How to UROP by Aiden H. '28

This past Friday, I was in lab from 11 AM to 7:30 PM⁠01 IMPORTANT NOTE: this is not regular and I offered to be there the whole time, it was not entirely expected/forced lol running an ELISA,⁠02 Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay only to get no important results!! If this sounds fun to you, you should do a UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program)! jkjk, I actually really enjoy research here, and have found it to be by far the most validating and enjoyable part of my academic experience at MIT.

At MIT, over 90% of students will participate in a UROP before graduating, making it not only a super important academic experience, but a key MIT one. Through the program, students have the opportunity to partner with PhD students and post-docs in their labs to work on their current research, whatever the department or interest. These are also fairly non-binding, with them serving more as agreements between students and labs to do work, not a hardset “job” in the traditional sense—though you can get paid or receive class credit for some, which are on a semesterly basis and do have more of an officialness.

So you wanna shoot electrons at metal or find a drug or something while at MIT? Consider this an unofficial guide and advice column on the student side of finding and participating in a UROP!

Finding One

Emails! This is the most common(?) way that people find UROPs. What I like to do is just google something I’m interested in and find a lab here that works on it (e.g. “computational immunology MIT”). From there, most labs have a list of PhD students and what their projects are, so I directly email the PhD students with something along the lines of:⁠03 Please don’t actually use this as a template, it’s kinda bad lol and not verbatim “Hey [Name]! I’m a [year] studying [blank] with interests in [whatever you do!]. I saw you had a project about [thing] and that aligns heavily with my interests in [similar thing]. Would you be willing to find a time to meet and talk about what you’re currently working on and how I could support you? Thanks!” If the lab doesn’t have student projects listed, it’s also cool to just email the PI⁠04 Principal Investigator. I had no idea how PhDs/labs/research worked before MIT, so for a while I did think people meant Private Investigator, like Magnum PI and cc their lab assistant, asking if they know of any students in their lab who are open to students at the moment.

ELx! This is an MIT website that serves as kind of a job portal for UROPs and some various other work/research opportunities. This can work, but it is kinda slow, since it requires people to a) be actively searching for a student, b) decide to post it on ELx, c) check the application status through ELx often, d) take the post down once they found someone. A good strategy here is seeing projects listed, and if there is one posted that sounds interesting, just email the PI and PhD individually asking about the project instead of submitting it through ELx. They’ll see it faster this way, and it allows you to show some ~personality~ in your email instead of just being a resume.

Doing One

Like it! If you don’t like a UROP—don’t do it! They can vary by time commitment,⁠05 see: some CS UROPs where you Chat a python script once a week vs a chem kid who goes to lab for 3 hours every day but you still shouldn’t put time towards anything that isn’t worth it (worth it meaning enjoyable AND furthering your career).  It’s also totally fine to look for a bunch of projects at once, talk to a bunch of people to get a better vibe, and decide from there. Worst case scenario you email a lab who wanted you saying no, but ‘it was super interesting to chat about your current work!’ or something equally as non-aggressive and exclamation-point-y.

Consistency! I’m a person who very much likes starting a project more than finishing it—this is not great! While exploring a bunch of different fields is important, sticking something through can be more important. Show up to your UROP consistently, don’t just rush to finish everything last minute before your weekly meeting or whatever. This means having clear goals with whoever is supervising you—both scheduling wise (when will you work on the project) and long-terms goals (poster, paper, how many semesters of work, etc.). Additionally, you need to have a clear vision of how much time you can commit. If you’re in two classes and want to full-send a project, let your advisor know so they will give you more work and place more emphasis on your ideas. If you’re in a full course load and want to treat it more as an extracurricular, tell your advisor you just want to assist for 5-10 hours a week to gain experience. Also, choose a project you want longevity with. Working for a lab for a semester will not give you the same knowledge, networking, or credentials as will working for them for a year or more. I’ve also heard through the grapevine that grad schools also consider length of research positions to show dedication and knowledge, if that’s the path you’re trying to take.

Sharing One

Make a Poster! You did all the work, you probably cried a little, bragged a little, etc. etc. Now it’s time to prove you did something! Posters are one of the most accessible ways to show off your UROP, not only because it’s permanent/you get to keep it, but also because it’s more accessible than a paper. A lot of departments at MIT specifically will hold smaller undergrad poster contests/displays that give you a chance to talk about your research. Here’s a grainy photo of one I did earlier this month for the ChemE department!

Make a Paper! This is harder and requires a little more finessing. You need to stick with the project long enough to have results to show, coordinate with the lab what you’re going to write/what author position you’re going to be, and then actually do the thing. But! This is a super important way to validate yourself in the academic community (if you want an academia focus), so you should advocate for yourself to get in this position!

I actually wrote this in procrastination of writing my own UROP paper, so I’m actually gonna go do that now, but I wish you the best of luck with whatever weird project you dedicate years of your life to!

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