Utilize holistic selection methods to identify 7 under-represented recent college graduates who show promise to become PhD educated biomedical scientists per year to participate in a one year post-bac program designed to help them enter and succeed in PhD study. 80% of the PREP post-bacs will meet the criteria to receive a certificate of completion, based on performance in a laboratory, passing a course in Molecular and Cellular Biology, improving standardized test scores, attending and participating in required ethics and safety training, graduate school application workshops, weekly analytical problems solving workshops (IGR), a writing course and skills building workshops. 75% of post-bascs will enroll in a high quality Ph.D., DO/Ph.D. or MD/Ph.D. program in a biomedical related science. 85% of BCM SMART PREP alumni in Ph.D. programs will be retained and progress toward completion of the Ph.D We will disseminate results of the SMART PREP through presentations, discussions and, potentially, publications.