<p>Hello all,</p>
<p>I will be attending MIT next year, and am currently overly excited about all the options available. One of my reasons for choosing MIT was the UROP program, and I was wondering whether any first semester freshman get involved in a UROP. Or is it recommended that we wait until we've had time to adjust to campus life, etc.? Thanks for any input :)</p>
<p>Yes on both counts – some first semester freshmen get involved in UROPs (my husband had one within two weeks of setting foot on campus), but it’s often a good idea to wait a semester to get adjusted.</p>
<p>IAP of freshman year is a great time to get involved with a UROP, because you have all that time free to devote to getting up and running.</p>
<p>A friend of mine UROPed first semester, but she didn’t seem to really get much out of it beyond more sleep deprivation. If you’re looking to really dedicate yourself to the project you’ll be working on, it might be a good idea to wait a semester to adjust, especially if your first-semester GIRs will cover relevant material.</p>
<p>(But, of course, everyone’s experiences are different.)</p>
<p>I agree that for most people it’s probably not a good idea (and I also agree that IAP is a very good time to start), but there are exceptions. I came from a rigorous high school background, so adjusting to the workload wasn’t much of an issue, therefore I felt comfortable taking up a UROP. It was definitely the highlight of my first semester, and I’m glad I didn’t listen to the people (basically everyone I asked) who said I’d be crazy to get a UROP so early. Also, first semester freshman year is P/NR so it can’t hurt that much to experiment. If you find you have trouble keeping up with your classes, you can always drop your UROP. You can also wait until a few weeks into term, to gauge the workload first. </p>
<p>Whether or not professors would take you so early also depends on what area you want to UROP in and your experience. I recommend mass emailing anyone you think you’d like to work for, and you’re bound to get at least a few responses.</p>
<p>I also had a UROP first semester freshman year, and I have some advices I’d like to share.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Don’t just do a UROP first semester out of hastiness. Choose your UROP group carefully, and make sure it’s a topic you care about and would like to spend at least 10hrs/week working on.</p></li>
<li><p>As a freshman, I don’t think making a major breakthrough is a priority. Instead, I think you should select your UROP keeping in mind of the skills you want to acquire through your UROP. I, for one, wished I was more involved with coding/computation in my UROP, and wished I got to use more tools like Matlab, finite element analysis, some linear algebra tools often used in data analysis, in my 1st UROP. Those software skills will always come in handy for your later UROP’s and even for some classes.</p></li>
<li><p>The hardest thing about UROP I think is time management. A lot of time, you will be on your own, with very little monitoring. This means it is very easy to work 2-3 weeks with very little results. It’s very different from having weekly psets from a class, where you HAVE to get things done under a deadline. Therefore, I think you should set a schedule to yourself, with a list of objectives every week you should meet. It’s going to make your UROP much more productive. I wish I knew about that when I did my UROP.</p></li>
<li><p>If you keep those things in mind, I don’t see why you shouldn’t get involved in a UROP 1st semester.</p></li>
</ol>
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<p>Yeah, the problem is actually picking out those exceptions. MIT students are the brightest in the world, and each one (or… close enough to each one) comes in thinking that they are the most exceptional amongst the exceptional, will breeze by with a double major, etc 
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<p>This. Absolutely. Ultimately, one more semester of a UROP isn’t going to make much a difference in your life. But finding the right UROP with a personally motivating project… that’s the real value. It’s not worth rushing into just any old UROP in your major.</p>