Undergraduate Research

The LSU Honors College coordinates top LSU Honors students with opportunities in research in all of LSU’s majors. Undergraduate research (UR) is hands-on learning through the creation of new knowledge, where you work independently under the guidance of a faculty mentor.  The office coordinates opportunities, and supports the development of original scholarship based on the UR experience—through the Honors thesis, presentations, journals, and other venues.

Research—occurring everywhere at LSU—is an essential thread in the four-year Honors curriculum, tying together experience, knowledge, and scholarship—and you can even be paid to conduct research.  Several Honors students participate in the prestigious Chancellor’s Future Leaders in Research (CFLR) program, working with their research mentor over four years, moving forward toward College Honors. Many more students are recipients of Chancellor’s Student Aid (CSA), a program in which a student can work as a paid research assistant in any discipline, although assignment is not by default a research assignment.  UR also occurs in a less formalized setting (such as working with a professor in an independent study course)—and, even in an informal one—but a formal research relationship in the academic setting will quickly propel you to overall Honors success.

Whatever your path, your initial UR strategy is the same:  First, explore your major, and familiarize yourself with your professors’ work and the work of your peers (look at faculty web pages, attend the Honors Research Series, and strike up a conversation).  Next, express your interest to an appropriate professor with whom you’ve developed a relationship, and find out where you might fit in his or her research program.  If you are a recipient of CSA or CFLR, there are then specific final steps to take in becoming a paid research assistant.