REU Application

WHO Should Apply?

To apply to the GEO REU, students must be:

• US citizens or permanent residents of the US or its possessions.
• Undergraduates currently enrolled in a degree program and not graduated by the first day of the program.
• 18 years of age before the first day of the program.
• Students who are under-represented minorities, first generation college students, or from small colleges are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Students who are interested in pursuing a PhD in Evolution or Ecology.
• This program is not for students interested in pursuing a professional degree in any field of medicine or veterinary science.

HOW to Apply

Applications for the 2025 GEO program will be accepted through the NSF ETAP platform.

Application deadline: February 1, 2025
Dates for Summer 2025: June 2 to August 8, 2025

For more information, please email sroh@fas.harvard.edu or view the Summer Research Opportunities at Harvard program website.

What makes a strong application for the GEO REU Program?

There are several key components of your application, all of which will be submitted through the ETAP website. They include: a Personal Statement, a CV/Resume, copies of your Transcripts, and TWO letters of reference.

First, it is important to emphasize again that our program is directed at supporting undergraduates who have limited research opportunities at their home institutions who are interested in ultimately pursuing PhD degrees in evolution or ecology. We are unlikely to accept applicants who are interested in getting medical, veterinary, or dental degrees. Moreover, this program is not likely to be useful in helping you prepare for these programs.

Second, we typically receive several hundred applications for our eight intern slots. We focus our review process on applicants who are first generation students with a preference for undergraduate institutions that are not PhD-awarding (see our previous participants page).

OK, I fit all those criteria, what should I include in my Personal Statement?

In your personal statement, we would like to hear about:
1) What kinds of research experiences you have had before and how they have shaped your interests
2) Your long term career goals
3) What kinds of research being done in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology or Human Evolutionary Biology would be interesting to you.

Additional questions for discussion can be: What are the scientific questions that really excite you and how do these reflect a good fit for our program? What are your current strengths and what skills are you hoping to gain from the REU? How will that help you meet your goals? What is your motivation in pursuing this opportunity? Also, if you have weaknesses in your application, such as a less-than-spectacular GPA, feel free to point that out and provide some explanation (to the degree to which you feel comfortable).

What about my Letters of Recommendation? Who should I ask? What should they talk about? First, as to who you should ask, we are most interested in hearing from individuals who really know you and, ideally, have worked with you closely.

The perfect letter writer is someone who has mentored you in a research experience. That being said, you may not have had two research mentors you can ask for letters. After all, our program is for students who have not had as many opportunities as they might have wanted. Other good letter writers include professors who have had you in smaller or hands-on lab classes. Ideally, these professors will know you fairly well and can provide more information than simply what course you took and what grade you received. It is also fine to get a letter from someone who has directly supervised you in other long-term work experiences. For instance, we would rather see a letter from someone who directly oversaw your work at a landscaping company you’ve been working for during summers since high school than a professor who had you in a 200 person class and can only tell us what grade you received. We already have your transcript!

Second, how do you get strong letters? You should start by asking your prospective letter writers if they feel like they know you well enough to write a strong letter.

You should provide them with an updated copy of your CV and your personal statement so that they can write a fully informed letter. Importantly, if you want a good letter, you need to give them sufficient time, which means asking them at least a month before the letter is due. Especially if they have never written a letter for you before! Given our due date on Feb. 1, it would be best to request your letters before the holiday break. Obviously, if you have just discovered this opportunity in mid-January, you can’t do that but the first thing you should do is ask for your letters!

To give your letter writers a starting point, you can also share this prompt: (Note: Feel free to Copy-Paste!)

Thank you for writing a letter of recommendation for an applicant to the GEO REU program. We greatly appreciate your time and contribution to our goal of assembling a dynamic and engaged group of interns. In your letter, we would appreciate it if you could address the following points:
- In what capacity and how long have you known the applicant?
- Have you mentored them in a research experience and, if so, what do you think their strengths and weaknesses are as a researcher? If you haven’t mentored them in research, please provide an evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses in the context of your experience with them.

- We are particularly interested in hearing about their ability to work as part of a team as well as independently, their problem-solving skills, their confidence level, their written and oral communication skills, their personal resilience, and their commitment to pursuing a career in research science.

-Lastly, we would appreciate hearing how you think this program would benefit their career goals and be a good fit for their interests.

Harvard University Contact:

REU Program Genes, Ecosystems, Organisms (GEO)
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
26 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02461
Email: sroh@fas.harvard.edu
Program Director: Dr. Elena Kramer