New data highlight the importance of undergraduate research experiences (UREs) for keeping underrepresented science students on the pathway to a scientific career. We used a large-scale, 10-year longitudinal, multi-institutional, propensity score matched research design to compare the academic performance and persistence in science of students that participated in URE(s) compared to similar students that had no research experience. Results showed that students who completed 10-or-more hours of co-curricular faculty mentored research per week across two or more academic semesters or summers were significantly more likely to graduate with a science-related bachelor’s degree, be accepted into a science-related graduate training program, and be training for or working in the scientific workforce six years after graduation. Importantly, the findings show that just having an URE was not enough to influence persistence in science—it required a commitment of 10-or-more hours per week over two-or-more semesters of faculty mentored research.