Your mentorship of UROP students is very important! A student in your lab can:
- Make a significant contribution to a research project
- Test a research career
- Offer your graduate students and postdocs valuable mentoring experience
General information
The Biology Department encourages all course VII majors, and interested students from other Departments, to participate in undergraduate research.
The Biology Department encourages all course VII majors, and interested students from other Departments, to participate in undergraduate research.
- Research is usually performed through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, known as UROP.
- Most course 7 majors do UROP at some time during their degree.
Q and A
How do I advertise for UROPs?
How do I advertise for UROPs?
- Use the UROP web site, or simply email a description of your position to UROP@mit.edu and ask for it to be posted.
- Announce in your class that you are looking for a UROP.
- Invite a specific student who seems bright and interested to join your lab as a UROP.
- One plus to look for is completion of 7.02, which brings a student to a reasonable level of technical sophistication. However, you might also consider a freshman who has real enthusiasm, and will potentially remain with your lab for several years.
- Another great attribute is true interest of a student in the project you are offering.
- You might consider whether the student thinks he/she would like a research career, or is bound for medical school. However, part of the function of a UROP is to help a student decide whether he/she likes performing research, and all students should be given the opportunity.
- Another important criterion is time commitment. Is a potential student able to work at least 12 hours/week? Willing to commit to at least two semesters in the lab?
- See this sample questionnaire for additional thoughts.
- A good UROP project should be clearly defined, and initially simple. A UROP student will have limited time, and limited expertise.
- A student will usually need to learn basic techniques, will usually not know how to trouble-shoot, set up a control, or think about next experiments.
- All necessary reagents should be in the lab before the student starts the project, so as not to waste time waiting.
- The postdoc or graduate student mentor who is directly supervising a UROP student should play a major role in the design of the project.
- Typically, students spend 12 hours per week in the lab, for 12 units of credit. Less will not allow much research to be done, and may be frustrating to all.
- It is very difficult for a student to take 7.02 or other lab course (such as 5.310) together with a UROP, and this should be discouraged.
- A student should treat a UROP as equivalent to a course, with an appropriate number of hours assigned and a serious level of commitment.
- A student is expected to work the number of hours to which he/she has committed.
- It is important to explain that training and supervision of a student takes time, and will use grant money. A student is therefore expected to work seriously and responsibly to justify this investment.
- A student should present his/her research at lab meeting, in an organized and efficient format. The student may be helped by information in this Tips for Talks paper and by information on the UROP web site.
- A student should keep good records and should conduct research in an ethical manner
- Initially, a student will work best on a simple project which is closely supervised. This will build his/her confidence, and allow you to assess his/her abilities.
- With time and good performance, a student should be able to play a more independent role on the project. Optimally, a student should learn to trouble-shoot and suggest next experiments.
- Confidence that a student can work safely in the lab, has mastered the techniques being used, and will come to you if a question arises, are all good criteria for allowing more independence.
- Note that a UROP student cannot work in a laboratory unsupervised.
- As a Faculty advisor, you should meet with a student at least once per semester to discuss progress of a project and offer other mentoring advice.
- You (or a grad student/postdoc mentor directly supervising the student) should give the student a clear description of the project.
- If you are the direct supervisor, you should train a student to perform the appropriate experiments, after appropriate safety training.
- You should explain how to keep good records, and why this is important.
- You should get to know a UROP student well enough to write a meaningful letter of recommendation.
- Be patient and explain principles of experiments. A student may have little previous expertise in the area he/she is entering.
- Explain the meaning of hypothesis-driven research. You will help a student to understand that an experiment is designed to TEST a theory, not to PROVE it. This sets an important tone where there is no expectation of getting a “correct” answer, just an accurate one.
- Establish basic rules of ethical laboratory behavior.
- Emphasize the importance of accurate and timely record keeping.
- Explain that experiments often fail, and that one should not be discouraged. It is important to figure out why and move on.
- You should work with the grad student or postdoc mentor to help define a simple and feasible project.
- A mentor should understand that the goal of supervising a UROP student is to educate the student in how to do scientific research. A UROP student should not be treated as simply “a pair of hands”, but the interaction should have a significant intellectual component.
- You should discuss how to effectively supervise a UROP student with the mentor. This would include teaching good ethics, record-keeping, formulating hypotheses and troubleshooting.
- You should also discuss reasonable expectations – how much time the mentor should devote to supervision and how to balance this with time devoted to his/her own research .
- Try to find out whether the student is overloaded through courses or other activities. Frequently a student will sign up for too many courses, and UROP is the first thing to go.
- If course pressure is undermining a student’s commitment to research it may be best to have the student move out of the lab. For a student who has been in the lab a while, taking a semester’s break and then returning for the summer or subsequent semester is often acceptable.
- Ask whether he/she is enjoying UROP. Explain that understanding he/she possibly does not like research is a useful lesson.
- Where a student is taking UROP for credit, the UROP must be dropped by Drop Date, or the course will appear on the student’s transcript.
- Try to determine what the problem is. For example, does the student not understand or not like the project?
- Work with the mentor to encourage the UROP student to ask questions. Emphasize that naïve questions are expected, and are not “stupid”.
- Ask the student to explain what he/she does, and does not, understand, using written notes. These should be brought to a meeting.
- Give the student reading material. Encourage him/her to think about the project and to write down questions as he/she is reading.
- Try to assess whether it is the student who does not understand, or the mentor who has not explained the project clearly.
- Perhaps the project is not well-thought-out, and could be improved.
