FAQ - USC Viterbi | K-12 Outreach

Click here for the Application Checklist of materials necessary for completing the online application.

Plan ahead - applications with all required materials that are complete by 2/24/2023, will have an advantage; this includes the application itself, and the application fee of $45. We must receive at least two letters of recommendation from STEM teachers before or no later than 3/7/2023. We recommend for your letter of recommendations to arrive on 3/3/2023. See our Application Checklist for tips on how to ensure your teacher letters come in by the deadline.

February 24, 2023 is also the deadline for scholarship consideration. See more information about scholarships in FAQ’s section General Questions and also here.

Because we hope SHINE will be held once again on the USC campus, all SHINE students, staff, mentors, faculty, and visitors must fully comply with LA County COVID requirements. Under these circumstances, we will not be accepting students who seek a remote experience as we did in 2020-21 when COVID required research to be conducted virtually. SHINE students will conduct research on campus and should already live within commuting distance of campus or have the ability to stay in the region with a relative. SHINE does not provide housing; we cannot help families to find housing within commuting distance, and we cannot be responsible for minors who live in the region without their guardian/parent or relative. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

Program fee: $5,750

The application and fee must be received by the Application deadline of February 24, 2023. Submitting the application triggers an email request to your teachers to send in a letter of recommendation, so those who apply before or by the February 24, 2023 deadline should also plan ahead and inform their recommenders to expect the request. (Teacher recommendations usually slow down the admission process, so consult with teachers ASAP to meet the 3/7/2023 deadline.)

USC Viterbi is committed to opening up research college and career pathways to people who may be under-represented in engineering, including girls, first-generation college-bound students, and under-represented ethnic minorities, as well as students whose families are income eligible. A range of scholarship levels, from full to partial, is available to applicants who demonstrate both income eligibility and academic merit. On the SHINE application, there is a place to request consideration for scholarship and to upload documentation demonstrating applicant meets income eligibility (it can be a letter confirming federal and reduced meal assistance for public school students or a principal's letter confirming scholarship status for private school students).

Please review your Income Eligibility Chart.

SHINE began in 2015 and has grown steadily since then. Demand by students and families to experience research that addressed real-life problems in society that engineering helps to solve, including new drug testing systems, generating energy from reclaimed water, human-robot interactions for children with autism, quantum computing, etc. SHINE was created by Dr. Katie Mills, former Co-Director of the K-12 STEM Center at USC Viterbi School of Engineering and is now led by the K-12 STEM Center Director, Dr. Darin Gray; he has been named "Engineer of the Year" by the Orange County Engineering Council (in 2020); an Outstanding STEM Educator by the Engineer’s Council (in 2022)

Experimental research is often what we all imagine when we think of scientists in a lab coat, wearing goggles, mixing chemicals -- all of that is typical of Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Biomedical Engineering. In Aerospace, researchers use a wind tunnel or water channel to experiment with fluid dynamics. Roboticists might try out their robots in a lab or with people. However, all fields of experimental research increasingly rely on computational research, which uses a mixture of data analysis, mathematical modeling, statistics and probability, and perhaps also artificial intelligence, machine learning, virtual reality or augmented reality. This is the real advantage of SHINE since most high schools are not yet teaching this important but now-standard aspect of university research.

The admissions process for USC Viterbi SHINE is completely separate from the admissions process for the University, where decisions are made by the Office of Admissions. However, there are SHINE students each year accepted to USC Viterbi School of Engineering, as well as other top schools including UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UC San Diego and more. The SHINE program provides students with an opportunity to experience university-level research, which is useful for all college applications, especially personal statements and interviews. SHINE now offers SHINE Alumni (seniors) college support within their senior year such as workshops, office hours and monthly support emails.

For more information about USC admissions criteria, please visit the USC Admissions page or the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Admissions page.

SHINE students become part of the research team of the sponsoring faculty member and learn specific lab skills from their Ph.D. student mentors. Each student will have specific and varied tasks that contribute to the research projects of the team under the one-on-one direction of their mentor for 20 hours/week. Additionally, SHINE students are likely to interact with the professor running the lab, graduate students in the lab, and undergraduate students or visiting educators or researchers, depending on the lab.

Over the seven weeks, students will be exposed to top-quality research practices. They will receive an overview of the process of how researchers plan and/or implement an intervention and then analyze and disseminate the results. SHINE students will gain research-specific skills, people skills, content knowledge, confidence, and perspective about how their current STEM courses are precursors to a future of real-world problem solving through research.

Expectations for SHINE participants:

Students accepted to SHINE need to be prepared to contribute at least 20 hours per week throughout the weekdays between the 6/12/23 – 7/28/23 period (except the July 4th and Juneteenth holidays), for the full seven weeks. (No weekend or evening work is required.)
All students must complete the Lab Safety Training and Orientation on the first day, June 12, 2023; in addition, the SHINE students must strictly adhere to all safety rules at all times or face dismissal from the program.
Students will participate in the culminating Poster Session and contribute a poster with a short research summary to the SHINE Website (see examples).

Each team sets its own hours and work schedule, so each SHINE student will set hours with her/his Ph.D. student mentor. SHINE students learn under the direct supervision of their lab mentor for 20 hours/week; there are an additional seven hours per week of optional workshops on related research skills. SHINE students should count on a schedule of 20 - 27 hours per week, which allows some time for a part-time job or a summer school course.

We anticipate that SHINE will be on campus in Summer 2023, assuming COVID continues to improve. Please note that during COVID requirements for research to be conducted remotely, each research team will set a schedule of both synchronous collaboration and asynchronous independent work, concentrated on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The full cohort of students always gets together on Friday mornings for training and fun sessions. SHINE students and USC undergraduates usually get together during COVID for an evening of remote games, a talent show, or other forms of getting to know one another. All staff, from Director to the undergraduate student employees, provide extensive office hours for students.

Each SHINE student participates in the culminating Poster Session, and the posters will remain on the SHINE Website; this can be useful to SHINE alumni when they apply to college and internships. In addition, each student will receive a Letter of Certification detailing the research project, including comments from the sponsoring faculty member or research team members. This detailed Letter of Certification can be used by students in their college applications; however, professors and Ph.D. student mentors do not write separate letters of recommendation for SHINE alumni. Therefore, please not request additional letters from professors and Ph.D. student mentors.

The online application asks applicants to state a first, second, and third preference for the general field of engineering (e.g., aerospace or biomed or electrical), described here.

Applicants are encouraged to include in their personal statement reasons for their interest in the particular SHINE projects or engineering fields as well as qualifications for working in a particular lab when a professor has listed prerequisites (for instance, if you've never ever coded before, you will not be eligible for that lab, but if you have experience in C++ and Java, chances are you can learn Python over the summer, so that means you fill the prerequisites). We do our best to match the applicant to their preferences, but we do not guarantee placement in the applicant's top choices; placement depends on the number of applicants seeking to join a particular lab, that lab's capabilities during summer 2023, as well as the applicant's fit with the professor's team. When we inform applicants of their acceptance, we will inform them of the lab to which they have been accepted; at that time, the applicant can decline or accept. SHINE students cannot change labs once the assigned lab has been accepted, nor will there be any lab changes permitted once the SHINE program begins.

SHINE is a competitive program, so we ask for a number of categories of information on the application form. Most important will be the student's enthusiasm for hands-on participation in an ongoing research project, a solid track record in STEM courses, and the willingness to become part of a team. Applications must have all the required components for consideration. Click here for a checklist of materials to have ready before beginning the online application.

Additionally, there is a $35 application fee required at the time you submit your application.

The program is designed for freshman, sophomores and juniors, so we understand that younger applicants may have had fewer STEM courses. We will be considering the entire range of materials in an application, including GPA (we are looking for a GPA of 3.4 or higher on a 4.0 scale), the personal statement, two letters of recommendation from teachers, plus an optional PDF of supplemental materials. Each applicant will be considered as a person, not a series of statistics. Each professor may have her or his own preferences for the skill set that a SHINE student should bring into the lab, so applicants should consult the List of Projects for specifics; we will help match each qualified applicant's skills to the professor’s needs, and the professor decides whom to accept into the laboratory for the summer.

The personal statement demonstrates each applicant's passions and drive. We ask applicants to explain in 500 words a specific time when you used your STEM knowledge to solve a problem and/or a specific time when you realized that research was key to your future academic goals. We encourage applicants to review the types of projects that may be available this summer and discuss in an additional 250 words why they selected their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice of projects. When applicants have carefully written and edited their statement and project discussion, they will need to have a PDF ready to upload during the online application process; the student's full name and email address should be on each page of the PDF and the file should be named. The 750-word limit will be enforced; applications with over 750 words on the personal statement will be disqualified from consideration.

Yes, we encourage applicants to add this!! The online application form has the option of uploading one additional PDF (five-page limit) that demonstrates your interest in research; this could be a science fair entry, an award, a lab report, a STEM project, etc. Again, please make sure your full name and email address are at the top of each page on the PDF and your name is included in the file name. The five-page limit will be enforced; applications with over five pages will be disqualified from consideration.

Letters of recommendation from the applicants’ teachers are an important component of the SHINE application process. Two letters of recommendation are required. Both of these letters must come from teachers who discuss the student’s academic qualifications in science, technology, engineering and/or math as well as her or his readiness to participate in a research lab for seven weeks over the summer. Applicants should begin talking now with teachers about their intention to apply to SHINE and review with their teachers the students’ STEM coursework, GPA, plus any test scores in order to assess the students’ readiness to participate in an ambitious research program at USC Viterbi School of Engineering. This conversation will help illuminate the applicants’ strengths and weaknesses, which can be addressed in the personal statement or letter of recommendation.

Please arrange for your recommenders to submit their letters of recommendation to us via email link. They can only submit a letter after you have successfully submitted your SHINE application. Your completed application will trigger an email to your recommender where they will have access to a letter submission link. Please contact your recommender to ensure they received the email within 10 minutes after you submit your SHINE application. If they did not receive the email with a submission link please contact us to K12STEM1@usc.edu before the March 7th deadline.

Please inform your writers to save the letter as: “SHINE23 recommendation LAST NAME_FIRST NAME” (for example, “SHINE23 recommendation SMITH_JANE”). We do not require teachers to use a specific form; we are looking for a typed letter on letterhead in a PDF file.

We cannot guarantee that we will consider any applications without the minimum of two teacher recommendation letters after the March 7th deadline.

The online application asks applicants to state a first, second, and third preference for the general field of engineering (e.g., aerospace or biomed or electrical), described here.

Applicants are urged to include in their personal statement reasons for their interest in the particular SHINE projects or engineering fields as well as qualifications for working in a particular lab when a professor has listed prerequisites (for instance, if you've never ever coded before, you will not be eligible for a robotics lab, but if you have experience in C++ and Java, chances are you can learn Python over the summer, so that means you fill the prerequisites). We do our best to match the applicant to her or his preferences, but we do not guarantee placement in the applicant's top choices; placement depends on the number of applicants seeking to join a particular lab, that lab's capabilities during summer 2022, as well as the applicant's fit with the professor's team. When we inform applicants of their acceptance, we will inform them of the lab to which they have been accepted; at that time, the applicant can decline or accept. SHINE students cannot change labs once the assigned lab has been accepted, nor will there be any lab changes permitted once the SHINE program begins.

SHINE is a competitive program, so we ask for a number of categories of information on the application form. Most important will be the student's enthusiasm for hands-on participation in an ongoing research project, a solid track record in STEM courses, and the willingness to become part of a team. Applications must have all the required components for consideration. Click here for a checklist of materials to have ready before beginning the online application.

Additionally, there is a $45 application fee required at the time you submit your application.

On the SHINE Application, you will see a few questions that ask you to identify your letter of recommenders (2 entries are required, 3rd is optional). Please provide their names, email addresses, and job title. Once you complete the application and submit the application it will trigger an email to the recommenders you listed. They will receive instructions and deadline information. We recommended you notify them in advance and confirm they received the email with instructions.

We will send notifications to students and legal guardian(s) within four-six weeks of the application deadline, in most cases. We appreciate your patience as it is the professor of the lab who determines an applicant's fit with the research team. Sometimes highly qualified applicants are given consideration by more than one professor when professors must balance a diverse range of skills within a research team.

Admitted students will need to submit the following non-refundable payments:

By date specified in offer letter: $1,200 deposit
By date specified in offer letter: $4,550 remaining balance for admission.

Alternatively, admitted students can pay the full amount $5,750 when accepting his or her offer letter.

You can pay by credit card. To view more details and submit program fees, please visit our payments page.

You can also pay by mail. Mail a check made out to the University of Southern California (not SHINE) – applications will not be processed until the fee & all materials are in:

USC Viterbi School of Engineering
K-12 STEM Center
Attn: Lauren Guzman / SHINE
Kerckhoff Hall (KER/KCH)
734 W. Adams Blvd.,
Los Angeles, CA 90089

Because all staff are working hybrid, we prefer electronic payment of fees; however, if you need to pay by check, please contact us at K12STEM1@usc.edu to proceed.

All staff, student mentors, and faculty working with students under 18 complete training in Minor Protection and pass a police background check. All are trained in best practices when working with adolescents, even online; any concerns for safety should be discussed immediately with Dr. Darin Gray, SHINE Director. If you have any questions about SHINE, please contact us or email us K12STEM1@usc.edu.

The USC Department of Public Safety patrols campus and surrounding student neighborhoods. During orientation, a DPS officer will brief students on local safety, emergency procedures, and reducing risks. There has never been a safety problem with SHINE students.

For emergency situations, more than 400 emergency "blue light" phones have been strategically placed in many buildings, each parking structure (on every level) and across the campus grounds. Many of these emergency phones are easily identified by the blue emergency lights on top of the phone booth. They provide a direct line to the Public Safety office and should be used only under emergency conditions. To report an emergency from a regular telephone, call (213) 740-4321.

The USC Health Center is open during the business hours that SHINE students will be conducting their lab research on the University Park Campus. Any students needing immediate emergency medical assistance will be seen at the USC Health Center. SHINE students will be required to demonstrate proof of insurance and medical emergency information to the USC Health Center in case medical attention is required.

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