UTModPhy: References: How to get an undergraduate research position

How to Find an Undergraduate Research Project

Pick up a useful skill
Get a high grade in a course
Go to seminars and colloquia
Talk to grad students
Prepare a curriculum vitae
Be familiar with the research the professor does
Be upfront about your time commitments
Don't count on getting paid until you are useful
Be prepared

There are some caveats to keep in mind.

It's not that important which field you choose
It's not that important to work directly under a professor
It's not that important to find a theoretical project, even if you're a theorist
It is extremely important to find a good professor
It is extremely important to do work that is fun and interesting

by Philip Flip Kromer
flip@physics.utexas.edu

Pick up a useful skill

It is much easier to get a research job when you can bring something useful to the group. Skills with universal appeal include

Machining

Electronics

Computer programming, especially C, Fortran, Mathematica, or Matlab.

Computer data acquisition, especially LabView (I mention this separately because many groups are implementing it).

You can learn machining by taking PHY108, Introduction to Research, or by bringing Jack in the student machine shop a six pack and asking him to show you. (I'm totally serious, and he can teach you how in a couple afternoons).

PHY338K, Electronic Techniques, teaches you almost enough to be useful. Consider the appropriate ECE course if you are gung-ho enough.

My advice for learning any computer language is to select a simple, well-defined problem which you find interesting and solve it in that language. For instance, simulate the dynamics of a nonlinear pendulum or solve a Rubik's cube. This is faster and better than the Learn Foo in 21 Days book.

Get a very high grade in a course

The best -- and easiest -- way to approach a professor for an undergraduate research project is when you're kicking butt in her course and you both know it.

You don't have to be the highest grade or even an A, as long as you impress the professor with your ability and general togetherness.

People usually recommend going to office hours frequently so that the professor knows who you are. This is reasonably good advice, but make sure you have a legitimate, well posed question to ask. Don't take this opportunity to show that you are the next Al Einstein or to share your ideas on Quantum Mechanics. Just show that you are responsible and good at doing physics.

I do not advocate brown-nosing. Hard work is your only bet.

Go to seminars and colloquia

This is the other important way to make yourself visible to researchers in a specific field. It is also the best way to find out what is specifically going on in that field.

Often, individual groups within a field will have their own meetings in addition to the main group seminar. Attend those if you have the time and feel comfortable doing so.

The topic and room for each group's seminar are given on the department calendar displayed outside RLM 5.208.

Talk to grad students

Grad students may feel more approachable than professors, and may feel more free to let you know what is really going on. They will also know what opportunities there are in each group.

Since grad students actually work for the professors, they are also the best source for the "word on the street:" who is good to work for and who is a slave driver.

Find out about a couple people, since the professor you first approach may refer you to someone else.

Prepare a curriculum vitae

This is not so much a resum� as a summary of your academic and research credentials. Don't worry about satisfying the formal structure of a conventional resume. Rather, describe the myriad ways in which you will be a useful and deserving candidate.

For instance, a professor will not be as impressed by your part time job at the hardware store as by your part time electronics hobby. List interesting projects you did for classes, summarize your grades in physics and math courses, and mention relevant work experience. If you are proficient in one of the useful skill above put that front and center and document your experience.

Learn about the research the professors do

Start by consulting the home pages for several professors in the group you're interested in, so that you can find their research interests and recent publications:

List of Faculty (Alphabetical)

List of Faculty (by Area)

List of Research Groups

Check all three -- these pages are rather inchoate and so you may find different links from each list.

Assemble a list of the recent papers by this professor and read through them. Will you understand everything that's going on in these papers? Of course not. But you will get something out of it. Try to find a review paper on the subject (ask someone at the group's seminar for a reference).

Be upfront about your time commitments

Treat this new adventure as a job: if this is a 3 credit course, you should be machining/deriving/hacking for fifteen to twenty hours a week. (For a 1 hour course, five to ten; for two credit hours ten to fifteen). They should be the same fifteen hours each week and they should be fifteen hours during which the other members of your group are around.

This time is in addition to the colloquium, group seminar, and usually research group meetings which you should continue to attend.

Therefore, the first thing you should do is draw up a sane calendar which includes the fifteen to twenty hour job you are about to undertake. Should you quit your part-time job to do a research project? Probably, if you can afford it; no, if you cannot; but either way, only sign up for as many credits as you can honestly undertake. And make sure that you and the professor have the same understanding of that time commitment.

Count on making yourself useful before you can get paid.

It is possible to get paid as an undergraduate researcher, but you should probably count on just earning credit to start off. After you have made yourself useful, you can definitely ask your professor to help you find funding.

Be prepared

Once you have pinpointed a research area or professor, made yourself well known by assiduously attending seminars and/or starring in that professor's course, and done all the background work, you will have an excellent chance of earning a research position.

You should either come in to the professor's regular office hours or make a special appointment. An appointment is good because you can send an e-mail which introduces you, mentions the high points of your CV, and says what type of work you are interested in. This gets the hard stuff out of the way and also lets you polish your approach.

When you go in to talk to the professor, you should bring

Your CV

An unofficial transcript

Don't be offended if the professor refers you to someone else; you want to sign on with someone who has time to spare for you. Try to get a couple of leads and be sure to ask if you may use this professor as a reference.

Also don't feel bad about coming back to ask for more references if the first batch don't work out. Grad students can give good leads, too.

It's not that important which field you choose

That is, it doesn't have to be the field you eventually want to go into.

It should not be something which bores you, either! If there is a group that you are strongly attracted do, you can get in to it with the right qualifications and hard work. Talk to a professor in that group to find out what is expected, and attend the group's seminars regularly.

It's not that important to work directly under a professor

You will almost certainly work under a grad student or post-doc and not directly for the professor. That's OK: sometimes even grad students work for post docs and not directly for the professor. This varies from group to group but there is no shame in it.

It's not that important to find a theoretical project, even if you want to be a theorist

If you can find a suitable theoretical project, that's great! It is not that there aren't theorists willing to supervise projects; see Dr. Oakes list of undergraduate research opportunities for several. However, while pretty much anybody who can machine or hook up an op-amp can get an experimental project, the learning curve is much steeper for theoretical projects, and the return for the professor is smaller.

My feeling is that even if you want to be a theorist, you should do an experimental or computational project if that's what's available. You will be useful faster and more likely to do something valuable. The fact that you did research, the recommendation you earn, and the caliber of your work is more important than the field or concentration of that research.

It is extremely important to choose a good professor

The most important thing to look for when you choose a project -- far more important than the field or even the type of research -- is that the professor you work for be a reasonable, approachable person with enough time to help you along. You do not want to work for a professor who is never around for questions, or one who expects you to work round the clock and know everything.

Grad students, as a rule, will both know and be willing to tell you whom to work for and whom to avoid.

It is extremely important to do work that is fun and interesting

You shouldn't be somebody's computer flunky or personal machinist. While you should expect to pick up the share of scut work due your low seniority, you should be doing research, not webpage design. If that's what they need let them pay you for it. Make sure that this scut work is organized around a framework of real science which you feel proud of and motivated by.