Getting Started Checklist

Establishing a tractable research topic starts in coordination with a mentor interested in supporting your 100+ hour effort. Developing a quality proposal and submitting ahead of the deadline follows. This checklist is provided as a guide to students:

• Recognize the potency in the opportunity to pursue a novel research idea under the direction of a faculty mentor that you respect and would enjoy working with over a longish period of time.
• Decide to pursue your own research idea, or adapt your research to the designs of an offering mentor.
• Schedule a meeting with the faculty mentor to discuss the project to ensure both of you are on the same page.
• Study the UROP award process, note the deadlines for submission of proposals, focus on developing a four page proposal that scores well against the scoring rubric.
• Using the scoring rubric to initiate a document that has identical section headings, and get going on the writing, letting your mentor look over your shoulder at regular iterations.
• Write for an audience of readers that may not be expert.
• Strive in your writing “to sell a refrigerator to an eskimo” to ensure your research idea is practical and significant.
• Verify professional style in your proposal, reference timeline, budget tables and figures from within the text, utilize appropriate citations and bibliography.
• Commit to completing the writing at least one day before the deadline, sleep on it, then read it one last time to reconsider and validate your proposal quality.
• Ask your mentor to read your final work, and to complete the mentor form.
• Submit your UROP proposal using the student proposal form at the UROP web site.

With the proposal written and submitted, be proud of your effort while anticipating notification.