FAQs

LASURI is open to any undergraduate, degree-seeking student whose major field of study is in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.  We encourage students majoring in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and interdisciplinary programs in LAS to apply for the award.

We encourage you to continue your research partnership over several semesters. However, to serve the largest number of students as possible, LASURI funds are limited to two semesters.

Students who have already received a two-semester LASURI award are urged to apply for other scholarships or register for course credit instead. Those who have received one semester may reapply for one additional semester.

The purpose of LASURI is to facilitate productive research partnerships between professors and undergraduates. Mentors and LASURI research assistants work together on projects they have agreed are sound and feasible for the student. This may include brand new projects or an integration of the LASURI research assistant into a faculty member’s on-going project.  The fundamental requirement is that all project team members meet the basic program expectations of active mentorship, research activity, a public research presentation, and a final summary.

Mentors from all colleges are welcome, though preference may be given to faculty with a LAS affiliation. Faculty mentors may include individuals with tenure-line, clinical, emeritus, or research appointments. Advanced graduate students and teaching assistants are not eligible to formally serve as faculty mentors.

If a faculty member has already agreed to serve as mentor for your project, great! Once you enter their contact information in the LASURI student application, the faculty member will receive an email prompting them to complete the mentor portion of the application. Be sure to give them plenty of time before the application deadline to do this; you’ll be able to see in SnAP when the mentor’s portion has been submitted.

Full-time enrollment is required to receive LASURI funding. However, if you will be a full-time student during one semester next year, you can apply for only that semester. Most projects approved for LASURI funding carry over two semesters, but the committee will entertain proposals for single-semester projects. Be sure to discuss this with your faculty mentor so you can design a project feasible for this time frame.

If you originally apply for and receive two semesters of funding and later find out that you won’t be available for the full year, let us know right away. You’re able to receive funding only for the semester in which you are on campus, enrolled full-time, and participating in LASURI.

If they are willing to mentor more than one student, they may support more than one application. However, they will be asked to prioritize the applications and preference may given to their highest-ranked applicant(s).

Log in to snap.uic.edu, go to the Opportunities tab, select “Ours,” and search for “LASURI.”

Yes, new SnAP users will need to answer the general questions before you can apply for a specific opportunity. However, the LASURI review committee does not focus on the general portion of the application.

To be considered for LASURI during the 2020-2021 academic year, both the student and faculty parts of the application must be submitted by March 13, 2019 at 11:59 pm. SnAP will let you monitor which parts have been received, so you can follow up with your faculty mentor, if needed.

You will need to enter the prospective faculty mentor’s UIC email address in the application itself, and SnAP will send them a message asking them to complete a few questions about you and your application. To give them plenty of time to respond to those questions, we recommend you save their contact information early; they should receive the email right away, even if you’re still working on the application.

Potentially. If you and your faculty mentor agree that it would be appropriate and if you are on the same page with regard to expectations and assessments, LASURI has no objection to you enrolling in relevant independent study credit. Talk to your academic advisor if you have questions about the limitations on the amount of independent study credit that can count toward your degree requirements.

Yes, but talk to your faculty mentor about what’s required. If you’re contributing to their larger project, it may fall under the approval they’ve already received.

The selection committee identifies and ranks alternates to be funded if another participant withdraws from LASURI.  There is no guarantee that an alternate will be offered funding, but it remains a possibility, and being named an alternate should be seen as an acknowledgement of the research proposal’s strength.

On occasion, the committee will decide to offer one semester of funding to certain projects in an effort to allow more students to participate. If you accept the semester of funding, be sure to work with your faculty mentor to adapt your project to the new time frame. If you have time left in your undergraduate career, you can reapply for one additional semester of funding in a future academic year.

It’s possible, yes. The Financial Aid office evaluates it as part of your available funding, and that may impact the amount you ultimately receive from LASURI or another source. We provide award information to Financial Aid so that LASURI may be factored into award letters distributed during the summer. We encourage you to check the aid letter you received for details, and speak with the Office of Financial Aid if you have questions about how this may impact you.

Each semester’s award will be disbursed after the term’s add/drop deadline so that full-time enrollment can be verified. Payment is also contingent on satisfactory progress, as determined by the faculty mentor. Keep in mind that LASURI funds may be factored into your financial aid package; check the aid letter you received for details, and speak with the Office of Financial Aid if you have questions about how this may impact you.

Payments are distributed on a semesterly basis, so you’d see a max of $1,250. Remember that your aid package can be impacted by this award or vice versa. Check with your Financial Aid Counselor if you have questions about how that will play out for you.

Faculty mentors may have clinical, emeritus, or research associate appointments. Although mentors from all colleges are welcome, preference may be given to faculty with a LAS affiliation.

Advanced graduate students are not eligible to formally serve as faculty mentors.

No, but you are welcome to do so in order to attract qualified students for your project. You may also reach out to individual students on your own or vice versa.

Any expenses related to the research project are acceptable. This includes: laboratory reagents, equipment, study participant compensation, student conference travel funds, books, etc. Contact us if you have questions about a specific purchase, and ask your departmental administrator about how to procure items using university funds. As always, materials purchased with LASURI funds remain university property.

Research expense funds will be released to faculty research accounts around the third week of your mentee’s first semester of participation in LASURI. In cases where the mentor does not have an individual research fund, it will be disbursed to departmental accounts.

The total research expense support provided will be disbursed via this single, lump-sum transfer.  Non-LAS faculty will need to provide account information for their home department in order to receive the funds. Please be in touch with your department’s business manager if you have questions about accessing the funds.

If you are willing to mentor more than one student, you may support more than one application. However, you will be asked to rank these applications and priority may be given to the student(s) you have ranked highest. In general, no more than two student applicants will be approved per faculty mentor.

The selection committee identifies and ranks alternates to be funded if another participant withdraws from LASURI.  There is no guarantee that an alternate will be offered funding, but it remains a possibility, and being named an alternate should be seen as an acknowledgement of the research proposal’s strength.

On occasion, the committee will decide to offer one semester of funding to certain projects in an effort to allow more students to participate. If the student decides to move forward with a single semester of funding, they should work with the faculty mentor to adapt the project to the new time frame.