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Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) - Field Courses

What's OTS? And how do I apply?!

OTS is a consortium of over 63 Universities from across the United States, Latin America and Australia. Since 1963, OTS has been dedicated to promoting education, research and the responsible use of natural resources in the Tropics. Today, OTS offers intensive Graduate and Undergraduate field courses, in addition to offering fellowships to promote Tropical research. If you are interested in applying to a field course, please be sure to read the application guidelines.

    Graduate Programs
OTS offers several field courses in Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, and Brazil, as well as offer limited exchange programs with the Tropical Biology Association (TBA) in Uganda, Tanzania and Madagascar.

Have a look through the list of field courses offered by OTS and be sure to check up on the course deadlines. To get a feel for the OTS course dynamics and research, look over some of the projects in these coursebooks: Tropical Biology (Costa Rica), and Advanced Comparitive Neotropical Ecology (Costa Rica/Panama/Peru/Brazil).

If you are interested in applying, please be sure to read the application guidelines and then download a graduate field course application. It is also strongly recommended that you set up a meeting with one of the UA-OTS delegates (Dr. Cindy Sagers and/or Dr. Kim Smith).
    Undergraduate Programs
OTS has summer, semester, and research experience programs in Costa Rica, in addition to a semester program in South Africa.

To get a better idea of the course dynamics and research, take a look at some of the research projects conducted in previous coursebooks.

If you wish to apply, please be sure to read the application guidelines, download an undergraduate field course application, and set up a meeting with one of the UA-OTS delegates (Dr. Cindy Sagers and/or Dr. Kim Smith).

    Graduate Research
OTS has tremendous opportunities for graduate student interested in conducting thesis/dissertation research projects in Costa Rica. OTS has three incredible field stations across Costa Rica and will help you secure your Costa Rican research permits. Be sure to take full advantage of the OTS fellowships available to University of Arkansas graduate students.