Academic-year Opportunities

Students can supplement their classroom education with research experiences in faculty laboratories during the academic year or in the summer. Students can participate in research during the academic year in one of 3 ways:

For Credit

Undergraduate students wishing to earn academic credit for their research may have the opportunity to register for Research for Credit (03-445; 1-18 units) or Honors Research for Credit (03-545) (Spring semesters only; for graduating students only; 9 units).

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE RESEARCH FOR CREDIT

For students majoring in Biological Sciences

Students may apply up to 18 units of research credit towards general biology electives (03-XXX). No research credit will count towards advanced biology electives (03-3XX). Students may apply an additional 18 units of research credit towards free electives. No more than 36 units of research credit will be counted towards the 360 units required for graduation, but there is no maximum number of units that can be taken.

Note: Students should be intellectually engaged in their work. Attendance at group laboratory meetings is often required in addition to the hours of work that a student performs research at the bench. Students cannot earn credit for work as a laboratory aide (making solutions, etc.).

Funded Research

1. Students may be supported for research by applying for monies to pay for their work and/or laboratory supplies. In addition to competitive national awards, students have several local options to which they can apply for support.
   
   The Undergraduate Research Office (URO) at Carnegie Mellon provides Small Undergraduate Research Grant (SURG) awards to students. These awards cover research expenses, summer fellowships for full-time summer research and presentation awards for students attending conferences.
   
   Students should confirm lab placement and proposed project prior to submitting an application to any of these programs. 
2. Students may also be directly supported by funding that their faculty mentor has secured. This should be discussed between the faculty mentor and student prior to starting research in the laboratory.

Volunteer

Volunteering is often a good way to get started in research. If a faculty member doesn’t have space for a student, or if a student wants to participate in a laboratory on a limited or trial basis, volunteering allows for more flexibility in the amount of time scheduled in lab. Volunteering should consist of no more than 1-3 hours/week reading articles and planning upcoming projects. Any students actively contributing to projects in research labs should either be receiving pay or registered for research for credit. If necessary, you should discuss this possibility with your faculty mentor and academic advisor.

For more information about any of these opportunities, please contact:
bio-ungrad@andrew.cmu.edu