The Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP) provides an opportunity for direct involvement in research and a taste of graduate student life at a world class university. Throughout its 25-year history, the mission of the SROP has been to increase diversity among students pursuing graduate education and to provide a valuable academic research experience for students. The program is eight weeks in length, from June 17 through August 11, 2012, and includes faculty-supervised research, enrichment activities that prepare students for the graduate school application process (i.e. GRE workshop and application workshop), and a research conference.

Each student selected to participate in the program will work with a faculty member in the student’s area of interest (click on the ‘current faculty mentors’ link above to view the research foci of SROP faculty mentors). Some faculty mentors have agreed to work with students to craft an independent research project based on the students interests, and the other mentors will have students contribute to an ongoing research project.

A conference for SROP participants and supervising faculty members from all the CIC institutions (the “Big Ten” universities plus The University of Chicago) will be held in July on the campus of The Ohio State University. This conference, provided at no cost to SROP participants, offers an opportunity for students and faculty from Northwestern to learn from and network with students and faculty from other universities.

It is expected that SROP participants will be prepared to make a full-time commitment to their research, work energetically on their projects, and develop a professional attitude toward their research, their faculty supervisors, their fellow researchers and the SROP administrators. During the eight-week period of the SROP, each participant is expected to work at least 30-40 hours per week on their project.

 Each student chosen to participate in the SROP will receive:

• a $4000 stipend
• a round-trip plane ticket (to Chicago)
• University housing (single rooms)
• a campus meal subsidy of $450 (not intended to cover all meals)