Rackham Hosts 22nd Annual Summer Institute
Posted Thursday, June 02nd, 2011
The 22nd annual Rackham Summer Institute will begin on June 16. This year we are hosting 100 newly admitted Ph.D. students. They are recipients of the Rackham Merit Fellowships (RMF), Rackham Engineering Awards (REA), Rackham Science Awards (RSA), Rackham Merit Fellowships in Education, Psychology, and in the Program in Biomedical Sciences (PIBS). The Summer Institute offers courses related to Fellows' specific research interests, seminars focused on professional development, and other activities that facilitate a successful transition into graduate student life at U-M.
This summer we have 25 students in the Biological and Health Sciences, 33 students in Engineering and Physical Sciences, 28 fellows in the Social Sciences, and 20 fellows in the Humanities. Our Summer Institute Fellows have recently moved to Ann Arbor from 24 different states and Puerto Rico. The program runs from June 16th to August 12th, 2011.
This year for the first time, with the support of an NSF grant, the Summer Institute will also include six students in the Bridges to the Ph.D. This is a new program that admits students into fully-funded research master’s programs in Applied Physics and Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics with the intent that they will continue on into Ph.D. programs.
The goal of the Summer Institute is to provide incoming Rackham Merit Fellows in doctoral programs with a successful, accelerated transition into graduate school as well as to increase the number of underrepresented students who earn a doctorate. We emphasize the need for students to focus on their educational goals and to acquire the skills needed for graduate student success.
Past participants are surveyed each year and regularly report that their experiences in the Summer Institute clarified their expectations. In addition, they were able to build professional and social networks that provided firm grounding for the challenges of graduate school.