McCormick Sophomore - Ask me anything!

thatrunnerkid
Wed, 25 Mar 2015 04:03:41 +0000

@oilJspill‌

I don’t have all that much experience with research at Northwestern, but I’ll tell my experience with it and give a few examples of people I know who have gotten involved.

Summary of the following: Ask as many professors about research as you can, try Undergraduate Research Grants (URGs) in summer.

First off, I’ll just say that I’m not that interested in research, so don’t take my personal research stories that seriously, since I kind of half-buttocked my efforts. I asked around in the department in which I have my minor in Weinberg (German) as to what sort of research professors are doing, and one of them had a really cool project. Unfortunately, the professor had a sizable delay in getting it started so I never got myself attached to the project. I have also contacted, or tried to contact, the main lab for my department, and only got one email back saying they weren’t considering any more undergraduates that quarter (this past quarter), so I gave up, since I’m studying abroad all of next year and I won’t be able to get seriously involved in research because of my absence.

As for other people, one person asked like all the professors in his (larger, with more labs) department in his first quarter at NU because he knew research was something he wanted to do, and got a research position either tht quarter or the next one.

A few other friends of mine, engineers, also have research positions in labs in their department, though I don’t know exactly how they got those jobs. But, the point is, it’s definitely doable to get started doing research. Just ask around.

One way I know people can make your position more permanent is through an Undergraduate Research Grant. The website is here: http://undergradresearch.northwestern.edu/