Expectations of MMUF Program Fellows
Fellows must demonstrate a serious effort toward academic excellence and continued academic progress.
A minimum GPA of 3.0 is required for participation in the program, with the expectation that fellows maintain a solid academic record raising their major discipline GPA to 3.6 by the end of their senior year.
Fellows are required to participate in all MMUF programs and events including:
- Regular meetings with your mentor
- Scheduled meetings during the academic year
- Occasional assignments that may include reading articles, attending lectures, etc.
- National/regional gatherings of MMUF fellows
- Workshops, activities, and programs as assigned
Each fellow will meet individually with the faculty coordinator, in the presence of their faculty mentor, once every semester in their junior and senior years. Fellows are expected to participate in, and be open and receptive to feedback and evaluation, regarding their overall performance. Please respond promptly to e-mails and requests. If you miss more than one activity per semester, your stipend may be withheld. Repeated absences or general lack of participation and engagement in MMUF activities may result in being asked to withdraw from the program.
Fellows must give evidence of attending to the achievement of postgraduate career goals. If at any time during your junior and senior years, you realize that a postgraduate/academic career is not for you, please consider leaving the program so that someone else whose goals truly match those of the program may have the opportunity of benefiting from it.
Haverford College’s MMUF Program is part of the MMUF Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference, along with Bryn Mawr College, Swarthmore College, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, and Princeton University. Each year, one school hosts the MMUF Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference, at which all undergraduate Fellows present papers, and serve as moderators and discussants of their peers’ academic research. Participation and presentation of research at the annual Regional Conference by member school Fellows is required.
In summary, some specific requirements/important deadlines are as follows:
- First semester (Fall, Junior Year). An informal oral report at the first MMUF monthly meeting on your summer research training courses and project, conducted at the University of Chicago. Fellows can base this on the final version of the research paper completed as part of the coursework at Univ. of Chicago. This research paper will be submitted to your faculty mentor at the beginning of the academic year, and may, but does not necessarily have to, form the basis of an expanded version of your research project proposal, and a tentative time-line for your research during the next two academic years.
- Second semester (Spring, Junior Year). By March 1, Fellows are required to submit a proposal for summer research following their junior year. The advisory committee will meet to recommend continuation in the program for the second year. See Evaluation below.
- Third semester (Fall, Senior Year). At the beginning of the semester, fellows will provide an oral report on their summer research internship or project. At the end of the semester, fellows will submit an 8-page paper detailing the project, and describing its status as it relates to their senior thesis/research project, if applicable. Fellows will also be expected to prepare a personal statement for graduate school, regardless of whether they are applying or not.
- Fourth semester (Spring, Senior Year): In addition to the public presentation at the end of the semester (MMUF Senior Presentations in May), fellows will be asked to submit their senior thesis with a brief description of how the Mellon program contributed to the development of the topic/project. In addition, all graduating seniors are required to participate in an Exit Interview in early May.