Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program

The MSU Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program is specifically designed to provide talented undergraduate students with the opportunity to work as a junior colleague with a faculty scholar/mentor on a research project, where research is broadly defined as the scholarly and creative work associated with an academic discipline.  

The program is open to all full-time undergraduate students who meet one or more of the following criteria: 1) ACT Comp of 24 or higher; 2) overall cumulative and within major GPA of 3.00 or higher; and/or 3) other evidence of research/scholarship potential. Faculty mentors must provide evidence of an active research/creative productions program (e.g., publications, grants, exhibitions, performances, etc.).  Students may work up to 15 hours per week during the academic year (starting at $7.50/hour), and the fellowship is renewable for up to 4 years with satisfactory progress.

Since 2005 - 2006, 719 students have participated in the program supported primarily with institutional funds along with some external grant funding. Preliminary data indicate that over 90% of the UG Fellows have presented their work at local (e.g., Celebration of Student Scholarship), state, regional, and/or national professional meetings.  Overall, UG fellows have averaged approximately 1.5 dissemination products (e.g., presentations, publications, performances, exhibits, etc) per fellow per year (see 2010-11 and 2011-12 Annual Reports).

Consistent with national data, UG Fellows noted in a recent survey several major strengths of the program included: 1) Improves and updates knowledge of the discipline; 2) enhances life-long learning skills; 3) Provides a “heads-up” for graduate school; 4) increases self-confidence  and academic recognition. Similarly, faculty mentors surveyed agreed with the student responses and also indicated that the UG program: 1) Enhances faculty-student social and academic interactions; 2) creates an atmosphere of student as colleague; and 3) demonstrates university support for academic scholarship.

The application for the Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program is available here.

For more information, interested students should contact their advisor, department chair, Dean, or Dr. Michael C. Henson, Associate Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School at 606.783.9080. For examples of the types of projects funded, see the 2010-2011 Annual Report or the  Celebration of Student Scholarship Program Abstracts .