Undergrad Research

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>I have been invited to join the honors program in my school's aerospace department which involves taking the tinier H variant of a couple AE classes (15 students vs normally 70) and doing a research project (as it was explained tome, like a mini masters thesis/grad school lite).</p>

<p>I'm reluctant to say yes for two reasons.
1. It seems like this is a program designed for those students who know they want to go directly into grad school after undergrad, in particular top end grad schools. Is this a waste of time and effort if I'm thinking of getting into the workforce before grad school (so I have time to decide what I want to do--see point 2).</p>

<ol>
<li>I don't feel like I know enough about anything to actually come up with something to research in depth. I see freshmen who come in already knowing exactly what niche topic they want to work on. I was waiting until I saw the upper level AE courses before I even decided a) if there was demand/need for a particular topic and b) if I was even capable of tackling it. I feel like such a fake, I get the grades I do because I have just enough brainpower that hard work and resourcefulness can take me to the finish line. However, I've seen the things actual smart people are doing even as undergrads, let alone grad students, and it just makes my heart completely drop into my stomach. I feel like if I say yes to this, I'm going to be found out.</li>
</ol>

2

<p>If you were invited then someone sees something in you that you don’t. And joining this program doesn’t mean you are destined for grad school. No doubt in my mind you should do it.</p>

<p>One last thing to keep in mind, trying out the program and finding out that it isn’t for you is OK, there is nothing wrong with that. I would much rather hire someone who pushed themselves above and beyond and might not have done as well in terms of grades opposed to someone who played it safe all four years. I would LOVE to have something like that to put on my resume and bring up during an interview. </p>

3

<p>One last thing, I got involved in undergraduate research last year and I will be publishing my first paper this year, and attempting to get one more published by May. I am going to work for a few years before considering grad school but I have loved every minute of the experience and highly recommend it to anyone that has the opportunity. </p>