Which Departments Most Often Nominate Students for the CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researchers Award?

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By Ran Libeskind-Hadas, Harvey Mudd College

The CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards recognize students at North American colleges and universities who have demonstrated excellent research potential. CRA bestows four awards each year, and a number of students are recognized as runners-up, finalists, and honorable mentions.

In addition to honoring exceptionally successful students, these awards identify some of the departments that are particularly effective at cultivating and promoting undergraduate research.

A total of 94 colleges and universities have nominated students during the last three years.

These nine schools have nominated students in each of the last three years:

  • Columbia University
  • Harvard University
  • Harvey Mudd College
  • Mount Holyoke College
  • Princeton University
  • Tufts University
  • University of California, Berkeley
  • University of Maryland, College Park
  • University of Washington

These 14 schools have nominated students in two of the last three years:

  • Arizona State University
  • Boston University
  • Cornell University
  • Dartmouth College
  • Haverford College
  • Northeastern University
  • Rutgers University
  • University of Alabama
  • University of British Columbia
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • University of Minnesota
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • University of Rochester
  • University of Virginia

One member of the selection committee remarked that “[I]t’s exciting to see excellent undergraduate research taking place at colleges and universities large and small, and it is gratifying to be able to recognize a substantial number of these students with awards, runners-up, finalists, and honorable mentions.”

We thank the many departments and faculty members who continue to do excellent work in mentoring undergraduate researchers. Please consider nominating students in the next competition, which will be announced in late summer 2018. The nomination deadlines are in late October.

CRA-E also has a separate award that recognizes faculty members for their outstanding mentoring of undergraduate researchers. The recipients of the 2018 CRA-E Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentoring Awards were recently announced here. Nominations will be due in late November.