Prepare Your Application:

Please read these instructions carefully!

Prepare Your Application:

1. Read the faculty project proposals carefully to see if you have the required skills and qualifications – they vary greatly from project to project. Make a serious assessment of your interests and abilities. Do you find the project truly interesting? Be sure to also look for opportunities outside your major. Many professors’ research projects are multidisciplinary, especially in the social sciences and humanities – you may be able to find a project matching your skills and interests in an unexpected place.
2. Ask yourself about your time commitments for the coming year – most fall projects are a two semester commitment. Are your course or extracurricular commitments already unusually heavy? Research apprenticeships are not easy units. To benefit from the program you need to be able to devote at least 3 hours a week to the project, over the course of the entire term.
3. Apply only for projects to which you are prepared to commit yourself, and for which you are qualified (some require only diligence and enthusiasm). There is little latitude for "shopping" here. You could jeopardize the research project or your potential relationship with the professor by applying to, or accepting, apprentice positions that you cannot carry through the end of the semester.
4. Make sure you are eligible. The program is currently open only to registered students with a GPA of at least 2.0. Students in any college and any class level are welcome to apply, although they may not be qualified for every project. A few projects require completion of upper division courses. Please read the qualifications listed along with each project description carefully.
5. Return to this site and enter your application information ONLINE. You will be asked for contact and academic data, as well as a statement of interest for each project. In your statement, make sure that you address each project specifically: Why are you interested? Why are you qualified? What skills can you bring to the project? What classes have you taken that relate to the project? What do you hope to get out of this research experience? Each statement of interest should be about 400 words long.
6. Tip: You’ll be cutting and pasting your statement into the online application once you’ve started the application process, so be sure to have it open when you begin the online application process.

Proceed to STEP 2...