Provost's Undergraduate Research Scholarship

The Provost's Undergraduate Research Scholarship Program (PURS)

The Provost's Undergraduate Research Scholarship Program (PURS) provides talented UH juniors and seniors with the opportunity to participate in a research project under the direction of a UH faculty mentor.

Overview:

The Provost's Undergraduate Research Scholarship Program (PURS) provides talented UH juniors and seniors with the opportunity to enrich their undergraduate experience by participating in a research project under the direction of a UH faculty mentor. Scholarship recipients will receive a $1,000 scholarship to conduct one semester of research and engage in other scholarly activities with faculty members.
This scholarship is open to students of all disciplines, including those with research proposals in the social sciences, humanities, business, engineering, technology, education, architecture, hotel and restaurant management, and natural sciences. The online application is available at the bottom of this web page.

Who Is Eligible?

Any junior or senior who has either successfully completed at least 12 hours in residence at UH with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0 OR who has completed fewer than 12 hours in residence at UH but has a 3.5 cumulative GPA on all college-level course work taken at UH or elsewhere is eligible to apply. Current sophomores who will be a juniors in spring 2009 are eligible to apply for the scholarship. Applicants must have earned at least 60 credits by the beginning of the mentorship period and must enroll in and maintain a minimum of 12 hours in the semester of the award unless they are undergraduate students graduating that semester. Students who have participated in the PURS program at UH in a prior semester are ineligible to reapply.  Graduate students are also ineligible to apply.

Specifics:

How to secure a research opportunity for the PURS program:

Talk to current and past professors (during their office hours) from courses you have done well in and have enjoyed. Even if the professor is not currently seeking an undergraduate researcher, he or she may know of colleagues that are seeking research assistants within your discipline.

Consult an academic advisor from your department to inquire about faculty members currently conducting research in your discipline. Here is a listing of UH faculty members seeking undergraduate researchers to assist them in ongoing research projects. This list is not comprehensive. There are many other faculty members on campus conducting research. If you are interested in any of these positions, get in touch with the contact person to discuss the potential of working with them in a future semester for the PURS program.

Applications:

The online application will include:

1. A statement of research objectives and goals not to exceed 500 words,
2. Three short answer questions about your academic and research experience,
3. A letter of recommendation from the faculty sponsor including a description of how the proposed research relates to their on-going research.

An email version of the faculty letter should be submitted to Office of Undergraduate Research no later than November 20th. The letter should be emailed to Karen Weber.
The statement of research should:

• Be composed in consultation with the faculty sponsor
• Be written in your own words—not in your faculty sponsor's words
• Be written in first person
• Discuss the relative importance of the proposed research within its discipline
• State the specific tasks to be accomplished during the semester program
• Define the scope and goals of the proposed research
• Be checked for any spelling or syntax errors before being submitted

Competitive applications generally include:

• Demonstrations of strong student academic record
• Research proposals that are clear, thorough, within the 500-word limit, free of errors in spelling, grammar, and syntax, and in the student's own words
• Research proposals with clear, realistic goals that help the student focus and indicate that the project will lead to a substantive research experience for the student
• Descriptive and informative faculty letter of recommendation (1-2 pages in length), especially addressing the prospects for results in the project time frame, the value of the research project, and the ability of the student to undertake it

Please be aware this is a competitive program with finite funding, and the Office of Undergraduate Research receives many more strong proposals than they are able to fund. The staff of the Office of Undergraduate Research is unable to share specific information about the assessment of individual applications after the decisions have been made.
Students may not enroll in a course, such as a thesis course or an independent study, and receive a PURS scholarship at the same time and for the same research project.