<p>Is it easy to get quality research opportunities at UM as an undergrad, especially in the biological sciences? How does research count: as credit, volunteer, or money?
Thanks</p>
<p>Incredibly easy. Check out UROP. All three of those options are available w/ the UROP program, but you better apply like...today. Its 1st come 1st serve!</p>
<p>Can you start applying even if you're not enrolled yet? Also, where's the website?</p>
<p>Here's the website: <a href="http://www.lsa.umich.edu/urop/admissions/application/%5B/url%5D">http://www.lsa.umich.edu/urop/admissions/application/</a></p>
<p>I guess incoming freshman can apply starting May 1. UM definitely does not advertise this very well. Is the application process competitive?</p>
<p>The app process is not competitive in terms of credentials or anything...its just a first come first serve..if you get it in early enough, you're gonna get in it. But it's not like they look at ur GPA or SAT scores or something and say you're not good enough...i did UROP for this year (my freshman yr) by the way</p>
<p>is the March 24 priority deadline for incoming freshman as well?</p>
<p>No...it says that they aren't yet accepting applications from incoming freshmen the way I read it.</p>
<p>Umardarr, canyou tell us a little about your UROP experience? Did you like it? Was it time consuming?</p>
<p>From what I hear from people with experience, it's often better to individually seek out a professor and discuss research opportunities rather than go through UROP because the program has lots of pointless meetings and other busywork.</p>
<p>Chibears, would you think that it would be easy to individually seek out a professor for research opportunities at a big university as UM.</p>
<p>Yes, certainly. Everyone I know that has tried has succeeded in that area.</p>
<p>After my first year....i definitely say for premed at least...its better to get in contact with a professor of the med school and start doing summer research things with them...this guy i know did that and has a load of papers published and is learnig sooooo much material i can only imagine</p>
<p>My UROP experience: we tried to attach an artificial lung to sheeps and see how long they can survive with it with medications and such. It is supposed to be an alternative to the ventilator that so many patients with chronic lung disease have to be put on. Our goal this year was to keep the sheep alive and the lung successfully working for 1 month which failed miserably...last year it did reach its goal of a week however...i think this year we got it upto 2 weeks max</p>
<p>anyways i learned a lot like how to take ACT's, Blood Gases, give mediciations, deal with OR type procedures and what not so that was really cool. But it started to fade out cause since the sheep used to die and experiments started up a week after and what not, i barely got any real experience and the taking blood samples soon turned into looking at data and making graphs out of them. </p>
<p>UROP is okay..i would recommend trying it out and then decide to quit for the 2nd year if u decide u dont like it...its just that for the first year i practically did nothing but make charts and graphs and calculate stuff for the guys...i did learn a lot though that was related to medicine and i made a lot of friends and got to know some of the main guys up front so UROP definitely has it's advantages</p>
<p>I dunno...it's like...if your not amazing with your research then not much is gonna happen....but you can still get a good recommendation at the end of the year which is a big plus and its a nice GPA booster which is a VERY nice big plus :)</p>
<p>overall...just try it out...and yea the 2 meetings per month is sort of a pain too....if u are really into research, try it though</p>
<p>and then if you do it for 2 years, ur 3rd year u can apply to be a research advisor...now THAT looks good on ur rec's lol...but u also gotta be committed cause it takes a load of time so dont just do that for the way it'll look to med schools</p>
<p>Do you get to chose which project you want to work on, or is it assigned to you?</p>
<p>You pick, but know that if you aren't interested in medicine, engineering, or the humanities, there are very slim pickings.</p>
<p>u apply and interview for various research projects...it might sound daunting thinking "oh what if i interview and I don't get a spot on a project?" but they help you in the best way by creating resumes and what not and 99.9% chance you will get a project...you have to be really quick though to get the project of your first choice however</p>
<p>with me, i only interviewed for that 1 project spot iwas explaining above, hahaha....during that time, this project seemed really sweet cause it had to do with surgery and stuff and i am really into surgery and i wanan do that when i go into medicine....anyways i got that spot my first try so i didnt have to worry about not getting a spot...</p>
<p>i was actually really proud cause only like 10 kids got a spot out of like 50 applicants for this project! i was happy there lol</p>
<p>there are so many projects to work on and you can learn a lot of things, i know i did even though i think its really boring and annoying now lol</p>