Program Outcomes

Program Outcomes:

As of January 2024, our UC Davis IMSD T32 Program was in its fourth year of supporting diverse first-year graduate students. The IMSD program at UC Davis started in 1998 as an NIH R25 grant, but in 2020, the program grant was renewed as an NIH T32 grant. Therefore, our IMSD program has a long history at UC Davis, while different elements were added in 2020.

Since 2020 our outcomes are shown below:

  • Currently, 91% (34) of the 37 T32-funded trainees are progressing toward their PhD degrees at UC Davis.

     

  • Of our first two cohorts in 2020 and 2021, 10 of 15 trainees have successfully completed the qualifying examination (QE) and eight have officially advanced to candidacy. 

 

  • Despite their brief time in graduate school and widespread setbacks due to pandemic lab closures in 2020 and 2021, 6 trainees have coauthored at least one peer-reviewed publication with their IMSD mentors. Most of the trainees in the initial two cohorts that do not have publications have several conference abstracts, and one has a book chapter publication. 

 

  • IMSD T32 trainees were also strong candidates for further fellowship funding, as evidenced by the 11 of 22 IMSD Alumni being appointed to T32s and awarded other fellowships. We find this noteworthy as obtaining a T32 appointment is highly competitive, and more than 55% of IMSD Trainees from the first, second, and third cohorts who started the IMSD Program have successfully obtained post-IMSD T32 fellowships.

 

  • A December 2023 survey (n=22) asked former Trainees what impact, if any, the IMSD T32 Program had on their development. A sample of the responses include:
    • “It helped me with navigating conflict with my first PI and helped me advocate for myself when I couldn’t get faculty to listen to my health concerns. It helped me feel more comfortable in grad school and like I wasn’t alone.” 
    • “I learned a lot during my IMSD time about graduate school. This helped me a lot to navigate my first year since I didn't know much about it being first generation grad student. This also allowed me to meet people from other programs and develop great relationships,” 

    • “Understanding the resources available to me as a graduate student, building a sense of community, enhance my communication skills, understand the dynamics of a healthy mentor/mentee relationship.” 

       

  • This survey also asked alumni to compare the relative impact of the IMSD T32 program and their graduate group program on their success during the first year of graduate school. While 77.3% of Trainees reported that the IMSD T32 Program helped them “a great deal” (the highest rating) to be successful in their first year of graduate school, 50.0% reported that their graduate group program had also done so.