MIT Practices

• Office of Minority Education (OME): Interphase Edge

Interphase EDGE includes:

• a seven-week summer session wherein students take a full subject-load first, and live together in one of MIT dormitories. Academic facilitators as well as resident, peer advisors live with them in the dorm.
• programming during the academic year.

Programs of Note

• Clemson: Bridge to Clemson
  • Participating students enroll for their freshman year at local technical college (two miles from the Clemson campus), the Bridge program includes intentional advising, academic support and residential life components that facilitate a successful transition to Clemson upon successful completion of academic requirements.
• FAMU-FSU College of Engineering: Engineering Concepts Institute
  • The Engineering Concepts Institute (ECI) is an intensive 6-week summer program of study for high school graduates who have applied and been accepted into the College of Engineering at either Florida A&M University or The Florida State University. The program’s goal is to prepare high school graduates with a solid academic foundation for the successful completion of an engineering degree at FAMU or FSU. The program also offers networking opportunities with engineering faculty, staff, and other students.
• Georgia Tech: Challenge Program
  • The Challenge Program is a five-week, intensive program that is held every summer for incoming, first-year students at Georgia Tech. Participating students live in a first-year dorm, take Chemistry, Math, Computer Science, Literature and a First-year Seminar. They participate in social and academic workshops lead by upper-class students. Each student is given a monetary refund based on his/her GPA at the end of the program.
• NC State: Minority Engineering Program – Summer Transition Program
  • “The Summer Transition Program (STP) is a residential program that enhances the academic and social maturation of incoming minority engineering freshmen prior to the start of the regular academic year. Up to 75 students are selected to participate in this comprehensive six-week program held during the second academic summer session. STP allows students to take two university courses—math and chemistry” (Mitchell, Hunt-Lowery, & Rajala, 2000).
• Purdue: Minority Engineering Program (MEP): Engineering Academic Boot Camp
  • Engineering Academic Boot Camp was developed to improve the transition of underrepresented engineering students into the majority campus culture at Purdue. In addition to enrolling in non-credit versions of Calculus, Chemistry, Physics, and English, students learn MATLAB skills and engage in an engineering design project. The program includes: professional mentoring, corporate tours, time management, team building, and social activities. All students in the program live together in a learning community. The capstone experience of the program is participation in an international design competition during the first semester following the Boot Camp.

See the Purdue - Environmental Scan

• Stanford: Leland Scholars Program (LSP)
  • Leland Scholars live on campus for 4 weeks during the summer of their first quarter at Stanford. They enroll in a three-credit LSP course including a chemistry-based science course and writing course that will prepare them for the fall quarter. Students participate in hands-on, small group-learning experiences designed to enhance their analytical thinking and problem-solving abilities. They participate in seminars, presentations, and activities that will introduce students to Stanford, acquaint them with faculty and peers, and familiarize them with campus resources as well as the San Francisco Bay Area. During the academic year, Leland Scholars have access to additional advising and freshman seminars designed to support the LS community and reinforce the skills and strategies acquired during the program. Student participation is fully-funded.

See the Stanford - Environmental Scan

• University of California, Berkeley: Summer Bridge
  • Summer Bridge is an eight-week academic residential program. Participants are introduced to the social, cultural and academic aspects of a research university and are provided with opportunities to foster meaningful academic and social connections, Participating students enroll in two credit-bearing courses, and are each assigned an academic counselor and a resident assistant.
• University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC): Meyerhoff Scholars Program
  • This is a comprehensive 4-year+ program which includes a pre-Freshmen year bridge program.

From the website: “Once selected for the program, Meyerhoff students attend a mandatory pre-freshman Summer Bridge Program, and take courses in math, science, and African American studies. They also attend social and cultural events. The purposes of the Summer Bridge Program are to prepare students for the new expectations and requirements of college courses, and to provide social opportunities for interacting with peers, faculty, and staff.” See Maton et al., 2016.

• University of Pennsylvania : Africana Summer Institute
  • In addition to the relatively standard Pre-Freshman Program (PFP), The Center for Africana Studies at Penn offers a Summer Institute for Pre-freshmen. The Africana Summer Institute is an intensive, one-week course taught by Penn faculty that exposes students to major intellectual and cultural themes and currents in 19th, 20th, and 21st century African and African Diaspora studies. There is no fee to participate in the Institute and room, board, books and course tuition are covered. Students receive course credit for successful completion of the program. All incoming first-year students who are interested in African, African American, and other African Diaspora studies are eligible to apply for admission to the Summer Institute.

See the University of Pennsylvania - Environmental Scan

• Yale University: ONEXYS (Online Experience for Yale Scholars)
  • This fully-online experience gives matriculating students an early introduction to the norms and expectations of the first-year at Yale, and provides them with an opportunity to learn and/or refresh their understanding of concepts central to qualitative study through a variety of problem sets, quizzes and other assignments. The online program is centered around short videos created by mathematics professor, Jim Rolf and his team. Participating students can engage in discussions with other ONEXYS students and with ONEXYS coaches who are upperclass Yale students.