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Want to Do Research? You Will

Undergraduate Opportunities

Undergraduate Opportunities

At a research university, you learn from great professors who are pushing and prodding the boundaries of human knowledge every day. And if you are determined and inquisitive, they will take you along on their journeys—and encourage you to begin your own.

Research requires discipline, organization, critical thinking, and writing skills; and it teaches patience and tenacity. And often it’s pure joy for the researcher. It can be a stepping-stone to graduate school or to that first job after graduation.

Rutgers undergraduates are found conducting research in the university’s outstanding laboratories, field stations, archives, libraries, museums, and fine and performing arts studios. If you want to be an undergraduate researcher at Rutgers, you will be.

 
Undergraduate Scholar

Suzanne PilaarAs an undergraduate, Suzanne Pilaar conducted archaeological research at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. She is now a Gates Cambridge Scholar pursuing a master’s degree at Cambridge University.

60%

Percentage of Rutgers undergraduates engaged in original research.

Where to Start

Research opportunities within individual majors are extensive, with most schools, colleges, and departments offering honors, special problems, and independent study research courses. Requirements depend on individual school, departmental, faculty, and program procedures, so ask your adviser or professor, or check the unit website for more information.

Out in the World

In New Jersey and across the globe, Rutgers undergraduate researchers get out there and do important work.

Judith Weis With biology professor Judith Weis, undergraduate students are studying pollution and rejuvenation in the Hackensack Meadowlands in northern New Jersey.
 
Guggenheim Museum Through art history internships, students are learning at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
 
Rutgers University Pinelands Research Center Students are spending the summer advancing the knowledge of New Jersey’s Pinelands, our country’s first National Preserve, thanks to an intensive 10-week research program at Rutgers–Camden.
 
Rutgers Chapter of Engineers Without Borders
 
In Thailand, students are building a water purification system for a small village, in a project initiated by the Rutgers Chapter of Engineers Without Borders.