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Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships

Deadline for Summer 2024 Applications is April 2, 2024.

Questions? Contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies

The Cognitive Science Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships are aimed at providing an important and meaningful research experience to undergraduates in Cognitive Science and its allied disciplines. The allied disciplines within Cognitive Science at Northwestern are Anthropology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Computer Science, Learning Sciences, Learning and Organizational Change, Linguistics, Music Cognition, Philosophy, and Psychology.

These summer fellowships provide an opportunity for sustained full-time involvement with faculty-sponsored research. Students will propose a specific research project to be supervised by a Northwestern faculty member.  Fellows typically work as part of a research team, and will have an opportunity to see how Cognitive Science research is done in specific contexts. Please visit our Research Opportunities page for a list of Cognitive Science labs that have welcomed undergraduate researchers in the past, and our Affiliated Faculty page for a list of all Northwestern faculty affiliated with the Cognitive Science program.

 

Who May Apply:  Northwestern Cognitive Science majors and minors. The fellowship program may also consider applications from students majoring in related disciplines who wish to pursue research in Cognitive Science.

How to Apply: 

Students should compile an application that contains a research proposal and a personal statement.  They should also secure a letter of recommendation from their faculty sponsor. 

Research Proposal. The applicant should propose a specific project together with an individual faculty advisor. The research proposal should be no more than two pages.  It should include a research question, a short discussion briefly connecting this question to previous research, a proposed method, and discussion of the potential implications of this study.

Personal Statement. The application should also include a brief one page personal statement about the student's Cognitive Science interests and current career plan beyond undergraduate study.

Letter of Recommendation. The student’s faculty advisor should write a brief (one page or less) letter endorsing the student’s proposed project and confirming their willingness to serve as the student’s faculty supervisor during the summer research period.

Applications and letters of recommendation should be emailed to the Director of Undergraduate Studies at cogsci@northwestern.edu.  Please include “Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship” in the subject line.

Fellowships will be awarded on a competitive basis. Each fellow will receive a $4,000 stipend to cover living expenses* for eight weeks of full-time research on an independent research project, under faculty supervision. Students and faculty can arrange their research schedules to fit their project. Students awarded the Cognitive Science Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship may not also receive a NU Summer Undergraduate Research Grant for the same project. Students will have an opportunity to present their research to the Cognitive Science Community. 

*Note that the Office of Undergraduate Research does not provide summer housing. If staying in Evanston, many students leverage resources from  Off-Campus Living to identify summer sublets.