It is widely acknowledged that participation in mentored undergraduate research can provide students with benefits toward career choices and continuation with research and graduate careers. Most of the data on undergraduate research for African-American students is not derived from research programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). Texas Southern University (TSU), in Houston, Texas is an HBCU with approximately 7,500 undergraduate students and here we report the evaluation of TSU’s 2012 summer program. The summer program was a 10-week faculty mentored program open to all undergraduate students and 28 students participated. This study addresses the following research questions: (1) To what extent does GPA correlate with student achievement in the program? and (2) How do the experiences and achievement compare between “bench science” and “other students”? Data was derived from the student application forms and post-program mentor and student surveys. There was a positive correlation between GPA and mentor scores of the students (rs = 0.59; p = 0.0032), although “Bench Science” students and GPA were poorly correlated (rs = 0.25; ns), while “Other Students” had a high and significant correlation (rs = 0.73; p = 0.0042). A number of variables between the two groups including GPA, gender, race, grade level and amount of mentor contact were also analyzed, but only daily mentor/student contact differed between the groups and was significantly higher for the “Bench” students. The student surveys indicate that both groups have a very strong satisfaction with their chosen mentor, overall satisfaction with the program, an increased desire to have a career in research and an increased desire to go to graduate school. The reason for the differences for “Bench” and “Other” students needs further investigation, however it is concluded that the selection process for entry into the Texas Southern University Undergraduate Research Program should be at least a GPA of 3.0.