Application

Thank you for your interest in the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Bridge to the Doctorate Program (LSAMP BD) at UMBC, part of the University System of Maryland’s LSAMP program. If you were part of an LSAMP program as an undergraduate student, you may be eligible for the BD program. The BD program provides funding from the National Science Foundation for 2 years, and the academic department provides an additional up to 3 years of funding to complete the PhD, pending completion of all academic requisite milestones.

The Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation – Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) fellowships pay for tuition, individual health insurance, and includes a $32,000/year stipend for two years.

Eligibility:

  • You participated in a Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program as an undergraduate student.
  • You have or will have by Fall 2025, a B.S. degree in a science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) field.
  • You do not already have an advanced degree, e.g., M.S. or Ph.D.
  • You are applying to UMBC for graduate school in a STEM field

Please note that LSAMP undergraduate programs only include psychology and economics from the social sciences, and all LSAMP students must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. If you meet all of these requirements, you are eligible to apply for the fellowship.

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Have questions before you apply? Click here to complete the interest form. Someone from our team will contact you.

UMBC LSAMP BD Interest Form

 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Q: Am I guaranteed $32,000/year in funding for all of my Ph.D. studies at UMBC?

Please note that the additional funding for subsequent years will be set at the department’s designated funding rate which can be higher or lower than the NSF BD stipend. Departments are not always able to fund these additional three years at the $32,000 BD stipend rate, which is a significant award. We have had BD Fellows in the past from the following departments, EE, MechE, ChemE, Information Systems, Systems Engineering, Math, Stats, and Computer Science, so many of the department chairs and Graduate Program Directors are familiar with this process. Past BDs who have now graduated with PhDs, have had the following forms of additional support after finishing their BD terms: Meyerhoff Graduate Fellowship in the Biomedical Sciences, an external fellowship from an engineering or STEM organization (e.g., Google, NSF, GEM), TA in the department, RA with a faculty member in the department, RA with the research PI or advisor, fellowship through the department, or faculty member’s research grant.

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Q: What do I need to do to become “certified” as a participant by the applicant’s undergraduate LSAMP program?
A: You must have a letter or email of verification/certification to indicate that you participated in an LSAMP program during your undergraduate years, from your undergraduate LSAMP director or coordinator. That letter can come in the form of an email and can be as short as one paragraph. The letter must come from the person who directs or coordinates your undergraduate LSAMP program and be on program or institutional letterhead. This person should be familiar with your participation in LSAMP at the undergraduate level. The email must come from the LSAMP director/coordinator of the school where you received your degree.  Students CANNOT write their own letters of eligibility. We cannot accept letters from directors of schools where you may have participated in a summer program if you did not receive a degree from that institution.  As an example, if you were an undergraduate student at the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez, but participated in a summer program at Cornell, the letter/email must come from your LSAMP director at UPRM or within the UPR system.

This verification/certification should be emailed to: lsampbd@umbc.edu