The McNair Program at Eastern Michigan University is specifically designed to help students who want to obtain doctorate degrees.
It focuses on students with a G.P.A. of 3.0 or higher from low-income families or whose parents did not graduate from college.
The program is designed to help students get into position to not only pay for college, but also to get into any school offering the curriculum they are searching for.
Scholars get to personally choose their advisers from among the professors at EMU.
During the program, students, assisted by their advisers, write papers, learn to properly give presentations and work on their doctorate thesis.
“Each McNair scholar has a faculty adviser in the discipline of their choice,” Dr. Heather Neff, the director of the McNair Scholars Program at EMU, said.
“The McNair program does not decide what kind of projects students do, who they work with or what they study. We are merely here as a support organization to get people prepared for grad school.”
Students in this program also get some help paying for school.
“Junior year we offer them a stipend, that is a salary, of $2,800 over the course of winter semester, including a few weeks in May, and during that time … students are working on this in-depth research project,” Neff said. “Along with the stipend, students are offered a budget of up to $500 in order to buy supplies or to pay for travel or to pay for other technical things they may need in order to conduct their research.”
“The McNair program has really focused my academic pursuits, and broadened my view of research simultaneously,” said Nikki Cosmo, a current student enrolled in the McNair Program.
“It has taught me everything I needed to write a proposal, establish a relationship with a mentor and conduct graduate level research,” Cosmo said. “It has allowed me to present at a national research conference and get published as an undergraduate.”
The McNair program will be accepting applicants over the winter semester.
You can contact them at 734-487-8240 or go to their office in Hoyt Hall ground floor suite six.
“The McNair program, for me, is a family and they are currently assisting me with admission to graduate school,” Cosmo said. “I will eventually earn a doctorate degree and go on to become a professor and mentor myself because of the drive they have instilled in me.”
