<p>I want to live in MRC and I'm really hoping to get into that learning community, however the early deadline for UROP is June 1st. Should I wait until I hear about the learning community or should I apply for UROP now??</p>
<p>Apply for UROP. If you get accepted in both, you’ll get placed in MRC.</p>
<p>UROP is a huge waste of time. There are no tangible benefits and the research you do there is pretty lame/useless as far as helping you with grad schools. </p>
<p>Do MRC for mojo housing.</p>
<p>agree with bearcats. the only person i know who felt like urop was worthwhile was because she got work study for it.</p>
<p>I’m gonna get WS. But still, why isn’t it worth it?! It must be better than nothing, and I heard med schools really like that you do research.</p>
<p>real research
not urop research</p>
<p>then again not all urop reserach is bad, but you have to get a good project for it to be worth while and that can be incredibly difficult.
You might be better off finding research on your own.</p>
<p>From what I know from my D, UROP is what you make it. Research is definitely more important for some majors than others, so you may want to check with your department to see what expected.</p>
<p>UROP has opened up doors for my D and given her opportunities that would have not come her way otherwise, including a paid internship this summer (very rare and hard to come by in her major), stellar letter of recommendation from one of the top professors in her field and being mentored by a top professor who has offered to advise her through her honors thesis research when time comes. This is all in addition to also getting other honors/scholar/manager designations, getting to represent her lab at meetings and having a paid position (not work study) as a peer adviser next year. Some fields of study are more competitive than others, and UROP guides you toward building experience to help you stand-out in the crowd. </p>
<p>In UROP you will create a professional resume, interview with different labs for a research position, attend seminars to further develop lab and research skills (some of these are probably a bit boring, but some are really helpful) and present your work at a symposium at the end of the year. You can find a professor on your own to do research with, but UROP gives you just a bit more help in resume building.</p>
<p>what is your major? What are your grad school goals? It really depends. UROP can be quite valuable, both for grad admissions as well as professor connections.</p>
<p>I lived with many many pre-med students my first two years who did UROP as a jumping off point for padding their resumes with research experience, all of them except one hated their experience with UROP and wished they had independently found research on their own. After my first year I found my own research in a lab (by going door to door with professors for about a solid month and then beginning the following Fall semester) that I enjoy and am still working in. The two primary complaints about UROP are that you get stuck in a lab doing essentially “b i t ch” work and that the overall research in the lab is boring and not stimulating to you at all. Unless you have it on the ins with someone at U of M, which isn’t uncommon with some of the more “well off” in state kids, you will most likely be doing “b i t ch” work initially in any lab as an undergrad, but hey you’re an undergrad. </p>
<p>The key is to start doing that work in a lab that conducts research you are genuinely interested in and you can build up from there and start conducting actual research and collaborating with the Grad Students and the Professor as you go on and learn, from there you can actually start getting your name on presentations and poster boards, conduct an honors thesis if you choose, and be invented to conferences and presentations with your group. Get in early, freshman year is honestly a very ideal time to start looking around. Make plans to stay for the summers when you don’t have classes (or at least 12-18 credits worth of them) so you can be more active, and get paid in many situations as well.</p>
<p>My main question was really just if I should apply even though I’m pretty sure I’ll get in the MRC which means I’ll get a reasearch project for sure, but this thread has really opened my eyes. I"m planning on pre-med, majoring in biology/math and I’m really sure I want to do research but now I’m kind of unsure…</p>
<p>Do not base your opinion on just the few opinions listed on CC…this site is such a smalll sampling of many of the same posters over and over…I would re-read the parent posting from 2forcollege for the most well written and comprehensive comment thus far.</p>
<p>^ yea…because parents know more than students who actually attend the school…makes so much sense man!!</p>
<p>UROP is not necessarily bad. But in terms of probability, it is more likely you get stuck with a useless project and work as the unpaid (paid if you are doing work-study) lab assistant doing grunt work than being able to participate in real research. You are better off just cold-contacting professors whose research you are interested in.</p>
<p>The way I understand it. You are not assigned a project just because you enroll in UROP. You can pick from a list of projects and then interview for the one you like. If you don’t find anything interesting, you can just drop out.</p>
<p>The purpose of UROP is to help facilitate (or encourage) freshman to engage in research in the first year.</p>
<p>Not all UROP projects are boring. Here’s one that sounds quite interesting:
[University</a> of Michigan News Service](<a href=“http://www.ns.umich.edu/index.html?Releases/2005/Apr05/r041205a]University”>http://www.ns.umich.edu/index.html?Releases/2005/Apr05/r041205a)</p>
<p>“You can pick from a list of projects and then interview for the one you like.”
In reality it’s usually the projects picking you</p>
<p>^^ Correct. Undergrad students can select locations BUT the places choose whom they want after a round of interviews.</p>
<p>Wow bearcats, I’m very upfront that I"m a parent and giving info from that perspective. However, I’m fortunate to have a great relationship with my D and she discusses much with me about her experiences in college. I have found CC overall very helpful since we began our college search (now grad/law school for my older D) and feel it is important to give back.</p>
<p>One thing I notice in this thread is that the students who are negative about UROP, didn’t do it themselves and are basing their opinions on the experiences of others. Like most activities, UROP is what you make it. My D took great care in selecting which labs to apply to and then choosing which one to go with after receiving several offers. She choose well and has never felt as though she was being given “*” work. She loves her lab, and as I stated above, has reaped many benefits from the experience.</p>
<p>The opportunity is there for you to take advantage of if it will be helpful to your academic/career goals. Is it for everyone, no. It is a major time commitment and you may end-up in one of the less interesting labs if you aren’t proactive in the interview/project selection process.</p>
<p>
Then who gets the interesting projects? UROP is mainly for freshman and sophomore students so you are not competing with upperclassmen.</p>
<p>I definitely agree that you should apply to UROP as a backup to MRC.</p>
<p>If you’re going to get work-study for UROP, it’s definitely not a bad deal for a first-year student to make $8.50 an hour to do research. Not a bad deal at all.</p>
<p>UROP itself is full of administrative issues and horribly incompetent leaders, and that made for a lot of unpleasant situations and wasted time. However, my experience with my actual research sponsor was wonderful and I benefited from it greatly. </p>
<p>I would say for a freshman who needs a work-study job anyhow, the pluses outweigh the minuses. Don’t bother if you’re only for credit, though, you can find research without dealing with all of UROP’s crap. It’s too bad there’s no other way to get $$ as an RA (research assistant).</p>
<p>“Then who gets the interesting projects? UROP is mainly for freshman and sophomore students so you are not competing with upperclassmen.”</p>
<p>Uhhh, GoBlue, the undergraduate students can apply to any department they want (assuming it matches their academic interests). Each department then interviews and selects the students that fit their criteria. Students do UROP for academic credit. In my department, we had all grade levels (freshman-senior) who participated in the program.</p>
<p>
So they are not enforcing the stated UROP policies … that’s a shame.</p>
<p>“We only admit about 60 Juniors and Seniors a year, whereas we admit about 500 sophomores and 500 freshmen a year.”</p>
<p>“Program Goal: Introduce first and second year students into the various field of research”
“Program Goal: Provide a Junior or Senior with no previous research experience, to enhance their education with a hands-on research opportunity before completing their degree”</p>
<p>Btw, why would a junior/senior want to go through UROP to do research? Wouldn’t it be easier to go down the hall in your department to look for interesting projects? You can do independent studies if you want to do it for credits. You might even get paid ‘real salaries’ as an RA if you are good.</p>