Research Match is a program we're setting up in the Physical Sciences to streamline the process of connecting research groups seeking undergrads with undergrads seeking research opportunities.
This program will replace the constant flow of cold emails with a single centralized application, only involving research groups that are actually taking on new undergraduates.
The quarterly process works as follows:
- At the end of each quarter, the Division of Physical Sciences will send an opt-in email to research groups, asking whether or not they are seeking undergrads for the next quarter, and if so, how many.
- Around the start of the next quarter, undergraduates will fill out a single centralized application.
- After the application deadline on the Friday of Week 1, 10/2, at 11:59 PM, the Division will send a spreadsheet of responses to the groups, so they can review responses and make preliminary selections. The groups may follow up individually with students, if they want.
- Research groups will make their selections on the spreadsheet, and applicants will be notified of their acceptances by email and connected directly with the research groups that accepted them.
- If research groups want their students enrolled in SRP-99 courses, they should make acceptances early enough to submit signed SRP-99 contracts by the deadline, which is the Friday of Week 2, 10/9, at 5:00 PM.
This program is modeled after a similar initiative already running in the Division of Life Sciences.
It comes at a timely moment. The Undergraduate Research Portal has been discontinued, leaving no centralized resource to reliably connect undergraduates with research opportunities, and cold emailing remains the default for both sides.
