CURO Apprentice Program

<p>What is this? I've seen that freshman and sophomores can apply. Is it worth it? Will I get an advantage in decision b/c i'm in the honors program? I'm also a minority, and the site says that they get an advantage. thanks for any help!</p>

<p>I applied, when do we get to hear back?</p>

<p>Stellastar: im pretty sure honors kids have a distinct advantage for CURO. I know some honors students who did undergrad research with CURO. You could probably ask jablalf or jenmarie as they’re sure to know more about it than me, or you can ask an honors advisor. </p>

<p>Hope this helps.</p>

<p>I just came back from UGA yesterday. I was there to discuss the CURO Apprenticeship Program.</p>

<p>The head of the Honor’s Program (David) told us that receiving the CURO Apprenticeship means you’re in Honors. If you receive it and you were denied from Honors (I was) then you will automatically become a part of the Honor’s Program. If you’re in Honors now, you’ll have a chance of receiving the stipend.</p>

<p>I do not think it increases your chances to receive it just because you’re in the Honor’s Program.</p>

<p>If you plan on doing research outside of the sciences, I think he said you’ll have a better chance of receiving the stipend (they’re trying to prove that research can be done in all fields and not just science).</p>

<p>I recommend doing it! They will be contacting people this week or next week. </p>

<p>The benefit of this program is that you will be receiving a stipend of 2k, which you can spend on ANYTHING. You’ll also develop a great relationship with the professor you’re doing your research with (great for letters of recommendation) and you’ll also acquire the real life experience needed to distinguish yourself from other applicants in grad school.</p>

<p>Everything I said came from the mouths of David or students who have already received the stipend through the CURO Apprenticeship.</p>

<p>From what they said, the only con is that you HAVE to take a class if you’re in the Honor’s Program. I forgot what it was called but it is for all first years. Apparently they divided the classes by how talkative the students were! HA!</p>

<p>@coolpg: So let me get this straight: Is this something you apply for as a regular UGA student? And if you get it then you automatically become a part of Honors?
I always thought Honors students had some special privileges with it… like they were more likely to receive it. Is this not true?</p>

<p>So even if you didn’t get into Honors but you get into CURO, then you get into Honors as well?</p>

<p>And will you be a UGA freshman in the fall? Have you already received the CURO Apprenticeship?</p>

<p>Hello upsidedown,</p>

<p>Yes you are somewhat correct. The Apprenticeship is only available to incoming first years. Normal UGA students will not be able to apply for it. The only benefit of it is that you receive a $2,000 stipend to fund your research or to spend on anything of your liking. In addition to the stipend, you will have to take a course with other Honors students who received the Apprenticeship. The class is worth three credit hours. I believe all hours students are supposed to take the course…but I think they put all of the CURO Apprentices in the same class.</p>

<p>If you earned the CURO Apprenticeship, then there is a greater chance that you’re already in the Honors Program. HOWEVER, students who were denied access into the Honor’s Program are still given the opportunity to join the program by becoming CURO Apprentices. While I was there a few students told me that they were actually wait listed from the Honors Program, but they got into it because of the CURO Apprenticeship.</p>

<p>Do not think that students who were denied Honors but received the Apprenticeships are given an unfair advantage. In most cases these students had the credentials to be placed inside Honors with the exception of a few flaws on their application. For example, my GPA was stellar but my test scores weren’t in the range of normal Honors students. I believe this is why I didn’t make it at first.</p>

<p>I might be a UGA student this fall. I am not entirely sure. I was accepted into UVa and Emory and I got a full ride to UVa. However, if I do not like UVa’s atmosphere as much as I LOVED UGA’s I will not go. Emory will probably be the most expensive. I will also decide based on how much money UGA offers. If I will be able to attend for free I might very well choose to go to UGA (despite the prestige that UVa carries). And yes I did receive the CURO Apprenticeship. I found out a few minutes ago, actually.</p>

<p>Honors students are not more likely to receive the Apprenticeship because you MUST be in Honors to receive it. If you’re admitted into Honors and you’re still waiting on your decision for the Apprenticeship, you admission into Honors will not have any bearing on their decision. The majority of applicants for this program are already in Honors.</p>

<p>The Honors program does have a lot of privileges with it. That is one reason why I’m considering UGA over UVa. UGA really pampers their Honors students and it shows! If I choose to go to UVa, I will probably be another face in the crowd. This apprenticeship will give me the chance to do research that will benefit my career goals. UVa doesn’t have a research program like this.</p>

<p>Coolpg: Oh ok, thanks for explaining I think I get it now. If you get it, it means you’re in Honors and you have to apply as a HS senior. just out of curiosity, what is your topic?</p>

<p>And congratulations!!! That’s a really big deal. I agree that UGA Honors students have some really great privileges. Personally, I think you should take the opportunity; not many students get to do special undergraduate research like this. I know this girl who was in Honors and she’s now at Stanford Med: a big reason for that is because she did some groundbreaking research as a CURO apprentice. However, research like this is a huge plus on any application for any graduate school/future scholarship/career. Once again, congrats! You must have deserved it!</p>

<p>Thank you upsidedown!</p>

<p>I’m not entirely sure what I will be doing for research. However, while I was at UGA, David Williams (Honor’s Director) along with his colleagues stressed how having a clear and concise road map is not necessary at first. They emphasized how students would come to them with ideas and find out midway through their research that it was not right for them, so they ended up switching topics.</p>

<p>I plan on majoring in Business! So I’d love to do research on a topic that will help develop my business ideas!</p>

<p>Did you apply for the Apprenticeship? If so, I hope you make it! While I was at UGA I noticed that the Apprentices seemed to have formed a very close community! While a lot of them chose not to seclude themselves from other students at UGA, they still managed to make several friends with Honors students, which I thought was amazing!</p>

<p>Simply put, I loved everything about UGA and the way they pampered their Honors students!</p>

<p>Those were kind words, coolpg. Haha but I’m not quite there yet. I’m a sophomore in HS, but I do know a lot about the Honors program because I know a lot of students who are in it Or have been in it. They all had good things to say about it. And that’s where I (really) want to go as well. I just hope I haven’t screwed up enough already and I still have a chance. </p>

<p>I’m really interested in this though. If you don’t have to be sure about your research topic, then what do you put on the application? Like why would they pick you (or someone else) over another applicant? What do they base it off of?</p>

<p>coolpg, when did you apply for it? I applied a week ago. It’s on rolling basis, so I suppose mine was kinda late. Do all application decisions come out at the same time or it’s on rolling basis?</p>

<p>@upsidedown,
Let’s see, I mentioned how I wanted to start a business on my application and how I believe being a part of the CURO Apprenticeship would assist in achieving that goal. I’m not sure what they base it off of, to be honest. They spent more time talking about the Program than they did explaining the admissions process. If your application piques their interest (I guess mine did) then you’ll stand a good chance of receiving the stipend. </p>

<p>BTW, it’s good that you’re looking into all of this as a sophomore! Although I did a great job in high school I didn’t start looking at colleges until I was a senior! That was a HUGE mistake (as you can imagine). You’re on top of the game! Had I known all that I do now, I would have definitely done my research earlier.</p>

<p>@Boomshaka,
I’m not entirely sure when I applied for Honors. I think it was on the deadline date…haha. Oh wait, are you talking about the Apprenticeship?
If so, you applied for the Apprenticeship a week ago?? David sent me an email advising me to apply for the Apprenticeship a couple of months ago because the deadline was approaching. Because of him, I decided to apply and I managed to get my application in on the day of the deadline (yeah I know I suck with deadlines). I didn’t know they extended the application process!</p>

<p>I’m also unaware about their decisions! David said that he would need for me to tell him if I am going to be a promising scholar by April 18th. If you haven’t heard by then, I honestly don’t know what to say. I thought the applications for the Apprenticeship ended a while back…so I’m clueless!</p>

<p>@coolpg: haha thanks. I’d like to think that I’m “ahead of the game”, but with college admissions and the competitiveness these days, you can never start too early. </p>

<p>Haha and do you know the Honors Director on a first name basis? Thats pretty awesome… It probably helped your case a little bit then :)</p>

<p>HAHA! No David and I aren’t that close! I talked to him a bit over the weekend and he emailed me some stuff concerning the Honors Program! But I do think that attending the Promising CURO Apprentices thing helped a lot!</p>

<p>When you apply for it make sure you emphasize your goals for the future and what you would like to do your research on! The people who I saw in the Apprenticeship didn’t do a lot of their research in the sciences either. So if your research involves something outside of biology, chem, etc. I think you’ll have an advantage since 2/3 of the students did their research in these fields. During the poster presentation it was nearly impossible for a person without a lot of knowledge in their field to understand what they were talking about!</p>

<p>Haha ok thanks for the advice coolpg! I’ll be sure to take that into account when I apply for CURO. </p>

<p>Who knows, maybe if you decide to go to UGA, we might cross paths one day!</p>