What even is research?              Why do it?

"Developing and maintaining undergraduate research programs benefits students, faculty mentors, and the university. "

- Petrella, Jung, 2008

Universities have a lot of money...

This becomes clear, maybe when you first visited a college campus, saw the updated infrastructure, dormitories, libraries, and amenities thrown at mere 18-22 year olds. Maybe you have done some googling and saw the endowment of large, prestigious academic institutions, like those of Harvard or MIT totaling well over 20 billion dollars (over 50 billion in Harvard's case).  Long story short, there is a lot of cash to be spread around any given university. With all this money, how does university administration decide to spend it?

In short, the vast majority of nationally recognized universities put a lot of money into research.

If you are attending a tier 1 research university (here is all 146), chances are there is way more money invested in the university's research output than the coursework and other extracurricular experiences you are there to do in the first place. So, why not jump in and see what your school is paying so much money for?

The sad truth about undergraduate research

You would naturally assume that if a school is investing so much in research, they would be great at informing undergraduates about it.

 Sadly, this is far from true. 

A 2018 study published by Jane Stout found that in a group of almost 10,000 senior undergraduate students were asked first if they had participated at all in research, of which 7,361 responded no (~77%). Then they asked them why not. Simple enough, right? 

Out of the group that responded no, over 50% responded categorically as "not aware of research opportunities," and 27% as "never occurred to me."

As someone who deeply loves research and appreciates how amazing of an opportunity research as an undergraduate can be, this is extremely disappointing and frustrating.

Who even is doing research? And where are they doing it?

As previously discussed, many students can walk around their campus, attend 8 semesters worth of classes, and still manage to never realize what research even is. 

The secret is, your professors (of Assistant level or higher), are barely thinking about teaching your class. To them, teaching is usually just a small task to complete in order to get tenure or similar promotions.

The reality is, your professors' main preoccupation is leading a research laboratory on campus. Most of your upper level STEM professors are whats called a Principal Investigator (PI for short). As a PI, they are mentoring potentially a dozen graduate students, writing grants, corresponding with peer reviewers, publishing papers and more, all for their own lab to function. 

The quality of a professor, as deemed by the people hiring and monitoring them, is not really determined by their ability to teach classes, but rather by how many papers they publish, how many citations those papers get, how much grant money are they earning, and if their graduate students are succeeding and earning their PhD.

Also, it is important to note if you don't already know, "graduate students" that are working to achieve their doctoral degree aren't really focused on classwork either. Rather, their graduation depends on the day in and day out work they are doing to perform experiments, read literature, and publish papers.

Why do research?

For one, participation in school-provided undergraduate research programs increases retention rate (decreases dropout rate) and increases academic achievement, particularly in students of color and those with already below-average academic standing. The authors of this study extend this conclusion to research programs' ability to provide "safe havens" for under represented students at their home institution. 

There is a plethora of research done that shows that undergraduate research increases student GPA, regardless of academic standing prior to involvement. 

Overall, it is widely accepted that involvement in undergraduate research is a fulfilling experience that more closely connects students with their coursework. However, there is a different reason, that for many undergraduates, research involvement is non-negotiable.

This is because if you want to go to medical school or graduate school, you essentially have to do research in order to gain admission to any of these programs. 

If you want to go to medical school...

For applicants who wish to be accepted to medical  school, admissions committees are showing an equal or slightly higher preference for applicants with research experience than those with physician shadowing experience. Additionally, anywhere from 80-90% of accepted students to med schools at top research universities have some sort of research experience, most likely close to 1.5 to 2 years. 

So, if you plan on going to medical school and aren't doing research during your undergraduate studies, you'll most likely find yourself needing to make up for it at some point. 

If you want to go to graduate school...

As the job market stands today, many consider top-level positions even in industry to be reserved for those with a doctoral degree. In academia, you will be hard-pressed to find someone with a full-time position without a graduate degree. Achieving a PhD is estimated to be a $1 million investment, or 43% increase, in your total career earnings. Overall, those with a graduate degree in all fields will make significantly more money than those with just a bachelor's degree. 

Before even getting into statistics on research involvement and graduate school acceptance rates, it is important to note that a graduate degree IS a degree in research. Even before calculating acceptance chances to graduate programs, it would not be a smart decision to commit to something like graduate school before even testing the waters.

With that being said, research experience is typically considered the #1 factor that can strengthen or weaken your application to graduate school. This notion is echoed by admissions consultation services, real admissions committee members, and PhD program application websites. The bottom line is that if you can't demonstrate on your graduate school application that you are capable of performing research at a reasonable level of productivity and understanding, you will have a very difficult time getting into graduate school. 

The Bigger Picture...

While the career leverage you can gain doing undergraduate research is truly great, this is just the tip of the iceberg as to why I believe undergraduate research is something every undergraduate should try out. 

The reality is, we all chose a particular major to study for some reason, whether that be difficulty, potential to make money, or even pressure from your parents to go on a particular career path. However, some (hopefully many) of us chose to do a science-adjacent or scientific career because at some point there was something you learned/did that really fascinated you. There most likely was a video or show you watched, a lesson your teacher taught you, or a story about a scientific discovery that made your jaw drop to the floor.  For those of us who chose our path for this kind of reason, it can be hard going through undergraduate courses without a daily reminder as to why we had the spark to choose what we study. 

With research, you can experience and engage with scientific discovery on a daily basis. There simply won't be a day where you have to remind yourself why you chose to study what you study, because the application is so vivid and tangible. 

For many undergraduates who follow a research-heavy career, they can discover or create genuinely new things and spend their life sharing them with people who have the same spark for science as they do.

There just isn't an easier way to achieve this feeling as an undergraduate.

Last, but certainly not least, is mentorship. As an undergraduate researcher, you are exposed to so many people of seniority that can provide extremely valuable insight on career paths and finding opportunities. For one, a letter of recommendation from an assistant professor at a research university is an excellent leg up during preliminary job searches, and PIs are some of the most well-connected people out there.

In short, researching as an undergraduate is an excellent way to expose yourself to potential mentors and advisors.

So, with all this being said, get started! You can find out to choose a research area here, how to actually contact professors at your institution to work with them here, and what to expect during your first research experience here.

Good luck!