Three Wisconsin Private Colleges Among Those Helping Students Go to Grad School

Three private colleges in Northeastern Wisconsin have the go-ahead to continue a collaborative program.It’s aimed at helping students get into graduate school.

McNair grants are issued by the federal Department of Education.They’re given to students who have at least a three-point-oh grade point average and who are members of under represented ethnic groups.Recipients may also be of their family’s first generation to go to college.

Ripon College is in the program along with St. Norbert College and Lawrence University.

Ripon’s Director of the McNair program is Dan Krhin.He says the three schools are just finishing their initial five year stint and got news about McNair’s future.

“We were notified by the Department of Education that we were one of the programs that was re-funded for the next five years based on our performance for the last four years of placing students into graduate school,” he says.

A total of forty students are receiving McNair grants, 18 of them are working toward a Phd.The next five year grant is for one-point-one-million dollars.

Students are eligible for up to three thousand dollars. The three schools work together to get the students into internships and research opportunities.

“So they receive money for working on their research project, they submit an extensive paper aqnd they do a teaching experience, and they present at conferences,” he says.”They take a graduate record exam, a 24 hour GRE preparatory class.And they attent grad school visits with us.”

Krhin says the grants are usually issued to large research universities.None of the three liberal arts schools offer graduate programs.