San Diego State University (SDSU) is applying for its first competitive renewal for the Career Opportunities in Research (COR) Program for training students in mental health-related fields. We have designed activities to increase the preparation and competitiveness of our COR scholars for entry into and success in the most prestigious mental health Ph.D. programs in the nation. These activities include participation in faculty- mentored research for two years, both intermediate and advanced statistics courses, training in research methods, testing and measurement, and neuroscience, a unique sequence of colloquia in mental health research topics, and a seminar series by visiting scientists that is presented by outstanding scholars. In addition, all of our COR Honors scholars participate in an extramural, mental health-related research experience during the summer before their senior year. The SDSU faculty and administration have embraced and supported the COR program. COR scholars benefit from access to and interactions with faculty from the University of California, San Diego. We have placed all of our scholars in excellent extramural summer research programs. All of the COR graduates have entered graduate programs focused on mental health research. For the past three years every student chosen as the outstanding graduating senior in the Psychology Department at SDSU has been a COR scholar, a significant honor considering that there have been over 450 psychology graduates each year. We believe that our students'successes in the three arenas just mentioned demonstrate that our program is extremely effective in reaching the goals NIMH has set for COR programs.
