The Biomedical Freshman Research Initiative (BFRI) is a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), a hispanic-serving institution. Our analysis showed that BFRI participation was associated with retention in the BS in Biomedical Science program and at UTRGV. No significant difference in academic achievement and graduation in 4 years was observed. The results from this study suggest that BFRI is a promising avenue to provide more opportunities for students to be exposed to and participate in research early on and retain them in the science pipeline at a lower cost and manpower.