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Math Alliance

F-GAP Selection Criteria

Please make sure to read the selection criteria carefully.

Selecting students for the F-GAP program: FAQs

Q:  There are several students whom I am thinking of nominating for the F-GAP program. How do I know whether they are suitable?

A:  I am very glad you asked this question! And although the question of suitability is not an easy one to answer in a few words, there are four basic criteria:

  1.  The student must be graduating by the Spring or Summer of 2026 with either a Bachelor’s degree or a Master’s degree in a mathematical or statistical science and must have shown an interest in entering a graduate program in a quantitative science.

  2.  The student should, by the time they graduate, meet the entry requirements for at least one Math Alliance Master’s, Postbaccalaureate or Doctoral program. (Please visit GPG Graduate School Guidelines for information about entry requirements for our GPGs.

  3. The student should be a Math Alliance Scholar.

  4. The student should be in our target group.

  5.  

Q:  I am afraid that your answer has raised more questions than it has answered!  For example, what is your “target group?”

A:  Let’s start with some context.  From its beginning, the Math Alliance has been concerned with what the National Science Foundation calls Broadening Participation.  Here is the description of this phrase as it appears on the NSF website:

The U.S. National Science Foundation is committed to expanding the opportunities in STEM to people of all racial, ethnic, geographic and socioeconomic backgrounds, sexual orientations, gender identities and to persons with disabilities.
The Math Alliance is committed to expanding opportunities in the quantitative sciences to people from the first three categories listed above and our target group reflects this commitment:

 

F-GAP Target Group

The student is a US citizen or permanent resident who has attended a US high school and who comes from an area or community that is rural or remote or an ethnic or racial group that is underrepresented in the mathematical or statistical sciences and who would be unlikely to pursue graduate study in a mathematical or statistical science without benefiting from the F-GAP program.

(The links in the paragraph above will take you to the relevant sections of the current NSF website; as NSF updates this website, we will modify our criteria accordingly.)

 

Q:  If the student is not now presently a Math Alliance Scholar, can I nominate them at the same time that I recommend them for F-GAP

A:  Yes.

 

Q:  May I recommend a student who meets the basic criteria listed above but is not now presently in school?

A:  Yes!

Other questions?  Please contact Roberto Soto or Phil Kutzko. Ready to nominate a student? Please click on the nomination form.