How to Apply
New applicants must submit their application forms by 9 am on Thursday of week 1 of the quarter, in hard copy to Nicki Bruno in GOS 2102. Note that only the form is due at this time; proposals are due one week later.
The goal of the Research Proposal is to help students learn to write a scientific document and to work with their mentors to develop a project. The research proposal should be written by the student with help from the faculty mentor. This document will form the basis of later work, potentially including manuscripts, summer proposals and the final paper required for graduation.
New proposals are due Thursday of week 2, in electronic form, uploaded by the mentor to the Research Scholars myCourses site. Writing is an iterative process that requires much revision and benefits from feedback. Thus, reviewers will comment on the proposal and suggest changes or request clarification. Students should submit their revised proposals via their mentors by Thursday of week 5.
The proposal should include a lengthy introduction that discusses the background and significance of the project. This section should put the proposed project in the context of the current knowledge using primary literature sources as much as possible (cited properly in text and in the References section). Research projects should be novel and have potential to advance the field.
The research question, or hypothesis, should be stated explicitly. The overall research plan should outline planned experiments and methodology. Specific goals for the upcoming quarter should also be given in order to allow students to have clear objectives and to measure their success. The section on data analysis/followup is included in order to require students to think beyond the next experiment and remember the big picture. Here should be the discussion of any statistical or other complex analyses they plan to do (if appropriate), as well as a discussion of the next likely steps that they or another researcher might take in investigation of the research question.
Length 3-5 pages.
Organize Research Proposal as follows:
- Title
- Background/Signficance
- Research Question
- Overall Research Plan
- Specific Goals for This Quarter
- Planned Data Analysis/Follow Up
- References
**Don't forget to submit the Application Form!
