The prestigious National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science, Inc., a group referred to as GEM, which works with select universities and Fortune 500 companies to offer fellowships to minority masters and Ph.D.-level students studying engineering and science, has admitted The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) to its ranks.

The standing will allow UTD, and particularly its top-rated Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science – which is one of the fastest growing schools of its kind in the nation and ranks at or near the top in the number of computer science degrees awarded each year – and its School of Natural Science and Mathematics to attract leading minority students from across the country by offering scholarships in engineering and the natural and physical sciences.

Awardees choose the university they would like to attend from among the more than 87 that are members of the consortium, including Cornell, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford and the University of California, Berkley, among others. UTD expects its first class of GEM recipients to enroll in fall 2003.

The program is a collaboration between the member universities and more than 50 corporate sponsors, including General Motors Corporation, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Motorola, Inc., SBC Telecommunications, Inc. and Texas Instruments, to name a few. In addition to providing a stipend, the companies offer paid summer internships and work closely with the selected university, which pays the students’ tuition and fees. A masters student receives approximately $12,000 per year and Ph.D. students receive about $20,000 per year, not including tuition expenses.

Kimberly Holmes, who herself is a GEM graduate and is assistant dean in UTD’s Jonsson School, said the university was excited to be part of such an elite group. “This is a unique opportunity for U.T. Dallas to become part of a select group of universities helping to increase the representation of minorities, specifically in engineering and science programs,” Holmes stated. “No doubt this honor will allow us to attract some of the most talented students from around the country and add to the diversity and quality of our student body.”

GEM was established in 1976 and is headquartered at the University of Notre Dame.