge to the Doctorate program is to successfully prepare our students to be scholars and researchers who are prepared to succeed in STEM doctoral programs and make scientific contributions academically and professionally at a global level.
The BD funds the initial two years of graduate study for underrepresented minority students who are committed to achieving their Doctoral degrees in a Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) discipline. The LSAMP Bridge to the Doctorate is a signature program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and a training ground for MS level students to acquire the basic and advanced skills needed to launch into a successful PhD program.
The BD is a research based program where emphasis is placed on spending a significant amount of time carrying out laboratory and/or field-based experiments, including a 10-12 week extramural summer research internship. In addition to research, BD students will be enrolled as full-time MS students who will have to maintain a GPA of 3.0 or above.
Additional methods to prepare our BD students for PhD programs, such as mentoring, critical thinking, GRE, and other workshops are also provided. The combination of these methods has been effective in preparing 96 of our BD fellows to be admitted into PhD programs, 26 to earn a PhD, and 1 to earn a PhD and a MD.