The 4EC REU will consist of cohorts of nine students in summer 2025, 2026, and 2027. Each cohort will include students from our partner institutions -- Sacramento City College, California State University Fullerton, and California State University Sacramento -- and students from other institutions across the US.
Eligibility
Because of federal funding requirements, participants in the 4EC REU must be US citizens, US nationals, or permanent residents of the US.
4EC scholars must be community college students or students at 4-year institutions who are sophomores, juniors, or seniors with at least one term of study to complete after the REU (i.e., 4th year seniors on the 5-year plan). Community college students must complete at least one course in general biology prior to the start of the REU. Students at 4-year institutions must complete general biology and at least one course in ecology, evolution, animal behavior, or environmental science prior to the start of the REU.
We welcome applications from students from groups historically excluded from academic research in ecology and evolutionary biology and non-traditional students. We especially welcome students who attend institutions with limited research opportunities.
Review of applications
In the 4EC REU, we evaluate applicants using holistic review, which is an evidence-based approach to identify people who are likely to be successful in ecology research, regardless of what research opportunities may have been available to them prior to their application.
As you consider options for research in your application, keep in mind that the 4EC REU offers you a unique opportunity to acquire skills that might otherwise not be available to you and to explore the boundaries of your curiosity in ecology and evolutionary biology.
Scientific curiosity transcends subdisciplines and skills are transferrable between study systems and research questions. The research that you do in an REU (or as a senior thesis, or as a graduate student, or…) does not lock you into that line of inquiry for the rest of your career.
How to apply
Applications open on 1 December, with application review beginning on 15 February.
To apply, please go to https://etap.nsf.gov and search for the Ecology, Evolution, Equity, and Environmental Change REU at UC Davis.
An application to the 4EC REU consists of the following.
A registration form required by NSF. This is something that you prepare once at etap.nsf.gov, and that is sent to every REU to which you apply.
Please note: the registration form asks that you enter your SAT or ACT scores. We will not use these to screen candidates for the 4EC REU.
Responses to a series of questions specific to the 4EC REU.
The first three are sets of checkboxes where you provide information about your research interests or mentoring styles. To prepare, please peruse some of the possible projects at https://ecoevoreu.ucdavis.edu/research or browse faculty web pages.
The next three are essays that use the prompts below. Please use a word processor to prepare these, noting the page limits, save as .pdf files using the filenames indicated, and upload to the ETAP site.
a. Please describe a previous research experience. In your response, please include the name of the institution where you did the research and the name of the faculty member who oversaw the project. What research question did you address and what was your role in the research? (if you have no prior research experience, please answer this question using an experiment or project from a class, and include the title of the course). Please use no more than half a single-spaced page and use the filename LastNameFirstName_experience.pdf.
b. The purpose of this essay is to learn something about your academic interests. Please describe your academic and career goals and how the 4EC REU program will help you achieve those goals. Use no more than half a single-spaced page and use the filename LastNameFirstName_interests.pdf
c. The purpose of this essay is to get to know you as an individual and potential scholar in our REU. Please tell us about how your life experiences, including any challenges that you faced, brought you to apply for the 4EC REU. As part of this response, please describe how your perspectives, activities, or goals have or may contribute to inclusivity and/or broaden your understanding of experiences of diverse groups of people. Please use no more than a page and use the filename LastNameFirstName_personal.pdf.
- Finally, we ask you to provide the names, affiliations, and email addresses of two references. At least one must be a faculty member at a community college, college, or university.
If you encounter difficulty, please email Carole Hom, clhom@ucdavis.edu, with "help 4EC application" in the subject line. Please note: if you navigate to the ETAP site and search for 4EC right now, you won't find much because the application hasn't yet been opened. But you can start the registration process described in [1] and draft your essays.