Conference PaperDoes Mentoring Fill the Knowledge-GAP in Applying to Graduate School in Mathematics?McEldowney, T; Miller, D; Townsend, E; Michaluk, L; Deshler, JCook, S; Katz, B; Melhuish, KApplying to graduate school in mathematics requires both a desire to attend graduate school, but also an understanding of the application process. The more students know about the process, the more successful they are in their pursuit of admission to a graduate program. We examined mathematics majors’ knowledge of both graduate school and the graduate school application process as part of a larger study examining barriers to students applying to graduate school in mathematics. We also examined the impact of mentors on student interest in graduate school and whether having a mentor has an impact on student knowledge of graduate school. We frame and explain our results using the theory of social capital.Proceedings of the 27th Annual Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education2025-08-0410665505319–327https://doi.org/2126018Mentors, Graduate School Applications, Social CapitalAlexandria, VANational Science Foundation