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Prospective Students

PreClinical Research Group

Interested students must have an eagerness and motivation to learn. Students in the Clinical Research Program at the UNCW School of Nursing are prioritized for laboratory spots, but we also take Nursing, Biology, and Chemistry students in our lab.

  • Undergraduate students are encouraged to apply for internal awards (like the SURCA program) to support their research. Undergraduates typically enroll in a Directed Independent Study (DIS) course, First Year Research Experience (FYRE), or Honors.
  • Honors projects can be completed in the lab as part of the University Honors program or Departmental Honors. Please see the UNCW Honors website for the difference between Departmental Honors and University Honors.
  • Graduate students (e.g., MS Biology) are occasionally engaged in research in our lab. Interested graduate students will need to find a co-advisor in their home department.

DIS expectations

Students will need at least basic lab skills prior to requesting a DIS experience, like those acquired during general biology and chemistry labs. More experienced students can work on more advanced projects.

  • DIS experiences are typically undertaken in the spring or summer.
  • We expect approximately 4 hours in the lab per week per credit hour. Lab hours need to be in large blocks of time (>3 hours) so as to have enough time for a meaningful experience.
  • Work ranges from independent projects to learning basic lab skills, shadowing, and helping out with lab tasks, and the level of involvement depends on the student’s base level of knowledge.
  • If you are not a CLR student, we expect you to take at least one CLR class (e.g. CLR 301) either at the same time or before the DIS to gain the context needed to understand our projects. These are offered online and are also available in summer.

Honors expectations

  • Honors (whether departmental or university) is a special designation that shows independent work above and beyond typical expectations of an undergraduate student.
  • Before considering honors in the lab: in addition to basic lab skills, students need to be familiar with excel and statistics, be able to perform general math regarding experiments (e.g. stock dilutions), and understand standards and controls in experiments (e.g. basic hypothesis testing).
  • CLR honors is completed over 3 semesters, typically in Spring, Summer (full term), and Fall terms. Students enroll in 2 credits each semester and are expected to be in lab at least 4 hours per credit hour (though hours may vary depending on experimental requirements).
    • Spring: gateway to independence
    • Summer: independent lab work
    • Fall: finalizing lab work and writing of thesis
  • Students will write a thesis in the form of a journal article and present their work in an oral defense and research poster presentation. Please see UNCW departmental honors website for more information.
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