Applications are open for the 2022 summer Psychology Research Experience Program (PREP) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Please feel free to share with students and faculty across your departments.
The Psychology Research Experience Program (PREP: https://psych.wisc.edu/nsf-reu-site-psychology-research-experience-program/) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison provides intensive mentoring and experience in scientific research and professional development to undergraduates from historically underrepresented populations — those from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, those from low-income backgrounds, those with disabilities, and first-generation college students — who have expressed and demonstrated an interest in a career in scientific psychology. Accepted students will be paired with either graduate or post-doctoral research mentors under the supervision of departmental faculty allowing the student to become integrated within their respective host labs. We also connect our incoming cohort with distanced mentorship by former PREP students through our growing network of scholars.
PREP features a balance of mentored laboratory research (approximately 30 hours/week) alongside faculty presentations, professional development, networking opportunities and what is most unique to our program, a curriculum of weekly Data Science Workshops. These Data Science Workshops are centered on scientific data processing and programming with past topics including Data Science in R and Python, Fitting and Evaluating Linear Models, Data Visualization, Cross Validation, Support Vector Machines, and Neural Networks (https://lucid.wisc.edu/dsworkshop/).
In addition to the opportunities presented by academic activities, students accepted into PREP receive a $5000 stipend along with the option for health insurance during the summer semester. Students will also be provided with furnished housing in an apartment building that accommodates the majority of the undergrads attending UW-Madison’s other summer research opportunity programs. In the event that Covid-19 continues to restrict on-campus activity, our success the last two years in hosting a virtual PREP summer (https://psych.wisc.edu/news/prep-program-adapts-to-virtual-format/) will serve as a template for a remote research experience.
Our 10-week summer program is currently set to run May 30 – August 5th, and the deadline for applications is February 15th.
PREP is funded by the National Science Foundation, sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and currently open to U.S. citizens, and permanent residents who have completed their freshman year of college but have not yet received an undergraduate degree from a four-year institution.
