Research Project Proposal For Undergrads And Graduates: Fill & Download for Free

When I examine potential graduate students, I look for several things. We require GRE scores and TOEFL (or other English proficiency tests) scores for non-native English speaking students. The students must also submit a transcript with grades. And they must make a statement about their research interests.My first pass at looking at these items. If a student is not interested in my field of research, then I won’t look further. I check the grades and GRE because the university has minimum requirements for both. Furthermore, we have scholarships and fellowships and good scores are often the way that these are granted (i.e., if the student scored well enough, maybe I can get them a fellowship). Good scores are also important because they indicate that a student has done well as an undergraduate.If all of those things look good, then I will read letters of recommendation. I am looking for a student who shows good work ethic and has impressed professors at the undergrad level. I will also read the personal statement to see what motivates the student and to see if they have prior research experience. Some students have been motivated enough to gain that experience as an undergrad and this shortens the time it will take to get them doing research with me.Also, my criteria for MS and PhD students are different. If the student seems to have potential, then they have met my standards for a MS. The PhD is a degree where the student must show initiative and do much of their own thinking of research. Thus, I rarely take a PhD student without experience with them. I have had many smart students who were nonetheless not good candidates for a PhD because they don’t have the right personality, drive, and skills. To be a PhD, you must be able to independently think up your own research projects (so I get you started and you take off from there). You must be an excellent writer because you will write hundreds of pages per year of research proposals, reports, and papers. If you don’t like to write, do something else. And you must be a research “terrier”. By that I mean you must be persistent and thorough in your research. You must think of every angle you can and look up every reference you can - or if you don’t - it should keep you awake at night. If you don’t like that, do something else.

Undoubtedly the smartest student I ever had was a Chinese graduate student who had done her undergrad work in China. She took one course from me and I was a member of her MS thesis committee, though not the director. She also worked for me part time for a couple of years as a research assistant on a project to evaluate undergraduate student records and propose mechanisms for improving graduation/retention rates. Her work on that earned us accolades from an accreditation visiting committee for the depth of understanding we had of our student population.But the reason I nominate her as the smartest is something that happened a couple of weeks before she started her first semester. She had arrived early to find a place to live and deal with all the usual stuff, and she came by school to check things out. We were having a MS thesis defense the day she was there. Those are always open to anyone who wants to attend, and she decided to see what it was all about.The thesis was one of several in a large research project we were dong with Georgia Tech. The subject was developing pointers to related genes in the human genome via data mining of research articles in medical databases. This is pretty complicated stuff overall, and in particular in terms of information retrieval (query formation &c) and database manipulation (seriously huge amounts of data, in the days before we had big data machines to address the problem).The group had two professors from GT there, along with the committee members from our school and a couple of interested faculty. At the end of the presentation the grad student asked if there were any questions. There were a couple of minor ones, then the student I’m referring to asked a question that caused total silence in the room. It was incredibly insightful and opened up a whole new aspect of the research project that none of us had ever thought of. Just wow.

A professor told me: "Minimize the email-reply activation energy." If they can answer in a sentence, they will get back to you faster and happier.That means you should say something short, informative, and actionable like this:Hi, my name is ____. I am a sophomore physics major interested in joining your lab in ____ semester.I have previously done research in ____ and taken lab class ____.I am interested in ____ physics sub-field. After reading your recent paper on ____, I became interested in your lab.Do you have space for an undergraduate researcher?If so, I would like to meet and talk about possible projects. I am available _____, but am also very flexible if need be. When is a good time for you?Attached is my CV.The possible answers are pretty much limited to "No," and "Yes, let's meet on ___", and since you gave them a list of times, even that choice is easier.Once you meet in person,* that's where you can bring up a project proposal (if you have one -- be prepared to be shot down, but I think professors like to see that you've thought deeply enough about the field to think of a project), talk about their work (make sure you know their recent work before you go), and ask things like "Would it be possible to participate in a publication?", "How many hours a week should I work?", and "When do you have lab meetings?"* Saving questions for later will lower email activation energy and increase the rate of response. It's just kinetics.From there, the PI will usually email their graduate students and postdocs looking for someone willing to mentor an undergrad. Talk to them after lab meetings and get an idea for what they're like. If you're serious about publishing, you're going to be in this lab for the long haul.Be prepared to email multiple people!Here are some resources:Professor Pinto's Guide to Finding a Lab | Undergrad Research OpportunitiesHow to Find a Lab PositionFinding a lab to do an undergraduate research projectUndergraduate Instructional ProgramUndergraduate ResearchGood luck! Research is fun and can be a wonderful experience. Remember, in undergraduate research what matters more than the project is finding a nurturing environment that will help you grow as a scientist.