URI Participant Selection Guidelines

The initial participating membership will include selected faculty in the College of Natural Science (CNS) with research interests in the physical sciences. Participant mentors will include, but are not limited to, faculty in Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, and Statistics departments.

The Oversight Committee will invite applications from eligible students during the spring semester of their 2nd year in residence at CSU (i.e. sophomores) from within departments in the CNS. Faculty will also be asked to recommend students they believe would be good candidates. Application materials will consist of each student's contact information along with:

• Two letters of reference from science faculty members (one should be from the mentor).
• Two one-page essays:
  • 1. a description of the proposed research project to be performed with the faculty mentor;
  • 2. a statement of the student's long-range career goals
• An additional essay revealing the student's problem solving skills. Instructions will be given to candidates.
• The student's academic transcript.
• Registration of each student on the URI web site.

The program's Oversight Committee will select finalists based on their application materials. The Committee will interview the top applicants. The oral interview will pose questions in a way to probe the abilities of the student to defend a proposition, to do instantaneous problem-solving by posing "what-if" questions based on the research plan, and to accept the frustrations of failure when doing research. From the pool of eligible finalists, an initial set of up to 10 student scholars will be selected.

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Undergraduate Research Institute Information:

Introduction and Goals
Participant Selection Guidelines
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