If you weren’t aware, FSU has many research opportunities, including the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP). UROP is an application-based, two-semester program that allows students to get involved with a graduate student or professor’s research on campus.
The program consists of working on a mentor’s project, a colloquium training course to guide you through the research process, and a presentation of your work at the FSU Undergraduate Research Symposium in April.
I’m halfway through UROP, and here are my pros and cons of the program!
cons
finding a project
Once accepted into the program, you must apply to a minimum of 10 research projects under the mentorship of a graduate student or professor. The problem I faced as a history major was that there were a limited number of humanities projects, as most of them were STEM-focused or led by STEM students and instructors.
This also makes humanities projects very competitive since they only accept a few students, with most projects taking between two and five students. The competitiveness sometimes leads to UROP students stuck with projects that have little or nothing to do with their major or interests.
Colloquium
I think the biggest con of UROP is the content and structure of the bi-weekly required colloquium, specifically, the fall semester content. Despite separating students into sections of their area of interest, the course is designed to support STEM projects. Many in-class activities revolve around writing research for lab or quantitative experiments, not qualitative humanities research.
The content of the fall semester of UROP is centered around basic ideas on conducting research, and most of the guides were based on quantitative research. Don’t get me wrong, the class still covered primary and secondary sources and how to find them through FSU Libraries, but if you’ve ever written a research paper before, you might find these lessons a bit superfluous.
The content of the spring semester shifts to creating the poster on your research project for the Undergraduate Research Symposium. However, all the examples UROP gave for the specific sections of the poster are based on quantitative research. This has made it more difficult for me in a humanities project because my project has no numerical data to display as results. I am left wondering how to format the results section of the poster.
UROP’s heavy STEM focus is discouraging for a humanities student. Research in the humanities is less obvious and tangible than in STEM, but the program doesn’t effectively describe what research in my field looks like.
pros
mentorship
If you find an interesting project, there are many pros to the UROP experience. The one-on-one mentorship you will receive while working on your research project is the best part of UROP! Your mentor will guide your research, and you’ll have a close bond with them by the end.
I was lucky to join the project “Dante Today” with a mentor I had as a professor in a class on Dante Alighieri‘s Inferno, which I adored freshman year. Joining this project has allowed me to revisit a subject I never thought I would return to. My mentor has encouraged me to do my research on a specific area of our project. After working on the project, I’m taking another course offered by my mentor this semester.
Navigating FSU Libraries and Resources
If you’ve never written a research paper, be prepared to go through the basics of searching for sources on FSU Libraries! Despite some of my negative comments on the colloquium, the class does expose you to many of FSU’s academic resources and guides you through how to use them. I highly recommend applying for UROP as an incoming freshman because of the in-depth guidance on the basics of research and FSU’s resources. I’ve been made aware of resources I wouldn’t have known otherwise!
My favorite colloquium lesson was about the extra opportunities available to undergraduate researchers through the Center for Research and Academic Engagement (CRE) or the Office for National Fellowships (ONF). I recently applied for an IDEA Grant to conduct my research project over the summer — only because I learned of it through UROP! The colloquium shared several scholarships, career, and other research opportunities that I can use to my advantage.
Overall, the UROP experience is worth the investment! Despite the program being more STEM-oriented than I had hoped, the relationship I have formed with my mentor is worth it. The project I joined, “Dante Today,” while not specifically a historical project, has allowed me to discover new areas of interest and incorporate my love for history into my research!
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