Hello CC,
I am currently a junior majoring in business administration, with concentrations in accounting and finance, and I need to do a research project as a requirement for graduation at my university. It doesn’t have to be strictly related to accounting or finance. I was thinking of doing one that has to do with management/data analysis/business analytics, because I would like to get an MBA in the future, and I want a bit of a taste of what working in these fields would be like. My issue is trying to come up with an idea for a research project. I have done some research on the Web, but I am having trouble; I have never done anything like this before, and I don’t know where to start.
If any of you out there have been in my shoes and might have even done a research project in these areas, I would really appreciate some advice. What are some good research topics, and where would be a good place to start? I am required to work with a professor, and I want to do it with my data analysis professor, but I need an idea of what to research before I approach her about this.
Could you schedule a meeting with her to brainstorm? A lot of profs have more ideas than they have time to follow up on. She could at least point you to some reading or areas to explore for topics.
I could. I would prefer to have a course of action before I ask her to work with me so that she will be more likely to agree, if you know what I mean.
What @intparent is proposing makes the most sense. You are trying to pull something out of thin air. Schedule a meeting with the professor who you want to mentor you and tell him or her that you are searching for a mentor and project ideas. You could even go and meet with several potential mentors and see which potential line of research that they are going to help with do you like best. You aren’t expected to do something monumental, you are expected to get a project completed to show that you are ready to graduate.
Even if you follow one of their suggestions, you can still produce interesting work. I think it is very common for students looking for a senior project or thesis idea to ask profs for direction in picking a topic.
Is there any info available about what previous students have done? Lookng at some of those project titles may give you more to talk about with the prof.