During the Academic Year

1. A monthly (except January) seminar on topics pertinent to predoctoral students. 

2. Academic assistance:  Tutors will be provided as requested.

3. Advising: Meet with the advisor to discuss academic and career choices.

4. Library:  Resources available to chose a graduate school and take the GRE.

5. Computers, printers, and scanner are available in the office for student use.

6. Graduate School Application service: Ask the McNair Office to obtain catalogs and application forms for you.

7. Assistance in obtaining a mentor.

8. Software:  Microsoft has provided software that can be used in the McNair office.

9. Newsletter :  Scholars will receive six newsletters per year that highlight scholar successes, scholarships, deadlines for the GRE and other events.

10. Phone Calls:  Scholars may use the phone in the McNair office to call graduate schools and scholarship organizations.

11. Writing/Editing:  McNair staff assists scholars with letters of recommendation and help in editing application essays.

12. E-mail:  Important messages are sent out to all scholars by e-mail.

13. Website:  The SDSU McNair website lists scholars and their research.  Scholars are provided tutoring to prepare or improve their academic webpages.

14. Fee waiver: Fee waivers for graduate applications from participating institutions are available. The current list of institutions is available from the University of Rochester at: http://www.rochester.edu/College/McNair-Program/applicationIncentives.html .

The SDSU program will not financially support any McNair scholar who applies to Graduate school. We will work with you to get a waiver, but we cannot support you with U.S. Department of Education funds. If you do not receive a waiver from the Graduate School you are applying to, regretfully we cannot help you.

15. Letter of recommendation: Letters of recommendation are very important for acceptance into graduate programs. In many cases, the letter of recommendation gives the Graduate committee better insight into the overall promise of the student than grades or GRE scores. The SDSU McNair program has gained a national reputation of writing strong, honest letters of recommendation for its students. The McNair letter of recommendation has been recognized by many Universities as a critical part of the evaluation material of McNair Scholars application and has helped many students enter competitive graduate programs.

The McNair letter of recommendation for graduate school, summer research programs and Internship/Scholarships/Fellowships will be provided to McNair students who have completed all the necessary McNair activities satisfactorily.

Satisfactory performance in the following McNair activities include: attendance at all mandatory monthly meetings and workshops, submission of all completed assignments, maintenance of a 3.0 GPA or higher, participation in all cultural activities and all the summer research program requirements.

The McNair staff will notify you in case there are activities that you have not satisfactorily completed so you can address those issues before you ask for a letter of recommendation.

During the Summer

1. Those scholars who submit successful research proposals and attend all McNair events will be eligible to receive a stipend of up to $2,800.

2. Students will work with mentors, write a research paper, and present it at a professional and/or national conference.

3. Some travel funds may be available for conferences or visits to prospective graduate schools.

4. Research papers may be published in the SDSU McNair Journal.

Follow Up

The McNair Program will work with scholars on their graduate school applications and will be available for assistance throughout the process--even after they leave SDSU.