Independent Research

If you like challenges, take advantage of research opportunities in the Nisbet Honors Program at Converse College. The program can supply funding and help secure additional funding for your research project, provide an environment where you can rub shoulders with nationally known visiting scholars, send you to present your research at regional, national and international conferences, coordinate honors directed independent study courses to work with a faculty mentor, and advise you as you prepare to develop your honors thesis project.

Research experience can open a spot for you in a top graduate program and help you receive merit aid to assist with school tuition. More than 50% of Converse honors graduates enter graduate school in the two years following graduation. Recent grad school acceptances include the following programs and institutions:

  • Yale University
  • Harvard Kennedy School of Government
  • Cornell University's Ph.D. program in musicology
  • Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School for the Master's of Public Affairs. With stipend.
  • Clemson University's Ph.D. program in math
  • Carnegie Mellon University, graduate program in public affairs
  • College of William and Mary, Master's in Public Policy. With full scholarship and assistantship.
  • College of William and Mary's M.S. program in computational operations research
  • Florida State University, Ph.D. program in historical musicology
  • Georgetown University, Ph.D. program in chemistry. With full scholarship and living stipend.
  • Wichita State University's M.F.A in Creative Writing
  • Mercer University, Walter F. George School of Law
  • Michigan State University, Cognitive Psychology Ph.D. program. With full tuition scholarship and living stipend.
  • University of Tennessee, College of Veterinary Medicine
  • University of Texas at Austin, Master's in Global Policy Studies
  • Wingate University School of Pharmacy, Pharm.D. program. Only 72 out of more than 1000 applicants were admitted.
  • University of Georgia's microbiology Ph.D. program
  • North Carolina State's microbiology Ph.D. program
  • Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
  • University of South Carolina's Master's of Accountancy program
  • University of South Carolina’s economics Ph.D. program

Research and internship experience can make the difference between acceptance to a top graduate school and rejection. Recently honors students have competed for and won summer research funds to study how:

  • the accused parent's occupation affects sentencing in fatal child neglect cases
  • Islamic banking functions in Pakistan
  • gender influences the life experience of Tanzanian children orphaned by AIDS
  • caffeine affects the way rats perceive time
  • people who suffer from social anxiety respond to their environment
  • kitsch art portrays the Magi's journey to the Infant Jesus
  • musical allusions influence Octavio Paz’s poetry
  • the frequency of yoga classes affects participants' blood pressure
  • the pesticide Sevin produces genotoxic effects in frogs

Honors students have also won spots at prestigious summer experiences:

  • Studying chemistry in a summer as one of 8 students nationwide, sponsored by the National Science Foundation at the University of Montana-Missoula
  • Interning at the award-winning Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska, which has a nationally recognized conservation and genetic research center
  • Participating in a NATO Staff Officer Orientation Course at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.
  • Interning at the Engalitcheff Institute on Comparative Political and Economic Systems (ICPES) at Georgetown University
  • Researching immunology at The Mayo Clinic in 2007 and 2008

Many students present their research at regional, national, and international conferences.

Kimberly Shorter’s ’09 research project won first place at the South Carolina Environmental Conference Student poster presentation in Myrtle Beach. Kimberly attended the conference with her professor, Dr. Neval Erturk (Biology). Kimberly was judged a second time at nationals and her research was chosen to represent the State at the American Water Works Association and Water Environment Association combined national meeting.

Sarah Finley ’08 was invited to present her work on Octavio Paz at the 11th Annual Ohio State University Symposium on Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics—a national conference. She was one of only four undergraduates invited to present.

Kristina Blanchard ’08 carried out research at the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Facilities, also known as the "Body Farm," under funding from a competitive grant program sponsored by the Oak Ridge National Laboratories. This rare privilege was arranged and supervised by her professor, Dr. Neval Erturk (Biology).

Megan Burdette ’08, Belda Thomas ’08, and Dalene Prouty ’09 witnessed their summer research project "Effects of Caffeine on Temporal Perception" win 1st place for the papers presented at the GURP (Georgia Undergraduate Research in Psychology) Conference in Spring 2008 at Kennesaw State University. They co-authored the paper.

Brittany Jones ’07 and Stacy Thrall ’07 traveled to China to present their paper, "An Efficient Algorithm and Its Parallelization for Computing PageRank," at the International Conference on Computational Science. The two had worked with Dr. Qiao as research assistants through the Honors Program the previous spring.

As a sophomore, Elise Struck ’09 presented her paper, "Dining on the Word: the Portrayal of Scripture and Preaching as Nourishment in Religious Literature of Early Modern England," at the National Undergraduate Literature Conference. Research for this paper was funded by a Nisbet Honors Program Summer Research Grant.