From cold emailing to applying to work with their professor, Northwestern undergraduate students get involved in research labs on campus in a variety of ways. The process can involve applying for grants, fellowship programs or a matching process through the Office of Undergraduate Research.
SESP senior Carly Winick joined a psychology lab in the winter of her junior year, eager to gain research experience for graduate school.
After persistently emailing several labs, a graduate student in the Personality, Motivation, and Cognition Laboratory eventually reached out to Winick, expressing the lab’s interest in offering her a position. Winick joined the lab and became a paid part-time assistant through the psychology department.
“I definitely got lucky that this lab was looking for an assistant,” Winick said.
Similarly, SESP senior Maya Vuchic initially faced challenges when applying for the Undergraduate Research Assistant Program. During her freshman year, she was hoping to do research under her first-year seminar professor but got rejected.
“I love sociology research, and I think it’s fascinating,” Vuchic said. “But (sociology) professors here, it’s really hard to get them to want an undergraduate assistant.”
Vuchic went to the Office of Undergraduate Research to workshop her application. After revising it, she was accepted into the program.
Associate Director of the Office of Undergraduate Research Megan Wood explained that the office focuses on advising, consistently helping students navigate the entire process of getting involved in research.
SESP Prof. Lilah Shapiro is a member of the review committee for Undergraduate Research Grants, a program that allows undergraduates to conduct their own research, and the Undergraduate Research Assistant Program, which provides funding to faculty to hire undergraduates to work with them.
Shapiro also sponsors several students on their research projects, acting as their primary supervisor.
Shapiro said she has used URAP to hire students directly, often having a specific student in mind when submitting her applications.
Faculty can also apply without a particular student in mind. In this case, the Office of Undergraduate Research helps match undergraduates who are interested in getting involved with faculty members.
In addition to the opportunities offered through the Office of Undergraduate Research, students also find alternative ways to get involved in research.
McCormick sophomore Buck Arney applied to be a Greenbriar Undergraduate Fellow during his freshman year and received a $5,000 award, which he used toward working on his summer research project on transportation and logistics.
Arney researched high-speed rail demand between Chicago and New York, creating a mathematical model to predict ridership depending on various routes.
Arney got in contact with Economics Prof. Ian Savage, the Director of the Transportation and Logistics Program, and met with him once a week to get assistance on the math for creating his route model.
Tori Saxum, program coordinator for the Office of Undergraduate Research,encouraged students to explore undergraduate research.
“(Undergraduate research) lets students study things that they’re interested in outside of the classroom, and they can have a lot more control over what they study, and it also just gives a lot of really good, important skills that will help in life,” Saxum said.
Email: iladohrmann2028@u.northwestern.edu
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