Please review the PDF preview of the full application here – DO NOT enter the “Apply Here” portal until you have all your materials to upload and answers to questions (as enumerated in the preview) ready to complete the application.

The BUGS Jr application process is changing in 2025. We no longer ask you to find and identify a faculty mentor to host you in the summer program. Beginning this year, our BUGS Jr Admission Committee will evaluate our student applicant and mentor registration pools and coordinate matching internally prior to accepting students for participation in the 2025 program. Student applicants will be asked to provide information about their (1) research interests, (2) previous research experiences (if any), and (3) goals for participation in the program.

Students will also be required to provide their academic transcript and two letters of recommendation (preferably from teachers/counselors). If you are unable to receive the letters as PDFs to upload in your application, ask that they be named as instructed in the AppPreview and emailed directly to bugsprogram@usc.edu by April 18th, then mention in the “additional information” section of the application that the letters were mailed directly.

We hope that these changes will make the BUGS Jr Summer Research Program more equitable and attainable to students who might have previously struggled to make connections with faculty in time.

We are certain that there will still be significantly more interest in our program that there are slots for participation. Thus, we encourage you to keep your options in other research/summer programs open until you’re invited to commit and participate with us.

Thank you for your patience as we navigate this major change in our procedures this summer.

Faculty mentors will be going through their own (separate) process of registering prior to the close of our application period.

The information being collected in this survey is: (1) for statistical purposes for planned future funding applications with relevant agencies, (2) for use on our website, social media and other promotional materials – please make sure to indicate at the end of the survey your consent/non-consent for these purposes, and (3) to evaluate impact and allow us to rationally consider changes to improve the program in the future.

Thanks for your participation!