<p>Hi everyone. I am a senior who is about to apply to the U of M this fall, College of Biological Sciences (I intend to major in Biology, pre-med/pre-dentistry track). There is no need to mention how great and famous the U of M medical school is. I know that through CBS's affiliation with the medical school, undergrad students have the opportunities to do a lot of research. And also the great research level done by the well-known faculty is also a big advantage for undergrad students who want to do research. However, my question is: how intense is the competition for those research jobs? With thousands of undergrad students at CBS, what is the ACTUALLY odds of getting a research job? As we all know that research jobs are critical for a med school applicant, my biggest concern is ending up having NO opportunities for research at all. Students at the U of M, especially CBS, please help me with my question. Thank you in advance.</p>
<p>Hi!
I’m a freshman at the U of M this year in the Honors Program for CBS. I actually have a great answer for this question. I’m glad you’re looking at the U of M. It’s the best school around. </p>
<p>I’ve been here for about a month and I found a research job already. There are a ton of ways to get involved with research. You can ask a professor you know, apply online at the employment website, or straight up send an email to a professor asking if they have any positions open. If you have work-study, you’re in and getting paid already. If you don’t, you basically have to volunteer for a semester or a year in a lab, with the same methods listed above. </p>
<p>I really recommend emailing professors. You can ask for names of professors in research from your advisor, from websites like experts.umn.edu, or from other places.</p>
<p>If you really want to get paid right away and you don’t have work-study, there’s a program called UROP on campus. 70% of proposals will be accepted this year. So, you can even write your own proposal and get paid for it! But being in CBS, you for sure want to do research in an actual lab. </p>
<p>There are so many ways to get involved with research, and it’s probably one of the easiest universities in the world to actually get a position. </p>
<p>If you ever want to message me, go ahead!</p>
<p>I would agree with atnaf1, if you want to get involved, you can and will. Work study is your best bet. I had it and despite having no experience whatsoever, I started working for pay in a laboratory doing wheat genetics and breeding right away during October of my freshman year, and I’ve been there ever since and loved every minute of it. If you don’t have work study, it’s a little bit harder, but it’s still possible to find paying jobs if you apply for as many as you can. And then anybody can do UROP. Just know that if you want to, you can, and the odds are good.</p>
<p>My one BIG piece of advice for Minnesota is apply. Apply apply apply for as many things as you can as often as you can even if you’re not entirely qualified every time. This applies to jobs, internships, research opportunities, study abroad opportunities, and scholarships. Scholarships at Minnesota are one of its best kept secrets. I applied for six scholarships to fund my study abroad, and I won seven of them, even one I didn’t apply for! Take the time, work the applications, and you can do ANYTHING at Minnesota.</p>