Having spent Summer 2019 on Drexel’s campus as an independent researcher, I realized how social science research is no walk in the park. Simply, the qualitative nature of social sciences gives your research design and analysis so many moving parts that you soon find yourself anxious, lost and repeating political jargon in your sleep. At least, that’s how I dealt with it. I knew that the project I was gearing up to pursue would be my independent research for the rest of my undergraduate career. So, the mere thought of setting down the wrong parameters or techniques made me nervous. While I don’t recommend being as unhealthily calculative as me, I can impart some wisdom (from my own goof-ups) that may help you to navigate this journey a lot more smoothly.
- Take Your Time
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Taking time to identify a theme or a topic area you are interested in is key. If you’re in this for the long run, don’t rush into a research area you are not deeply invested in. It is okay to pursue a theme because of your personal experiences as well! However, don’t let that cloud your better judgment when you analyze your results.
- Talk To Your Mentor
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Undergraduate research mentors can make or break you! Reach out to a professor or graduate student who not only specializes in your preferred topic area but also is willing to invest time and effort in guiding you. Once they have formally taken you up as their mentee, discuss your interests, confusions, and fears about the upcoming project. Full disclosure!
- Organize Yourself
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Give yourself hard deadlines before you commence research! Independent study is self-guided. This may seem all rosy at first. However, as college students, we become adapted to pursuing deadlines that others have set down for us. That is how we organize our thoughts and schedules. However, during independent research, your mentors might leave it open-ended for you and that is when you have to take charge and guide yourself by setting down deadlines for the different components of your work. And trust me, once you highlight these dates for yourself, you would want to follow them to appease your ego.
- Take A Break From Time To Time
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Working on something so intense and wordy as social science research can become tiring. You can lose perspective between all those online searches, those library archives, those data sheets and all that jargon. Hence, it is completely acceptable to take a couple of days off and not do any work relating to the project at all! You would be surprised to know that you’d return to your desk a couple of days later with fresher ideas and insights.
- Keep Track Of Upcoming Opportunities
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It is only fair, that a project that you give your heart and soul to for months, gets all the appreciation it deserves. So, keep track of upcoming research funding deadlines. Your mentors can offer you dozens of options that fit your topic area if you do so much as just ask and show keen interest. Also, look up application deadlines for undergraduate research conferences. These conferences can be highly helpful in learning how to communicate your work effectively, collaborate with peers and remove any roadblocks you may have bumped into via constructive feedback.
I think there’s one final don’t that I’d want to list here. Don’t, under any circumstances, lie down on your floor full of research printing and cry. It’s a huge waste of time. Trust me. I say this from personal experience. It doesn’t help AT ALL. As long as you aren’t doing that, I think you’ll be more than fine.