Recruitment and Selection of Students

How do you decide which students would benefit the most? And how do you invite them?

So you’ve sketched out some ideas for an inclusive undergraduate research program. How will you market it to students? How will you get people to apply? And when they do apply, how will you make the difficult choices of who to accept into the program?

How we did it:

For the ARC-Learn program, we created a website with information about our program and shared it far and wide within our college, with other similar programs and experiential education specialists within the university, and with a network of community college instructors throughout the state, specifically targeting transfer students.

Our website described the goal of the program to, “…train the next generation of creative and diverse scientists to solve critical environmental challenges in Polar Regions.”

We described the program in terms of inclusivity and belonging in the STEM fields, offering that the students would engage with a team to learn about and contribute to solving environmental challenges in the polar regions, participate at the cohort and research team levels, network with mentors, develop data literacy skills, receive a transcript notation or research credits, present research in a science forum or public communication and receive a small stipend to offset costs.

To be eligible, students must have completed some lower division courses, or plan to declare a major within our college. They also were required to meet two of the following criteria: identify as part of a group underrepresented in polar sciences, be a transfer student or have dependents or other work and family demands on their time.

Read our recruitment language here.

The application process was simple, requiring the completion of a short Google form based on the eligibility criteria.

Once the application deadline passed, we used the established criteria to select our students. Because of the lower number of applicants, we did not need to turn anyone away who met all of our criteria.

OSU is a majority white institution, and we had very few students of color apply to and enroll with the program. The program had quite a few first generation and non-traditional students, including transfer students, veterans, older students and parents. The majority of students in the program identified as LGBTQ+. Most students were enrolled within our college, but we also accepted a few from other colleges.

Considerations for your program:

If your program is thoughtfully designed to support students of color in a community of peers, clearly state that. If it is designed (as ours was) to support non-traditional students who might not otherwise be able to participate in research opportunities, clearly state that. Avoid vague language or overpromising, as unmet expectations can lead to students feeling further marginalized through participation in your program.

Design your application to exactly mirror the primary goals of the program. Create a selection rubric based on these goals to avoid the influence of unconscious bias. If you don’t have enough students to fill all the seats, consider having a smaller group or opening the opportunity up to other departments or colleges, rather than selecting students who do not fit with the goals of the program. For example, non-traditional students with no other research opportunities (our target students) did very well in our program. However, some students with multiple opportunities for research sometimes found themselves overwhelmed with obligations, and ARC-Learn became lower on the priority list, or they lost interest in the program altogether.

If you’re trying something new, let students know! This allows them to be prepared for some false starts and mid-way transitions. If you’re trying something new, let students know! This allows them to be prepared for some false starts and mid-way transitions. Creating opportunities for students to give feedback and responding to the feedback shows goodwill and helps build trust.