SCampus Student Guidebook

Academic Resources

McNair Scholars

Richard Andalon
(213) 740-8702
(213) 740-9048 (FAX)
Grace Ford Salvatori 315
Email: randalon@usc.edu
www.usc.edu/mcnair

The McNair Scholars Program is a federally-funded initiative sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education that currently operates at 182 colleges and universities across the U.S. The program provides graduate school preparation and research training and opportunities to a select group of students from first generation, low-income and historically underrepresented backgrounds. The primary objective of the program is to diversify the student body at the graduate level, particularly at the doctoral level, with the ultimate goal of diversifying the American professoriate through placement of McNair alumni in faculty positions.

At USC, at least 20 students are selected every year for the McNair Scholars Program. Students are introduced to the world of research and provided an opportunity to work with faculty mentors on student-proposed and designed research projects. Participants gain experience in hands-on research, writing research papers and presenting their scholarly work. Students come from all academic disciplines and have demonstrated significant achievement and potential in their academic and extracurricular pursuits. The highlights of the USC program include a spring research methods course, summer research institute, research symposium, GRE preparation, year-round academic and career advising, special travel grant awards for conference attendance and university visitations, and ongoing graduate school preparation and leadership development activities. Students in the program receive a $2,800 summer research stipend and sponsored summer housing accommodations. Students also have the opportunity to publish their scholarly work in the USC McNair Scholars Program Research Journal.

The McNair Scholars Program is a funded TRIO project, named in honor of the astronaut, Ronald E. McNair, who died in the 1986 Challenger Space Shuttle explosion. The USC Office of Undergraduate Programs, Office of the Provost, administers the program.

To meet eligibility requirements, students must be full-time USC students with a minimum 2.7 GPA; however, no lower than a 3.0 GPA is preferred. Students must be first generation college students from a low-income background or members of an ethnic group that is underrepresented in graduate education.