Opportunities at UD

• Summer Scholars - Usual application deadline: Check website (usually March 1)
• Summer Fellows - Usual application deadline: Check website (usually April 30)
• INBRE (IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence) - Application deadline: Check website (March 1)

Typical components of REU applications:

• CV/Resume

Prepare a good, well-crafted CV or resume. Receive feedback from the Career Center through Drop-In Hours and by uploading your resume for approval on Handshake. Please don’t hesitate in asking for an appointment with a faculty member to get some feedback on your CV/resume.

Suggestion: Every semester, plan on adding at least one bullet point to your CV or resume. Volunteer to do some research even if it is only for an hour per week. Eventually, this will grow and give you content for publications and presentations.

• An essay (or a research statement)

If needed for the process, read the position advertisement that you wish to apply for carefully, and identify if they are looking for anything specific in the essay or statement. If no instructions are given, you may consider covering the following:

1. Why do you want to apply for the position, or what do you wish to accomplish from participating in the research program? (Typical answers: prepare for graduate school, solve scientifically important problems, apply knowledge gained from coursework to solve real-world problems or simply to gain research experience.)
2. What prior experience do you have on research? This is where you will find it important to get involved with research (at least to some level) with a faculty member so that you have some content to build a few sentences or paragraph on.
3. What are your research interests? If you already have some research interests, describe it (try to make a connection to any particular research topics mentioned in the position description). It may be a good idea to be a bit flexible in describing research interests so that you maximize your chances of getting the position and give yourself an opportunity to learn new things. You may consider seeking advice from a faculty member in your department.
    

Note: For the essay for the UD Summer Scholar or Fellow positions, you should contact a professor (who you want to work with) to discuss a research topic. You would need a letter from that professor to support your application. It won’t hurt to reach out to multiple professors and see who have projects available.

• Recommendation letter

This is an important component of the application. Typically, students collect letters from course teachers. To stand out among the applicants, it may be very helpful to have something in your letter written on your research experience. To provide substance on this for your letter writers, consider getting involved with research with a faculty member (you may want to offer to do some volunteer research if needed). If you did not interact with a faculty member yet, start contacting them as soon as you can, and see if they have any research work that you could contribute to. Exposure to small research tasks may eventually lead to journal publications, and more importantly, may open up a new career path for you.