Mentoring Through Critical Transition Points (MCTP)

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Department of Mathematics

This snapshot describes the multiple mentoring opportunities our doctoral program offers to aid students through the academic process.


Summary

MCTP targets two critical transition periods in the preparation of mathematicians: the transition from the undergraduate to the graduate level, and the transition from the advanced graduate level to the early years of an academic position. At each of these transition periods, the program focuses on interactions between non-PhD granting colleges and universities and PhD-granting research universities. The program benefits students at UNL as well as develops mathematicians in the larger mathematical community.

Key Component-IMMERSE

IMMERSE (Intensive Mathematics: A Mentoring, Education, and Research Summer Experience) is very much vertically integrated. Early career faculty will be mentored by senior UNL faculty; graduate students will be mentored by each other and by the early-career faculty. Also, pre-grads will be mentored by the early-career faculty and the graduate students.

Pre-grads

  • Program consists of two intensive courses: one in algebra and one in analysis
  • Courses are at the advanced undergraduate/beginning graduate level
  • Courses are structured around the reading of research papers

    • Graduate Students

  • Become involved as teaching assistants to early-career faculty for algebra and analysis

    • Early-Career faculty

  • Team teach in pairs, with the aid of graduate students, a course in algebra or analysis
  • Each receives a research mentor in the form of a senior UNL faculty member
  • Collaboration is expected to carry over into the next academic year via email and research visits


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    MCTP Scholarships and Traineeships

    Undergraduate MCTP Scholarships

  • The Undergraduate MCTP Scholars program is for juniors and seniors majoring in mathematics at UNL.

    • First-Year MCTP Graduate Traineeships

  • These traineeships provide a stipend and guide students through the first year of the mathematics graduate program at the University of Nebraska

    • Advance MCTP Graduate Traineeships

  • These traineeships provide a stipend and guide fourth- and fifth-year mathematics graduate students at the University of Nebraska through the process of preparing for a first job after graduate school. The traineeship also gives participants time away from teaching during which they can concentrate on finishing their dissertations.

    • Keeping Research Alive (KRA) Workshop

  • Each summer, we host a Keeping Research Alive (KRA) Workshop for former UNL graduate students who are now early-career faculty at four-year colleges. The workshop provides alumni with an intensive three-week period of collaborative research under the guidance of UNL faculty members. The subject area of this workshop changes from year to year.


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