Oakland University Psi Chi

The Council on Undergraduate Research hosts a Registry of Undergraduate Researchers.  The purpose of this registry is to facilitate matchmaking between undergraduates who have research experience and a desire to pursue an advanced degree, with graduate schools seeking high quality students who are well prepared for research.  The Registry is open to students and graduate schools in the fields of Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology, Physics/ Astronomy, Mathematics/Computer Science, Economics, Geosciences, Engineering, Psychology, Sociology, Humanities and Anthropology/Archaeology. 

Any undergraduate may go to www.cur.org/ugreg/ to fill out a simple curriculum vitae form.  There is no charge to the student and records will be made available to bona fide Graduate Schools that contract with CUR for this service.  Organizations or companies seeking the students’ information for other marketing purposes will not be granted access.  Graduate School representatives may contact students to invite applications or visits to the campus and laboratory, or to share information about their research programs and financial support opportunities.

An institution-wide annual subscription fee for access to the entire database is $1,500 and departments can subscribe for $300 on their own for their discipline, if they choose.

Graduate schools may provide a link to their websites, and may provide a short description of opportunities, such as research fields and fellowships. It will also be possible for institutions to place an ad on the database website if the content is related to the mission of CUR and the Undergraduate Registry.

We hope that students who are currently in their junior or senior year will register now.  Juniors will be able to update their listing at the end of the summer and during their senior year, to include any summer research experience or information about Senior Theses and test scores.  We also welcome submissions by students who are engaged in Masters' Degree programs now but who plan on going on to a PhD program. Just fill out the information on the form including the date you intend to enter a PhD program and your date of completion of your undergraduate degree.  Upload a link to your CV that contains complete information about your MS/MA degree activity (school, subject, thesis topic (if applicable), and advisor).

CUR believes that this service will be a great benefit for both students and graduate schools by narrowing the search for the right match.  So if you are interested in graduate school, please take a moment to register now.  Be sure to include a statement of your research interests, as this will be important for making the match.

Please feel free to contact Robin Howard, should you have any questions.

Robin Howard
Senior Director, Membership Services
Council on Undergraduate Research
734 15th St NW
Suite 550
(202) 783-4810x203
(202) 783-4811 fax
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by VP of Research Colloquium, Nick Wrobel

On October 20^th, 2009 student and faculty members met to hear a presentation from three students representing three different labs in the psychology department:  Jennifer Kelley representing Dr. Steward’s lab, Melanie Phillips representing Dr. Kozak’s and Dr. Taku’s lab and Stacey Sieracznyski representing Dr. Raman’s lab. 

Jennifer Kelley started off the presentation talking about her experiences working with Dr. Lewis as a volunteer and then becoming more involved in the research process by working with Dr. Stewart. Working with Dr. Stewart, Jennifer is involved in research design, extensive literary reviews, testing participants, running data analysis and then presenting findings at local and national conferences.  Currently, Dr. Stewart’s research team is presenting a six-week workshop to Oakland University employees as part of Oakland University’s Wellness Wednesday Program. 

Next, Melanie Phillips talked about the different labs of Dr. Kozak and Dr. Taku and the expectations of the professors.   Dr. Kozak expects at least a two-year commitment of her research assistants because of the extensive training with screening and running participants. Dr. Taku demands a lot of her research assistants’ by having them participate in individual projects, lab work, and collaborative work. 

Lastly, Stacey Sieracznyski talked about her experiences with doing research with Dr. Raman. Stacey talked about going through the process of coordinating testing with local elementary students, preparing the vignettes that were read to the elementary students, entering and coding the data, and presenting the findings at Meeting of Minds 2009.  Stacey emphasized that although the work is demanding, the research experience is very rewarding.

The presentation concluded with questions for the RA’s and an important consensus among the RA’s that research experience is critical for getting into graduate school and being a RA will give you a variety of different experiences depending on the faculty member you are working with that you would never get in the classroom.