Assessment
Is a research project right for me?
Self-assessment comes first
Research, like any rewarding endeavor, requires commitment. Before committing to anything, consider your time constraints, your interests, your personal working style and your educational goals.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What do I hope to gain from the research experience? Do I want to enrich my undergraduate experience? Work toward a larger goal of helping to create new information and knowledge? Prepare for graduate school or a future profession?
- How do I learn best? In a class? Reading texts and resource materials? Working hands-on? Processing visually?
- What motivates me? Looking at information in depth? Trying what others have never done? Getting to know faculty better? Being involved at UC San Diego in new settings and with new people?
- Am I able to organize my time? Will I be able to not only to work on a research project but also to do the leg work with advisors, faculty, and colleagues/friends to plan it? How will this project fit in with other graduation, gen-ed and major requirements?
- Do I prefer to work one-on-one or in small groups?
- Am I interested in more thoroughly exploring a subject I already know pretty well?
- Would I like to work on something completely new to me and different from my major?
- Would I consider a full-time summer program?
- Will I need financial support from the university or an outside source to help free up time to work on the project?
- Do I want to study abroad while working on the project? How much time would I need in the host country? Could I accomplish what I need to during spring or summer breaks?
- Am I willing to persevere? If one faculty member is unavailable, can I find another or try a different path to accomplish my project? Do I have the determination to make this project happen?
Determine your eligibility
If you are planning to do research for course credit, make sure you have the academic prerequisites. If you require laboratory access, you will need a mentor or graduate student to provide it. If you don’t have 12 or more available hours a week to devote to this research, it is not realistic to sign up for course credit. See if you meet eligibility requirements such as GPA, ethnicity, citizenship or other conditions of participation.
UNDERGRADUATE PROFILE
Carissa Chu
College: Warren College, fourth year
Major: human biology
Minor: healthcare social issues
Research project: Activity-Dependent Regulation of the 26S Proteasome in Hippocampal Neurons by Calmodulin-Dependent Kinase II (CaMKII)
“Research is something I really enjoy,” says Carissa, who speaks from broad experience. She has tasted laboratory life as a student enrolled in the BISP 196 honors thesis in biological sciences program, as a recipient of a $1,000 Warren undergraduate research scholarship, and as a UC San Francisco summer intern engaged in clinical pain research. The next career stop for this busy senior is medical school in fall 2010.
Every undergrad comes to UC San Diego knowing it’s a great research school, but tracking down specific research opportunities can be daunting. “It takes a lot of initiative and following those little voices in your head that spur you to learn more about a subject,” says Carissa.
Her mentor at UCSD, assistant professor of biology Gentry Patrick, studies synaptic plasticity: the underlying cellular mechanisms of learning and memory. The Patrick lab looks at neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Lewy body disease—the most common causes of dementia in elderly populations.
Carissa read about Patrick’s research while she was working at UC San Francisco, recalled her experience as a freshman student in his introductory biology course, and approached him about serving as a mentor for her 196 course work. By shadowing one of Patrick’s Ph.D. students, she was able to learn the laboratory ropes, perform some experiments, collect data, and eventually generate some of her own ideas for future research. “I like the hands-on planning and execution of experiments,” she says.
Carissa’s neurobiology research project at the Patrick lab garnered a best poster award at the 2009 UCSD Division of Biological Sciences Inaugural Research Showcase. The showcase celebrates the achievements of undergraduate and master’s students conducting research in laboratories across campus.