Datoya Brown BIOL 703: Experimental Methods Biology January 29, 2014 “Preparing Graduate Students for Graduate-Level Study and Research” Summary The number of academically under prepared and at-risk college graduates completing graduate-level degrees is increasing. Many of the students are doomed to failure either because they are academically disqualified or because they lack the guidance to acquire new information necessary for involvement of their thesis and/or project. Ultimately the cost of losing students is worrisome to both university/college officials and program coordinators. One of the most common hindrances for graduate students is the completion of the thesis, which almost always involves complex reviews of subject area literature. This problem is often overlooked, since program coordinators, faculty advisors and other officials assume that students automatically have knowledge of procedures in obtaining previous data/research findings relevant to the thesis work. This could not be further from the truth. In lieu of reading this article for review Katherine O’Clair hypothesizes that providing graduate students with adequate resources and support, including the help from the library, is required for protecting and increasing return on investments for university graduate programs. Often, just simply involving a university/college librarian can help reduce graduate student attrition and improve degree completion rates. O’Clair had a simple question of, “does a course with given credit prompt graduate students to evaluate their confidence levels and preparedness for their thesis literature research”? Graduate students enrolled in a for-credit course were asked to fill out an online questionnaire at the beginning of their course after introduction but before curriculum was delivered, and at the end. All students had the option of participation although