Undergraduate Research
Undergraduate Research
What makes Wooster America’s premier liberal arts college for mentored undergraduate research?
You can start early: Students take advantage of opportunities to work with faculty on research projects as early as the second semester of their first year.
Opportunities abound: The Sophomore Research Program offers a chance for students to work as paid research assistants to Wooster faculty, while summer research options include the Applied Mathematics Research Experience (AMRE) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Summer Research Scholars program.
Everyone participates: Each Wooster senior works one-on-one with a faculty mentor to conceive, organize, and complete a significant piece of original research, scholarship, or creative expression. This Independent Study project, known to generations of alumni simply as I.S., is the centerpiece of Wooster’s commitment to mentored undergraduate research.
Develop the skills employers and grad schools seek: Participating in mentored undergraduate research helps Wooster students develop independent judgment, creativity, project-management and time-management skills, self-confidence, and strong written and oral communication skills: precisely the abilities prized by employers and graduate schools alike.
The results speak for themselves: Six months after graduation, more than 90 percent of Wooster graduates are employed or in graduate school. Wooster ranks 29th overall among liberal arts colleges for graduates who go on to earn a Ph.D., sixth in chemistry, ninth in the physical sciences, 15th in political science and public administration, and 18th in history.
Don't just take our word for it
For the past ten years, U.S. News & World Report has asked college presidents and deans from over 1,300 schools to nominate institutions with outstanding undergraduate research opportunities and stellar senior capstone projects, in which students are asked to integrate and synthesize all they have learned in one piece of scholarly work.
Only two schools have been named to both lists all ten years: Princeton University and The College of Wooster.