Barry Goldwater Scholarship

Eligible students must:

1. Be a sophomore or junior at the time of application and a full-time student during the academic terms when receiving the scholarship.
2. Intend to pursue a research career in a STEM field (see "Qualifying Fields of Study", includes non-social/behavioral psychology fields).
3. Have a GPA of at least a 3.0 (3.15 and above is considered most competitive).
4. Be a U.S. citizen or national OR a permanent resident. Permanent residents must submit a photocopy of their Permanent Resident Card ("Green Card") as part of the application process.

Students of any undergraduate major are welcome to apply; however, eligible students must intend to ultimately pursue a research career in one of the following fields:

Chemistry
Artificial Intelligence; Chemical Catalysis; Chemical Measurement and Imaging; Chemical Structure, Dynamics, and Mechanism; Chemical Synthesis; Chemical Theory, Models and Computational Methods; Chemistry of Life Processes; Computationally Intensive Research; Environmental Chemical Systems; Macromolecular (including Polymer Chemistry), Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry; Quantum Information Science; Sustainable Chemistry; Other (specify)

Computer & Information Sciences & Engineering
Accessibility; Algorithms and Theoretical Foundations; Artificial Intelligence; Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality, Graphics, and Visualization; Bioinformatics and Bio-inspired Computing; Communication and Information Theory; Computationally Intensive Research; Computer Architecture; Computer Security and Privacy; Computer Systems; Computer Vision; Cyber-Physical Systems and Embedded Systems; Cybersecurity; Data Science, Data Mining, Information Retrieval and Databases; Electronic Design Automation and Design of Micro and Nano Computing Systems; Fairness, Explainability, Accountability and Transparency in Analytics; Formal Methods, Verification, and Programming Languages; Human Computer Interaction; Information Sciences; Machine Learning; Natural Language Processing; Parallel, Distributed, and Cloud Computing; Quantum Information Science; Robotics; Scientific Computing; Social Computing; Software Engineering; Wired and Wireless Networking; Other (specify)

Engineering
Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering; Agricultural Engineering; Artificial Intelligence; Bioengineering; Biomedical Engineering; Chemical Engineering; Civil Engineering; Computationally Intensive Research; Computer Engineering (including Networking); Cybersecurity; Data Science; Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Energy and Power Engineering; Environmental and/or Ecological Engineering; Industrial Engineering & Operations Research; Machine Learning; Manufacturing Engineering; Materials Science & Engineering (including Polymers, Ceramics, Semiconductors); Mechanical Engineering; Microwave Electromagnetics Engineering; Nuclear Engineering; Ocean Maritime Engineering; Optical Engineering; Quantum Engineering; Quantum Information Engineering; Quantum Information Science; Robotics, Control, Automation; Systems Engineering; Wireless Engineering; Other (specify)

Geosciences
Aeronomy; Artificial Intelligence; Arctic-Antarctic; Atmospheric Chemistry; Biogeochemistry; Biological Oceanography; Chemical Oceanography; Climate and Large-Scale Atmospheric Dynamics; Coastal Marine Science; Coastal Studies; Computationally Intensive Research; Earth System Science; Environmental Science; Geobiology; Geochemistry; Geochronology; Geodynamics; Geoinformatics; Geology; Geomorphology; Geophysics; Glaciology; Heliospheric Physics; Hydrology; Magnetospheric Physics; Marine Biology; Marine Ecology; Marine Geology and Geophysics; Ocean Technology (ROVs, AUVs, sensors); Paleoclimate; Paleontology and Paleobiology; Petrology; Physical and Dynamic Meteorology; Physical Oceanography; Quantum Information Science; Remote Sensing; Sea Ice; Sedimentary Geology; Solar Physics; Tectonics; Volcanology; Other (specify)

Life Sciences
Artificial Intelligence; Biochemistry; Bioinformatics and Computational Biology; Biophysics; Cell Biology; Computationally Intensive Research; Developmental Biology; Ecology; Environmental Biology; Evolutionary Biology; Genomics; Microbial Biology; Neurosciences; Organismal Biology; Physiology; Proteomics; Quantum Information Science; Structural Biology; Systematics and Biodiversity; Systems and Molecular Biology; Other (specify)

Materials Research
Artificial Intelligence; Biomaterials; Ceramics; Chemistry of Materials; Computationally Intensive Research; Electronic Materials; Materials Theory; Metallic Materials; Photonic Materials; Physics of Materials; Polymers; Quantum Information Science; Other (specify)

Mathematical Sciences
Algebra, Number Theory, and Combinatorics; Analysis; Applied Mathematics; Artificial Intelligence; Biostatistics; Computational and Data-enabled Science; Computational Mathematics; Computational Statistics; Computationally Intensive Research; Geometric Analysis; Logic or Foundations of Mathematics; Mathematical Biology; Probability; Quantum Information Science; Statistics; Topology; Other (specify)

Medicine - other*

Physics & Astronomy
Artificial Intelligence; Astronomy and Astrophysics; Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics; Computationally Intensive Research; Condensed Matter Physics; Nuclear Physics; Particle Physics; Physics of Living Systems; Plasma Physics; Quantum Information Science; Solid State Physics; Theoretical Physics; Other (specify)

Psychology
Artificial Intelligence; Cognitive Neuroscience; Cognitive Psychology; Comparative Psychology; Computational Psychology; Computationally Intensive Research; Developmental Psychology; Industrial/Organizational Psychology; Neuropsychology; Perception and Psychophysics; Physiological Psychology; Psycholinguistics; Quantitative Psychology; Quantum Information Science; Other (specify)

*Students intending to pursue a degree in medicine (M.D., D.O., or D.V.M) do not automatically qualify for the program UNLESS they specifically intend to conduct medical research.

Students who meet the eligibility requirements and are interested in applying must do the following:

1. Fill out and submit a Student Profile and Goldwater Scholarship Pre-Application by the pre-application deadline. Completed pre-applications will be automatically emailed to SRCEL.
2. Keep an eye out for email communications from srcel@uwlax.edu. SRCEL will confirm your eligibility for the scholarship program and discuss the competitiveness of your potential application with you. At this point, students can decide whether they want to move forward with the application process.
3. Eligible students will be invited to complete a full application. See "Application Materials" for more information.
4. Final application materials must be submitted by the full application deadline. SRCEL will process the applications and prepare them for review by a group of CSH, Psychology, and SRCEL representatives. Each campus can only nominate 4-6 applications to the Goldwater Scholarship Foundation per cycle. The UWL review group will select which applications to nominate to the Goldwater Scholarship Foundation by the final deadline on the last Friday in January. Students will be notified whether or not their application was nominated prior to the end of Fall semester.

Students who wish to complete the full application must prepare/submit the following:

• Online questionnaire
  • A preview of the questionnaire is available.
• Research essay
  • Students must prepare a brief 3-page research essay on either a completed OR prospective research project. Please see the Barry Goldwater website for specific formatting guidelines. While SRCEL can advise on the formatting of the essay and general best practices, it must ultimately be written by the student with guidance from their research mentor. Be sure to use a citation format that is appropriate to your discipline.
• Three letters of recommendation
  • Ideal letters writers will be your research mentor(s), course instructors, program directors, etc. Individuals who can speak to your research accomplishments and/or career aspirations will be of particular value.
  • Students will be asked to list three potential letter writers during the pre-application process. SRCEL will confirm whether they're appropriate.
  • Students must personally ask these individuals if they would be willing to write them a letter of recommendation. If they agree, SRCEL will request that the individuals send the letters to srcel@uwlax.edu. SRCEL will then upload the letters to the application.
• Transcript(s)
  • Students must provide transcripts that include all grades from UWL as well as any previously attended institutions. SRCEL will use your cumulative GPA to determine your eligibility for the scholarship program.
  • Unofficial transcripts will be accepted only if the student downloads them from WINGS in front of a SRCEL representative.
• For Permanent Residents ONLY, a copy of your Permanent Resident Card ("Green Card").

More detailed program information can be found on the Barry Goldwater Scholarship website.

Interested students are encouraged to attend the two student-oriented virtual Open Houses hosted by the Goldwater Scholarship Foundation (see the "Program Dates & Deadlines" table above). The provided Zoom link should work for both sessions.

Students are also invited to attend the Fall Grant Writing Workshop hosted by SRCEL. While this workshop is intended primarily for students intending to apply for Undergraduate Research & Creativity Grants, it provides helpful general information for drafting a research essay, which is one of the required components of the Barry Goldwater Scholarship application.

Questions about the program or application process should be sent to srcel@uwlax.edu.

General scholarship assistance can be requested from the UWL Scholarship Resource Center.

Recipients:

Honorable Mentions: