The RUSP program is designed for juniors or seniors from any department who are considering graduate school and academic careers. Undergraduates accepted into the program "act" as graduate students for an academic year, with a faculty member selected by the student who serves as mentor and meets regularly with the student. During the first semester (3 credits), students write a funding proposal, prepare oral and written progress reports, begin their research, and learn about various aspects of academia through presentations. In the second semester, (variable, 1-6 credits), students focus on their research/writing and present their results orally and in the form of a scholarly manuscript. Some students attend a professional conference and present a paper. Individual support ranges from $250-$1,700 per year for research work.
Students who participate in RUSP find the experience much more rewarding than they thought. Here are two unsolicited evaluation from former RUSP students.
"Four years ago I was a student in RUSP at Rice. How time flies... I am now a 2nd year molecular biology graduate student at UCSF. I have really been through a lot these past years starting graduate school, but I have really come to realize how much RUSP has influenced and impacted my scientific career. Most noticably, I am now comfortable giving presentations for lab meetings and journal clubs that go on in a lab. I have received numerous positive comments about my presentation skills from fellow grad students and my advisor. I feel that I have an advantage over my classmates because I have taken RUSP. The class helped me to understand what made a good presentation, what made a bad presentation and why. These skills have proven to be invaluable and have helped the first years of graduate school a little easier in the way that I already feel confident in my presentation abilities. Thank you again for the opportunity and I hope that the class will continue to impact students for many years in the future."
"I am doing pretty well here. The first semester has just ended and I am getting quite used to the medical school routine and learning the nuts-and-bolts of the human body. So far, I really love it! Soon, I will be deciding on an advisor for my summer research rotation and I am currently in the process of talking to different imaging faculty. While in that process actually, I am ending up using extensively some of the skills that I learned through RUSP last year. In fact, those skills are putting me way ahead of many other students when it is coming to talking to faculty that regularly end up filing patents and such with some of their projects given the talk that we had on intellectual property and patents last year. Many faculty sem to also be very impressed with how much I know about the editorial process and the funding and grants situation at the NIH when I talk to them. Of course, all of that is a result of the RUSP talks that we had. I am definitely very grateful for having been a part of RUSP last year!"
Don H. Johnson, Professor of Electrical
& Computer Engineering (dhj@rice.edu)
Lora Wildenthal, Associate
Professor of History (wildenth@rice.edu)
Linda Cooper (lcooper@rice.edu)
January 9, 2008