We used longitudinal tracking data from Cohorts I and II of the Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) Program to test whether this intervention program and being a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) undergraduate major helped underrepresented students transition into STEM graduate degree programs in 2006 -2007. We found that being a GMS Scholar increased the odds of being currently enrolled in a graduate program and in a STEM graduate field, regardless of whether the student was a STEM undergraduate major. We also found that STEM undergraduate majors were more likely to transition into these graduate degree programs, and that being an undergraduate STEM major was especially beneficial to GMS Scholars. These findings varied considerably across underrepresented groups. We found that undergraduate intervention programs can both retain and insert underrepresented students at the STEM graduate level, thus potentially adding needed diversity at these educational levels.
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