# San Francisco State University MS/PhD Bridge to the Doctorate

> **NIH NIH R25** · SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $182,180

## Abstract

San Francisco State University (SFSU), the University of California, Davis (UCD) and the University
of California, San Francisco (UCSF) called “PhD Partners” hereafter, have developed a cooperative graduate
program to increase the number of underrepresented minorities (URM) that pursue biomedical research
careers. Our program goals are to provide URM students with a quality and focused master's degree
education at SFSU that prepares them to be competitive for acceptance and successful in top-ranked
biomedical science doctoral programs. The objectives are to ensure that the master's degree Bridge students:
1) pursue a critical and exhaustive examination of discipline subject matter graduate courses that lead to an
MA/MS degree in a biomedical science (i.e. biology, biochemistry or chemistry) in two-three years; 2) achieve
competitive scores on their GRE exams to ensure acceptance into a high quality biomedical PhD programs; 3)
receive intense advising and the support necessary to become confident and successful graduate students; 4)
participate in significant research experiences and acquire the skills required to communicate the results of
those experiences in the form of theses, presentations at national scientific conferences and in peer-reviewed
journals; 5) develop strong skills in science writing, and 6) receive continual exposure to successful minority
scientists to build the confidence they will need to become outstanding scientists. These objectives will be
successfully met through the combination of an excellent curriculum, close and careful advising, workshops
designed to provide the students with a well-rounded and in-depth knowledge of all aspects of biomedical
sciences, and a nurturing and productive research experience with Bridge mentors. These activities will
prepare URM students for entry into high quality PhD degree programs, and/or biomedical research careers.
 Sixty-four of our past MS/PhD Bridge to the Doctorate masters’ students are currently enrolled in or
have completed Doctoral programs at UC Partner campuses or other outstanding doctoral institutions. Nine
other MS/PhD Bridge students who entered PhD programs withdrew for various reasons. Therefore, 87.7%
(64/73) of SFSU Bridge students have persisted in pursuit of a PhD degree. Forty-three have completed
doctoral programs to date (34 PhD, 4 PharmD, 4 MD/DO and 1 DVM). Six of the current MS candidates in the
Bridge program will apply in 2014 for admission into PhD programs for fall 2015 and another three that have
completed the MS degree will re-apply this fall. Thus, 114 graduate students have received Bridge program
financial support since 1992. Eighty-five have entered doctoral programs or are currently supported on the
Bridge grant (six second-year Bridge participants applied to PhD programs in fall 2013 and six second-year
Bridge students will apply in Fall 2014 for entrance in Fall 2015). Thus, 79.3% (85+3/111) of all past and
current SFSU Bridge participants are i...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10137113
- **Project number:** 3R25GM048972-20S1
- **Recipient organization:** SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Frank T Bayliss
- **Activity code:** R25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $182,180
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-04-04 → 2021-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10137113

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10137113, San Francisco State University MS/PhD Bridge to the Doctorate (3R25GM048972-20S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10137113. Licensed CC0.

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