{"id":74,"date":"2014-08-01T21:12:46","date_gmt":"2014-08-01T21:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/205.186.146.189\/~envsci\/?page_id=74"},"modified":"2026-01-21T17:34:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T17:34:41","slug":"find-a-good-project","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/how-to\/find-a-good-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Find A Good Project"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What are the characteristics of the project?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Is it a significant problem?<\/li>\n<li>Is it original?<\/li>\n<li>Does it push the envelope of science somewhere?<\/li>\n<li>Will it be of interest to others?<\/li>\n<li>Will it make a \u2018good story\u2019?<\/li>\n<li>Does it involve quantitative or qualitative data analysis?<\/li>\n<li>Might you be able to publish your research?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Is it well suited for you?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Is it personally interesting?\n<ul>\n<li>You need to find the topic sufficiently interesting that your enthusiasm will not lag throughout a year long effort<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Are you qualified to do this project?\n<ul>\n<li>Are you sufficiently knowledgeable on the overall topic that you will be able to fully understand the project?<\/li>\n<li>Do you have, or will you be able to learn any special skills required to carry it out?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Is it doable?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Are there sufficient data available or that can be gathered by you within your means and timeframe?<\/li>\n<li>Do you have available the necessary facilities and ability to carry out the necessary analysis of the data?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What about your research mentor?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A mentor is required.<\/li>\n<li>Does your mentor have an academic background? (A PhD is usually required)<\/li>\n<li>Has your mentor worked with undergraduate students before? If not &#8211; please discuss in a lot of detail what expectations you have of each other (see letter to mentors on this website).<\/li>\n<li>Will your mentor be reachable throughout the duration of the project?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>If your project is part of a larger research effort\u2026<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Do you know how your project fits into the larger effort?<\/li>\n<li>Do you know (is it clear) what you are responsible for doing, vs. what you will be getting from others?<\/li>\n<li>If there are going to be any collaborative publications, will you be able to be involved?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To answer these questions you need to carefully think through the project at an early stage, and discuss these aspects with your mentor and advisor.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>How to go about finding a project\/mentor?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Barnard Summer Research Institute put together a <a href=\"https:\/\/barnard.edu\/sri\/finding-research-mentor\">nice guide<\/a> about steps to take.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are the characteristics of the project? Is it a significant problem? Is it original? Does it push the envelope of science somewhere? Will it be of interest to others? Will it make a \u2018good story\u2019? Does it involve quantitative or qualitative data analysis? Might you be able to publish your research? Is it well [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":65,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-74","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","wpautop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1671,"href":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74\/revisions\/1671"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cool.barnard.edu\/envsci\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}