The Graduate School encourages all UM graduate programs to identify and recruit talented graduate students from a range of backgrounds and experiences to diversify their student populations under DEI principles.

Every year, the McNair Scholars program identifies low-income, first generation and historically marginalized students who want to pursue graduate studies, and enroll with the Council of Opportunity in Education (COE) to register themselves to be contacted by graduate programs. They produce a directory, which programs can use to reach out directly to potential candidates. There are over 2700 names on the list from across the country representing almost every undergraduate major.

This year, for the first time, UM also has access to the National Name Exchange, which has recently been opened to all Council of Graduate School members who successfully encourage their own underrepresented students to sign up for recruitment access.

These two tools are now available for the current recruitment cycle: 2023-24.

Information on how to use the lists properly is included below in a message from the Council of Graduate Schools. It is essential that you do not use these lists for any other purpose than recruiting the students directly to a graduate program. No mass emailing is allowed. Personal communication directed to the student is the preferred approach.

The Graduate School has historically waived the application fee for McNair Scholars, and we will extend that waiver to students from the National Name Exchange list.

UM graduate programs can write to Ke Wu (Ke.Wu@mso.umt.edu) to request access to the McNair and National Name Exchange databases, and to discuss Graduate School support for recruitment strategies.

Thank you for your efforts to do outreach about your program to the widest possible circle of students!

Message from the Council of Graduate Schools about the McNair Scholars List:

The searchable spreadsheet will enable you to find students that specifically fit to your graduate programs and allow you to contact them directly. On the website, you will also find downloadable instructions on how to use the spreadsheet, as well as a guide to the GRE taxonomy codes. To protect against unauthorized use and access to student information, the directory is password protected. We ask that you only share this password after careful consideration since McNair Scholars have given us permission to share their information solely for the purpose of graduate school recruitment. Any other use of the directory is forbidden.

The TRIO Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program is the single largest federal effort aimed at preparing low-income, first-generation in college and minority students to pursue graduate studies. The McNair Program is funded through the U.S. Department of Education’s TRIO programs and provides participants with research internships, faculty mentors, opportunities to present and publish results of their research, undergraduate teaching experience, and assistance with applying to and preparing for graduate school.

The directory is developed and disseminated through a collaboration between COE and CGS. We encourage graduate schools to utilize this valuable resource to recruit graduate students from among the highly talented pool of McNair Scholars and to provide them with the appropriate financial support to successfully complete their graduate programs. For more information or technical assistance, please contact Dr. Nicole Norfles at nicole.norfles@coenet.org  or (202) 347-7430.

Thank you for your participation in this important project designed to increase and enhance access to graduate opportunities.

*COE asks that the McNair database be used appropriately and specifically. Please refrain from sending out mass messages to students. The McNair Directory should be used as a targeted recruitment tool for graduate programs that match students’ fields of interest as specified in the database. Reports of abuse will result in future restriction to the database.