<p>So I am in my late 20’s. When I was going to schools I wasn’t interested in going to grad schools at the time, but now I am. The problem is, when I was in college I didn’t pursue research opportunities. Now I am really interested in going to grad school in Computer Science, Statistics, or Applied Math.</p>
<p>How can I build a research portfolio now that I am out and working as a software engineer about 50 miles away from the closest major research university? I understand this is something that grad schools look at a lot.</p>
<p>I’m not sure that you’d need “research experience” at all. In computer science, industry experience is often functionally equivalent to academic research. In math, graduate applicants aren’t expected to have research experience because math students aren’t in a position to do research until their 2nd or 3rd year in grad school. (The undergraduate math curriculum ends at the beginning of the 20th century, and students need to learn something recent first before they can start advancing mathematical theory.)</p>