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[Alex]

I have been going through advices about research statement and I cannot make up my mind.

Mostly, if I specifically address HOW undergraduate and graduate students will be incorporated in my research. If so, what should I say? I am in the biological sciences field. How do people usually incorporate undergraduates in their research? In my eight years at a state university, first as a graduate student, now as a post-doc, I never saw an undergrad involved in research. How do other universities and colleges incorporate them usually?

Also, should I include an approximate budget and potential sources of funding in my statement?

Thanks

Alex-the-uninformed

[Engineer]

Undergrads can be incorporated into some parts of research as helpers of graduate students. That way, undergrads get some experience, grads get some help and the professor gets the project done. You look better if you include funding sources. dont include budget to allow room for later negotiations.

[A. Random Physicist]

At schools without PhD programs, faculty typically incorporate undergraduates into their research programs as research assistants. Tenure-track faculty members at such institutions are generally expected to provide opportunities for students to work in their labs on research projects. If you were hired into  such a position, you would probably be expected to train and mentor these students. Undergraduates work primarily during the summer, though very good ones can squeeze in time to continue their work through the academic year.

The kinds of things you should address in your statement are: (1) What is the required background knowledge/skill necessary for a student to work in your lab? (2) How early could students start working in your lab (after their first year, second year, etc)? (3) What sorts of projects would such students work on? (4) What skills/experiences would they acquire? (5) Would they be co-authors on publications/presentations? (We often take students to national/regional meetings to present their work.)

Yes, including a start-up budget is helpful, even if not specifically requested in the ad. I think that it shows that the candidate has thought a bit about what would be necessary to set up his or her lab. Sometimes candidates give multiple budgets, geared to different numbers of projects or available resources.

You can mention possible funding sources if you like; personally, I tend to ignore that when reading applications.

[Alex.]

Thanks for your comments. These were helpful.

[Random Chemist]

I don't know about Physics, I know more about Chemists and Biochemists and I know that these look at funding sources.  I would expect Biology positions to be ultra-competitive if only because there are more biology majors around.

In chemistry anyway, many larger schools don't have as many undergraduate researchers as graduate researchers - if only because of space. Smaller Ph.D. programs will encourage more undergraduate participation and most will require Biology or Chemistry majors to do research - it might be useful to ask if the place you are interviewing does or if they do how do they evaluate the undergraduate work.

If you don't make it at one of the very top graduate schools you may be able to make do with some really top-caliber undergrads in addition to grad students. Maybe it will take you a year or so after starting out to get a grad student to commit. Whatever made you want to be a scientist I know many that got sucked into a particular area of chemistry or into a chemistry major by being hooked on a good lab project as an undergrad.

When asked about your feelings toward undergraduate research - usually unless you are doing something extremely technical or very dangerous - it is helpful to be able to describe a way to break your project down into managable chunks - something an undergrad might be able to get their name on a paper or a poster with about 4-6months worth of work.  It doesn't have to be a master's thesis - but enough so they can say they accomplished something in their grad school applications