The NIH Undergraduate Scholarship Program: Career Outcomes of Scholars and Non-Awarded Finalists

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) spends millions of dollars each year to provide scholarships to an elite group of highly talented undergraduate science students from disadvantaged backgrounds to encourage them to pursue careers in biomedical research. Mathematica’s evaluation found that the NIH Undergraduate Scholarship Program appears to be operating as intended and that scholars are achieving career milestones at high rates. They are making steady progress toward the goal of becoming biomedical researchers, and doing so at substantially higher rates than applicants selected as finalists but not awarded scholarships.