<p>I’m a 3rd year and I’m looking through URAP to try and get a position. My question was just around general experiences with URAP and undergraduate research.
-What does the application look like?
-I’m assuming there’s a required interview? What is that like?
-Is it possible to do undergrad research while taking around 17 units and having extracurricular responsibilities?
-Can you apply to more than one position at the same time to increase your chances of getting into one?
-How competitive is it??</p>
<p>Also, is it better to stay within your major or to go outside of it?</p>
<p>For the application, it asks you for you name, contact info, GPA, what year you’re in, your major/minor, a statement of interest (for the specific URAP project you applied for), and finally, any relevant coursework (excluding high school AP classes). You have to do a separate application for each professor you apply to.</p>
<p>For interviews, some URAP projects have a required interview, some don’t.</p>
<p>For your third question, I’m not exactly sure what that would be like in your case… I guess that would depend on how heavy the workload is for those 17 units and how well you handle that workload.</p>
<p>For your fourth question, yes, you can apply to more than one, but I believe the max is something like 3. However, if you get accepted into multiple, you have to decline one of the projects you got accepted into, because the URAP people only allow you to do one URAP project at a time.</p>
<p>As for staying within your major or going outside of it… I guess that would depend on your interests. One thing to note is that some projects can be hosted by a professor whose department is not directly related to the the project itself. For example, I seen like some computer science/programming projects that were hosted by professors from the Art department and Business department.</p>
<p>And finally, as for how competitive it is, I’m not exactly sure, but I can tell you what my stats/application was like when I applied for URAP (I applied for 2, and got accepted into one of the URAP projects I applied to, and I’m continuing it this Spring):</p>
<p>GPA at the time of the application: 2.871
Class standing: Sophomore
Major: EECS
What my statement of interest was like: I mentioned the past programming experience I had and I can contribute to the URAP project with the programming skills I currently had.</p>
<p>Relevant coursework: Mentioned that I got a B in CS61A and a B- in CS61B</p>
<p>I used this information when applying to 2 different URAP projects (though I slightly altered my statement of interest in my 2nd application to match what the project was looking for), and I got accepted into one. It was a game programming URAP project hosted by a professor in the Haas Business department.</p>
<p>So yeah, basically, even though my GPA was relatively bad, I still managed to get in.</p>
<p>I applied for an econ project with a 3.4 and did not even get an interview. I have since been involved with two seperate faculty sponsored research projects and one independent project (not through URAP). So I guess the competitiveness depends on the subject/faculty. As far as time commitment, one of my projects was very time consuming while the other has been very light. In any case 17 units and other extra curricular commitments doesn’t sound too bad but it depends on your time management skills. If you land a URAP project I would recommend you find out how much time you are expected to out in.</p>
<p>Different people have different experiences with URAP. It largely depends on what department the professor is in.</p>
<p>I think this is a good key to use to determine if it’s better to go the URAP route or just email the professor or just walk into their office and ask them to talk to you about their research (professors LOVE to tell people about their work)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If the lab is Engineering-MCB-CancerResearch-HIV Research, I think it’s better to go and talk to the professor personally than apply through URAP. I say this because, what URAP does unconsciously is it pairs you against other students DIRECTLY, and more on terms of who has the better GPA. When you go and speak with a professor, he is evaluating whether or not YOU, yourself are a good fit for his or her lab, not you OVER someone else.</p></li>
<li><p>If the lab is in a relatively non competitive department, like Botany, Entomology, Zoology, I think going the URAP is fine.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>You really have to judge how competitive of an applicant you are.</p>
<p>Sorry to double post, but just in response to whether it’s better to stay within your department or not,</p>
<p>I know a Public Health major who is very good with computer programming just for a hobby, and she applied on URAP for Saul Perlmutter’s lab (2011 Nobel Laureate for Physics) and was accepted!</p>
<p>@BerkeleyTropics: Have you thought about applying to the Haas Scholars Program?</p>
<p>From experience, I find it much more effective to directly send an e-mail to the professor that you are interested in and schedule a meeting. </p>
<p>Research is a long-term commitment so rather than having the mindset “I want to get into something”, you should think of it as “What research should I do that I wouldn’t mind doing for at least one full semester?”</p>
<p>3rd year who did URAP with the business school for a year and a summer. </p>
<p>Interview mainly asked about my interest in the field, and I talked about relevant instances that piqued my interest.</p>
<p>It’s possible with 17 units, but it is definitely going to be a priority. expect running studies or other research/administrative tasks that’ll take up 6-9 hours per week. They do a good job (At least with my manager) about working with your schedule.</p>
<p>You can apply for up to 3. </p>
<p>It’s relatively competitive, the first semester i applied to 3 i didnt’ get into any, and the second semester i applied to 3 and got only one.</p>