Although graduate-level research grants may seem more common at UW-Madison, undergraduate opportunities do exist and are more accessible than some may believe.
Seniors in the College of Letters and Science Honors Program are able to apply for Senior Thesis Grants. Twelve to 15 students yearly are given a $2,000 stipend for their work and roughly $700 for expenses, according to Jeffrey Shokler, associate director of the L&S Honors Program.
Applicants are selected based on their proposals. A well-defined research question, a showing of practical methodology and a background demonstrating the applicant's ability to complete the thesis are all heavily considered, according to Shokler.
The idea behind those is to enable students to focus on their senior thesis research over the summer,\ Shokler said. ""They can really do a remarkable honors senior thesis experience; they could do fieldwork, travel, further research, things like that.""
Sophomores who wish to pursue research and garner compensation for it can apply for an Honors Sophomore Apprenticeship Research Grant through L&S.
""The Sophomore Apprenticeship program is a grant that we provide for students for an introductory research experience,"" Shokler said.
The grant provides a $1,500 stipend to apprentice with a faculty member on that faculty member's research.
Interested students must first contact faculty members in their desired fields and conjunctively create and submit proposals, efforts that can be time consuming, according to UW-Madison junior Sonya Geiger, a sociology major who applied for the apprenticeship in spring 2005.
""I compiled a list of potential faculty members and wrote lots of e-mails,"" Geiger said. ""I met with those who got back with me. It took some time, perhaps a month or so.""
Geiger was one of approximately 40 accepted applicants.
""I coded newspaper articles to help a professor physically map the main actors and institutions in the Madison community and how they are connected,"" Geiger said of her research. ""I am still working with the same professor this year on the same project—he's also going to be my senior thesis advisor.""
However, not all students who participate choose to pursue further work in their apprenticeship area. UW-Madison sophomore Alex Leites received an apprenticeship last summer and chose not to continue his research, saying it gave him ""a certain appreciation of what research is like and how tedious it is.""
He said he found the program worthwhile, however.
""On one hand, some ideals that I had didn't come out to be true,"" Leites said. ""On the other hand, it's better to know that than to live with false ideas about what research is.""
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