The heart of the program is the opportunity for hands-on research experience. This activity starts in the first summer of the students' entry into the Program in the form of laboratory rotations and soon after in a mentor's laboratory. We monitor each student's progress through regular advisement, group meetings, student presentations, and written evaluations. Students gain awareness of the breadth and depth of sciences by attending departmental colloquia, student presentations, and internal and external scientific meetings. Interactions of MARC students with other students both encourages the non-MARC students to enter the field and builds self-confidence in the MARC students.

To maximize the students' ability to focus on research and other MARC activities without the distractions of outside employment, students are provided with a significant stipend and advised to take courses appropriate to their fields of interest for graduation in a timely manner. To assess the success of MARC, we undertake continuous evaluation of the programs at different levels. Evaluations of the programs is gathered from the students, mentors, group leaders, workshop coordinators, tutors, steering committee members and program director.

For a student to be eligible for MARC, they should advance the NIH goal of increasing participation of underrepresented minorities in biomedically relevant research careers. Therefore, they should be planning to enroll in an accredited Ph.D. or equivalent research degree program following graduation from Queens College. New MARC students should have two years (four semesters) remaining prior to graduation, and will begin in the summer preceding their Junior year. Students must be U.S. citizens or have permanent resident status, and have at least a 3.0 grade point average, which must be maintained throughout their tenure in the MARC program.