(UB)
Undergraduate Education
Undergraduate Education
Cora P. Maloney Center
About CPMC
Where students with enormous potential achieve exceptional success.
About Our Program

UB’s McNair Scholars Program is a federally funded TRIO program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. It is named in honor of Dr. Ronald E. McNair, a pioneering African-American astronaut who died in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.

Dr. McNair came from a low-income background but went on to earn his PhD in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was the first in his family to graduate from college and earn a PhD, and was the second African-American astronaut to travel to space. Dr. McNair embodied the idea that race, income and generation status should not stand in the way of education. His academic and career success, dimmed only by his untimely death, lives on through his namesake program and the students who have benefitted from it.

McNair Scholars Program

Four students standing in front of a large window overlooking a building with a white spire, with a blue sky in the background.

Preparing undergraduates from all disciplines to pursue their PhD.

Applications are currently being accepted!

Complete your online application today!

Welcome to the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program (McNair Scholars Program)! Dedicated to excellence in scholarship, our program serves low-income and first-generation students along their path to earning a PhD. We are one of more than 180 programs across the country united by a shared vision of increasing the attainment of PhD degrees.

McNair Scholars have access to a robust network of year-round support, including graduate school preparation, funded research opportunities and the academic and personal development needed to excel at the highest levels of education.

From the sciences to the arts and humanities, our program is open to eligible undergraduate students of all disciplines.

Attention: McNair Alumni!

We want to hear from you. Please fill out our Alumni Questionnaire today.