Our new study, just published in AERA Open, provides evidence that increasing the financial support offered to potential Ph.D. students offers a promising approach for attracting a more diverse pool of doctoral students. Along with co-authors Christopher Bennett, H. Kenny Nienhusser, and Milagros Castillo-Montoya, we studied Ph.D. student application and enrollment patterns at a large public research university in the Northeast. We were interested in how the diversity of the Ph.D. students changed corresponding to a change in the financial support offered to doctoral students.

A faculty member as well as interim director for the Neag School’s Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) program, Milagros Castillo-Montoya has brought along her knowledge and passion for teaching and learning in classrooms with diverse college students.