Eligibility
The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program (MMUF) at Washington University is for students interested in engaging in serious undergraduate research and possibly pursuing graduate work in the humanities and/or the social sciences.
Applicants must be current sophomores who are African American, Latino American, Native American, or who show a demonstrated commitment to increasing cross-cultural and ethnic understanding. Applicants must be American citizens or permanent residents and majoring in the social sciences and/or humanities. Eligible fields include, but are not limited to, physics, English, musicology, mathematics, and political theory. If you have any questions about the eligibility of your field, please contact Dean Mary Laurita at mlaurita@wustl.edu.
Apply
The 2010 Mellon Mays application is here! The deadline for application submissions is 5:00pm on Friday, February 12th 2010. 2010 Application
Life as a Fellow
Here’s what your time as a Mellon Fellow might look like:
Spring Sophomore Year – Weekly orientation seminar on Thursday afternoons, 4:00 – 6:00. Begin meeting regularly with mentor. Identify and articulate summer research goals.
Summer after Sophomore Year – Conduct independent research, staying in regular contact with mentor and Mellon program leaders.
Fall Junior Year – Begin the program! Attend weekly seminar meetings, learn about graduate school, and expand upon summer research. Workshop other Fellows’ research papers and refine your own.
Spring Junior Year – Host an invited Mellon speaker (to be chosen by the Fellows), write for and publish the Mellon newsletter. Workshop a longer research paper.
Summer after Junior Year – Conduct independent research. Stay in contact with mentor and Mellon program leaders. Possible field work and travel.
Fall Senior Year – Continue to attend weekly seminar meetings. Begin to craft your own argument about your subject. Workshop papers.
Spring Senior Year – Refine your argument and your research paper. Edit and ready your paper for publication in the Inquiry. Write for and publish the Mellon newsletter. Publish the Inquiry. Present your work to your colleagues and a panel of faculty evaluators. Congratulations!
When you become a Fellow, you join our Mellon Mays Family here on campus and nation-wide. As a family, we work together to support each other academically and otherwise. After graduating from Washington University, alumni continue to support our program by returning to visit and talk with current Fellows, mentoring current Fellows, and updating the national Mellon Foundation yearly by completing the online survey.
"It's amazing what a push in the right direction can do. My advisers in the College of Arts & Sciences have helped me take what I'm interested in and turn that into something worthwhile that I can pursue."
