Michael Ibba

The goal of the Destination Ohio State University (DOSU) Bridge Program is to increase the number of underrepresented minority (URM) students who complete a bachelor’s degree in STEM majors and to make them competitive for Ph.D. programs. Changes in admissions criteria and high tuition costs have made it increasingly difficult to successfully recruit URM students as first-year freshmen in large research universities. Indeed, these factors have contributed to a national trend where many URM students opt to attend two-year community colleges before transferring to four-year universities. Such a transition, however, presents prospects and serious challenges, as evidenced by the graduation rates and placement data.