Plan Ahead

It is important that you familiarize yourself with the on-line application before you attempt to fill it out. You will be asked to complete a profile before moving on to the application itself. You will be able to go back and modify your profile and application. You should plan to do this. There are narrative portions that require thought and care; you should compose, review, and edit your responses off-line.

You will need to print recommendation instruction forms, forward them to the people who have agreed to write recommendations for you. Your recommenders will log into a website provided for them to fill out an on-line recommendation form.
Approach faculty who you want to recommend you early. Provide them with a description of the program and a resume or list of activities and jobs and a few notes about any pertient personal history as well as your research interests and experiences. Be prepared to discuss your reasons for wanting to participate in this program. This will help strengthen the recommendations they make.

Your recommenders should be faculty in your field or professors/supervisors who have direct knowledge of your research and/or academic skills. Recommendations from people outside of your field are usually not considered to be as strong and important as those from faculty in your field. It is important that you contact potential recommenders BEFORE you list them in the application. Be sure that the professors you ask for references are able and willing to provide a strong recommendation.

When answering the question about employment, be sure to include any research experience you have had, whether paid or unpaid, and give a short description of the research and any additional skills you learned during that experience.

You will have an opportunity to discuss your research interests in the question which reads: What are your areas of interest and what type of research activities would you like to be involved in at the lab? Before answering this question, familiarize yourself with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and some of the research areas that interest you. The Laboratory's main web site is located at http://www.lbl.gov.
There is also a list of research opportunities generally available to undergraduates participants. Not all opportunities listed are always available and the list is not exclusive--there are opportunities throughout the Laboratory that do not always get on this list.