The Full Explanation
Research Match is a program we're setting up in the Physical Sciences, endorsed by Dean García-Garibay, 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, during designated time periods, directed only towards research groups that are actually interested in 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, answering interview-style questions as well as more targeted questions from the groups they wanted to join.
- After the application period ends, the Division will send a spreadsheet of responses to the groups, so they can review responses and make preliminary selections.
- About a week later, the Division will host an in-person event where undergrads can meet representatives from each group (like a grad student, postdoc, etc.). This will be an opportunity to attach faces to names, ask applicants more detailed questions, and overall help both parties get a better sense of fit.
- Research groups will make their selections on the spreadsheet by the deadline.
- Applicants will be notified of their acceptances by email and connected directly with the research groups that accepted them.
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.
