My daughter is trying to pick which college to attend next year and has gotten her list down to 4 schools. She was super excited about the undergraduate research discussions at University of Alabama and University of Tulsa, but came away thinking there are not many opportunities at OU for UR. Does anyone have any experience with UR? What is your opinion? How valuable an experience was it and is it available at OU even for underclassmen?
My D is a freshman engineering major. She applied for and was accepted into an Honors engineering research program. She’s working about 10 hrs week for credit that will apply to the honors program requirements and I think will count as an engineering elective. She had some pretty extensive research experience in HS, so I do think that helped her application as this particular program is geared for sophomores/juniors. For freshman, there is the FYRE (first-year research experience program- though I think they are calling it the four year research experience program now) that is organized through the honors program-- several of D’s friends are participating in that program for course credit.
Paid jobs also seem to be readily available.
@oneundecided Thanks for that feedback. My daughter will be a chemical engineering major, but has no experience with research in HS. I still think this will excite her to know that your daughter is doing a freshman project. I looked up the FYRE program and also the Honors Research Assistant Program (HRAP) and think maybe those are more likely for her to qualify for than the program your D is doing. Either way, all three of these programs provide an opportunity for an underclassman to get involved with research at OU.
my D’s experience has been that faculty are very open to ugrads getting involved in research-- encourage D to just ask, they’ll make it happen.
It is absolutely not difficult to find research positions as an undergrad at OU. The FYRE, HRAP, and UROP programs all allow students to get involved early. I had multiple friends do each of these programs. I did research with two different professors during my time at OU. Once was simply by offering to help after I did well in a class. The other was my honors research, which is required to graduate with honors. Because of the research requirement for undergrads, many professors at OU are very used to taking on students. Many of these semester long experiences continue after the semester if the student is interested in pursuing it.
I visited Alabama and many other schools and I will say that OU does just as good of a job. Research opportunities will never just be handed to a student, regardless of school. But OU provides a multitude of opportunities for students to pursue research if they wish. I will say that it is readily available to interested students.
As to how useful it is, it wholly depends on the student and their goals. For me, I don’t have a career goal that focuses on research, so I’ve mainly pursued research in areas that were a) interesting to me and b) would look good on my resume for things that I am interested in. I have friends at OU that have done research that will be pursuing PhDs at incredibly prestigious schools and that is because of the quality of research that they did as undergrads. The same goes for my friends going to med school.
It is very rare that research will not help you in some way. The question is always whether it’s worth the time. For example, if you want to be an accountant, doing research might not have the largest impact on your career prospects. The same is not true if you want to do a more competitive field or one centered on research.
I know that’s a lot but I’ll try and summarize what I’m hearing about your D. I think your D should apply to do FYRE as a freshman. It’s a good program that (if we’re being honest) is pretty easy. It is generally not complicated at all, but serves as a useful resume boost for a freshman and will expose her to seeing if she thinks research is something she wants to continue to pursue throughout college.
@jerzmaster Same here. My D freshman NMF, after interview got FYRE and spending 10 hours per week for research with 3 course credit for that. She does not have any plans to do Ph.D. but is interested to learning basic sciences and the research side of it. So far she is happy and enjoying it.
My son spent last summer in a paid research position in ChemE. He will be doing the same this coming summer as a graduate (pay goes up). He has thoroughly enjoyed it.
To clarify, being in an undergraduate research program is not a necessary prerequisite to conducting research at OU. I obtained my position by speaking with a professor about a project he wanted to work on and offering my services.
That being said, I had already completed the courses and technology training which allowed me to succeed in the role. A freshman would not have been able to work on the project in the same manner that I did.
My D is in the FYRE program, she a meteorology major and working with drons and reporting atmospheric conditions at different altitudes. She also got a part time job at the National Weather Center involving lightning data. Lots of opportunities to students at various levels and various majors.