Application Process

Two young female students with long dark hair and glasses stand holding papers and smiling at a career event.

The application process for LASURI takes place once a year during spring semester and applies to the following academic year.

Applications for the 2025-2026 academic year are due Wednesday, March 26, 2025.

The LASURI application can be found on snap.uic.edu. (If you do not see the application under your “Recommended” opportunities, go to the Opportunities tab, select “Ours,” and search for “LASURI.”)

Below, you will see a timeline and sample application questions. Knowing what the application expects of you will help you determine how to best frame your research project’s aim, scope, and methods with advice from your faculty mentor. Be sure to allow yourself plenty of time to learn about, contact, and meet with potential faculty mentors before the application due date.

You are encouraged to attend an information session in early spring to discuss the application process and learn more about what makes a successful application. A short presentation will be followed by an open period for questions, so feel free to stop by even if you cannot stay the whole time. Students are the primary intended audience, but prospective faculty mentors are also welcome to attend and ask questions. Information sessions for the 2025-26 application cycle will be held virtually on Thursdays at 12:30 PM. Please email lasuri@uic.edu for the link.

If you are unable to go to an in-person LASURI Information Session, you can view a recorded session here.

Academic advisors, departmental directors of undergraduate studies, and your course instructors are excellent sources of information about potential faculty mentors. Students have often chosen to work with a faculty member with whom they have completed a course and who inspired them to continue researching a topic of interest.

Students can also search the Undergraduate Research Experience website to find faculty mentors that match their interests. To learn more about faculty members’ research projects, browse their Research Profiles. Use the browse function at the top of the main page to narrow your search.

Remember that the faculty mentor will be expected to answer questions about the applicant and their proposed project as part of the application process.

Work with your faculty mentor to design a sound and feasible project for you to complete as an undergraduate research scholar. The application does require you to propose a specific project for your time in LASURI. The most competitive candidates will be those who can describe a clearly thought-out, executable topic, though the LASURI committee understands and expects that a project will evolve from the original proposal. For sample questions that you should be prepared to address, see below.

For your own sake, we encourage you to clarify your faculty mentor’s expectations of you. Your experience will be far more productive and enjoyable if you and your mentor both understand and agree to the parameters of the project before the work begins.

Students will need to provide some information about the project they have designed with their faculty mentor, including questions similar to those below. They will also be asked for the name and UIC email of their faculty mentor. The faculty mentor will receive an email with some questions regarding the applicant and their proposed project.

Both the student’s and faculty mentor’s questions must be submitted by Wednesday, March 26, 2025 at 11:59 pm to qualify for the 2025-2026 application cycle. The application can be found on SnAP starting early January.

Note: It is the student’s responsibility to ask your mentor to complete their part of the application in a timely fashion (and to follow up if needed)! The SnAP system will allow students to see whether or not the faculty mentor has submitted their answers to the follow-up questions.

Timeline for 2023-2024 LASURI Cycle

Application available Wednesday, January 1, 2025
Application due Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Awards announced late April 2025
Award period begins Monday, August 25, 2025
Annual kickoff reception late August 2025
Final abstracts due for Fall LASURI Scholars Friday, December 12, 2025
UIC Undergraduate Research Forum April 2026
Final abstract due for Fall/Spring LASURI Scholars Friday, May 8, 2026

Application Questions

Both the student’s and faculty mentor’s questions must be submitted by Wednesday, March 20, 2024 at 11:59 pm. The application can be found on SnAP starting in early January.

Student Questions

 

General Background

  1. What discipline most closely aligns with your research project: Humanities, Natural Science, Social Science, or Interdisciplinary?
  2. Please describe any coursework, experiences, or skills to help you complete your project.

Project Description

  1. What is the title of your research project?
  2. What is your primary research question, hypothesis, or activity (annotated bibliography, archival work, etc.)?
  3. Explain why your research question or activity is significant from a scholarly or policy perspective. For example, does your project explore, analyze, or test a new, uncontested, or contested theory? Does it add to or challenge present scholarship? Does it examine a question or topic that has not been answered or merits further study?
  4. Based on the current research or literature on your topic, identify one example of a scholarly work (article, book, or recorded lecture) that is meaningful and describe/explain its significance for your project.
  5. What research method or approach (STEM experiment, quantitative, qualitative, mixed) do you plan to use to answer your research question, test your hypothesis, or meet the goals of your activity? Please explain your process.
  6. When considering your post-graduation plans, explain how a LASURI experience will help you achieve your educational or professional goals.

Project Logistics

  1. Will your project run for one or two semesters? If your project runs for two semesters, briefly describe the research steps you plan to complete each semester.
  2. If you presently work on your proposed project as a research assistant, please describe how receiving a LASURI scholarship will allow you to continue or expand on your research.

Identify your Faculty Mentor

  1.  Provide the name of the faculty member who has agreed to serve as mentor for your project.
  2. Explain why you are interested in working with this faculty mentor and/or why they are the best person to support your project.
Faculty Questions

 

  1. How closely did the student work with you on developing the proposed research project? Very closely, fairly closely, minimally, not at all.
  2. How strongly do you support this application? Very strongly, strongly, moderately, weakly, not at all.
  3. Will you able to work closely with and mentor the student during the proposed duration of the LASURI scholarship? Or will the student mostly with other parties (TAs, GAs, Fellows)? Or both? Please explain.
  4. Please describe why the student’s project merits a LASURI scholarship.
  5. Please explain why you would like to work with the student.
  6. Please explain if the student’s proposal describes an original independent project. Or, otherwise, how the project contributes to your existing research or laboratory project.
  7. If you are sponsoring more than one LASURI application, please IDENTIFY AND RANK the students you are willing to mentor.
  8. LASURI awards selected faculty mentors a one-time $500 stipend to assist with students’ project costs. Please provide a CFOAP account number where the funds may be transferred.