Visiting Undergraduate Research

The Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University, Bloomington invites upper-level undergraduate students and students who are graduating from college to apply to the Cognitive Science Visiting Undergraduate Program.

The program is designed to give students interested in Cognitive Science an opportunity to design and conduct their own research while working closely with a faculty mentor, at the top Cognitive Science Program in the country, for a full academic year.

Students selected for the program may enroll in up to 17 credits per semester, but will be expected to devote a minimum of 6 credit hours per semester to research approved by the Cognitive Science Program. Students will also have the option to enroll in our outstanding undergraduate courses. The Cognitive Science Undergraduate Program stresses skills acquisition, and aims to foster the abilities that make students into scientists.

• Improve your chances of being accepted to a top graduate program
• Build your CV with invaluable lab research experience not available at your home institution
• Design your own research projects
• Work closely with a faculty mentor
• Participate in symposia and colloquia with IU's distinguished and highly accomplished Cognitive Science faculty
• Learn how to prepare and submit research for publication

• Have junior or senior class standing (in exceptional cases, fellowships may be awarded to students with sophomore standing, but such applications are not encouraged).
• A minimum GPA of 3.3
• A background in computer science, mathematics, neuroscience, philosophy, or psychology, or some combination thereof.

Students who are accepted to the program will receive an out-of-state tuition waiver. Students will be responsible for the cost of in-state tuition and fees (approximately $8,000 for the year) and the cost of room and board.

To apply, students must submit an application form and materials checklist. In addition students must submit a 1-2 page personal statement describing the research they would like to pursue; identifying, if possible, the IU faculty member(s) with whom they would like to do this research; CV; Official Transcript; SAT or GRE scores and three letters of recommendation.

Students who are invited to participate will receive an application for admission to Indiana University. The application must be completed and returned to the Office of Admissions. Visiting Undergraduate Research Fellows must be accepted to Indiana University in order to participate in the program.

Students accepted to the program will be classified as transfer students for the year that they are in residence at IU. The accepted student's course schedule must be approved (prior to course registration) by the student's Cognitive Science faculty mentor and the Cognitive Science Undergraduate Academic Advisor (cogsadv@indiana.edu ). The above information should be submitted to:

"The Visiting Undergraduate Research Fellowship was a great experience. I met with my advisor several times a week, participated in several empirical projects, and viewed numerous lectures by top cognitive scientists from IU, including Nobel Prize-winner Elinor Ostrom, and other universities across the country.

I took several very interesting courses but the bulk of my time was devoted to research with my advisor, Dr. Jonathan Weinberg, and members of his Experimental Epistemology Lab. Throughout the fellowship, I was involved in four research projects investigating the use of heuristics in philosophical intuitions, contrastivist theories of knowledge, the effects of presentation and emotionality in free will thought experiments, and the psychological mechanisms behind free will intuitions. My involvement spanned the entire spectrum of research from data collection to project development and revision.

This experience was invaluable to my education. I will be applying to graduate programs in Philosophy and Cognitive Science this fall, and ultimately, I hope to gain employment at a large, research-oriented university like IU. This fellowship prepared me for both. As mentioned, I worked primarily with Dr. Weinberg and his graduate advisees, and even spent a weekend with them at the Mid-South philosophy conference in Memphis; operating with them forced me to (or at least try to) perform like a graduate student. Through these interactions I experienced first-hand how to conduct cutting-edge research projects meant for professional publication, not an undergraduate course requirement. In addition to the subject-specific knowledge I gained in philosophy and cognitive science, through the fellowship I learned an incredible amount about the graduate school application process, graduate school itself, and the dynamics of the professions of cognitive science and philosophy- information about gaining employment after graduate school, gaining tenure, presenting at conferences, the publication process, etc. I took classes and conducted research not available at my home institution, and one of the projects will even be submitted for publication in a professional academic journal. The Cognitive Science community provided countless opportunities to learn through various colloquia, lectures, and workshops. Every serious cognitive science undergraduate should consider this fellowship."

Shane Reuter, 2009-2010