SEAR Program Timeline and Application2024 Edition

Students interested in research opportunities through the SEAR (Second-Year Experience At Research) program in the summer of 2024 should follow the instructions below, and pay close attention to the dates, as the timeline is relatively short. There are two main elements of the application process (details below):

  • Students meet with a minimum of three faculty mentors to discuss research projects, and rank them in order of interest.
  • Students complete an application form as described below and consisting of two parts: 1) answers to four essay questions, identification of three references, confirmation of eligibility; and 2) ranking of projects. Unofficial transcripts will be requested from the registrar's office on your behalf once your application has been submitted. 

Student Eligibility

All Gustavus students who are currently in the second year in residence, and expect to continue their enrollment at Gustavus in the fall of 2024, are eligible for the SEAR Program. There may be pre-requisite courses required for specific SEAR projects. 

Application Timeline

  • January 26 - Project opportunity review opens; students begin discussing projects with faculty mentors
  • Friday, March 1 - Student applications due at 12 PM
  • March 22 or shortly later - Notification of applicant status begins

Application Process

  1. Visit the list of SEAR project opportunities for the 2024 program. Browse all of the projects and see which ones are interesting to you.
  2.  You are asked to discuss potential projects with at least three different faculty mentors, obtain their signatures, and rank the projects in order of your interest in the opportunity. To help you prepare for the discussions, you can find short videos from the faculty found in this folder. You should be prepared to ask the faculty members questions about the projects and the logistics of working on the projects for the discussion. 
  3. Complete this form (Eligibility, Courses, References, and Narrative Responses) by 12 PM on March 1st. This is a web form, and you should ultimately submit your responses through this form. However, you can view all of the questions before submitting in this 2024 Application. We recommend you use the pdf version to prepare answers offline prior to submitting the application. You can refer to this document to help you determine whether to answer the optional essay question - please consider that everyone is unique in some way and you likely have something to respond to this question.