As you’re considering colleges and wondering about how college-level academics will be different from high school, you might be wondering about engaging in research. You might even be hearing about research opportunities at some of the schools you’re interested in. A number of universities feature Undergraduate Research Opportunity Programs (UROPs), which are programs that offer funding and/or college credit to students who work under faculty mentorship on a particular research project. Other colleges offer various forms of structured and independent research programs that give students the ability to learn about a topic in-depth through focusing on a particular method, process or data set. Below, we discuss some of the most interesting, hands-on dedicated undergraduate research opportunities in the nation.
Boston University UROP: The UROP at Boston University, open to all full-time undergraduate students, has a simple mission: connecting undergraduate students to faculty-mentored research projects. Students who join the UROP work closely with BU faculty and have the ability to choose between earning course credit for their research, earning a stipend, or working on a volunteer basis. Students can also choose between conducting research on-campus during the school year or off-campus during the summer. Research topics are wide-ranging and include opportunities in fields like Bioinformatics, Social Science, History and Engineering. STEM-focused students will take an interest in BU’s summer research programs, which get students working alongside faculty in fields such as Astronomy, Biology and Chemistry.
Johns Hopkins University Undergraduate Research: Known as the first research university in the nation, research is something Johns Hopkins students take great pride in–and take seriously. Over 80% of Hopkins students engage in research during their time at the university. Through Hopkins Office for Undergraduate Research (HOUR), students can discover faculty researchers in need of student assistance whose projects match students’ interests. Hopkins also partners with public and government institutions who bring undergraduates into their research teams. These might include research in conservation and art history at the Smithsonian Institution or projects in a wide range of STEM fields with the National Science Foundation. Notably, Hopkins undergraduates can apply for fellowships that fund independent research, creative or scholarly projects through the Provost’s Undergraduate Research Award (PURA). Students at Hopkins’ Krieger School of Arts and Sciences can apply for the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, which funds undergraduates through three years of working with a faculty mentor, and places them in a seminar where they learn about topics like grant writing, academic conferences and applying to graduate school.
Undergraduate Research at Elon University–Elon’s core curriculum features an experiential learning requirement–meaning students undertake hands-on experiences as means of developing communication and critical thinking skills–and one way to fulfill this requirement is through the Undergraduate Research Program. Students can work alongside faculty mentors to earn credit that satisfies this requirement; they can also submit abstracts on their research projects and present those projects at Elon’s annual Spring Undergraduate Research Forum (SURF). Elon students can apply to the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience program and earn a stipend over the summer while living on-campus and preparing a project for publication or presentation at a conference. Topics for undergraduates to explore at Elon include data science, feminist theory, Latin American literature, and conservation ecology, to name a few!
Office of Undergraduate Research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign–at Illinois, undergraduates can join graduate students and even post-docs in the comprehensive Course on Foundations of Academic Research and Creative Activity and dive head-first into methods and practical components of research across disciplines. In addition to working alongside faculty, conducting summer research projects, and engaging in a number of on-campus opportunities during the school year, Illinois students can take advantage of the ability to present their work at the annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research, gaining invaluable experience sharing their work in a professional conference setting. The university also acknowledges outstanding student researchers with its Distinguished Undergraduate Research Certificate, which recognizes students’ achievements in the fields of communication, scholarship, data collection and analysis, and publishing.
California Institute of Technology Research–a prestigious leader in the field of technological innovation, CalTech’s reputation for world class research is well-earned; it’s one of the reasons that passionate STEM students are drawn to CalTech, where the student-faculty ratio is 3:1. The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program has been in place for 40 years, giving students opportunities such as working with engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory or researching gravitational-wave astronomy through the Laser Inferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO). CalTech also offers a unique focus on research across international contexts, inviting students to apply to the SURF Exchange Program and spend the summer conducting research at the University of Iceland.
Getting involved in a structured undergraduate research program is a wonderful way to make the most of the guidance and support offered by your university, as well as connect deeply with the faculty mentors who will likely help you on the next steps of your career journey. Whether it’s through a research course, a summer program, or a paid internship, undergraduate research can be a huge boon to your college experience!
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