Research Opportunities at Tufts
With all the newly accepted Tufts students looking to make their final college decisions, I started to think of what blogs might be helpful in making that choice. I’ve talked a lot in my past blogs about social life on campus and why Tufts holds a special place in my heart with its incredible community of caring people. That being said, I know that a main part of college decisions lies in the academic opportunities that each college offers.
One thing that Tufts does really well in the realm of academics is to offer countless research opportunities for students of any major and with any interests, so I wanted to briefly overview some of the options today. I’ll be commenting from my perspective as a psychology major conducting research in a psych lab, but these opportunities hold true across majors.
1) Undergraduate Research Assistant: Any undergrad student at Tufts is able to apply for a research assistant position in the labs here on campus. Most professors (from many different departments) have information about their respective labs on department websites, and you can read about the research topics there. If any of those areas of research align with your interests, there are usually undergrad RA application forms linked on the lab website that you can complete and send to the lab’s PI. You can also email any professor on Tufts campus inquiring about their research and find out more about potential opportunities in this way as well. That is actually how I found my first research position in a psychology lab my freshman year!
2) Laidlaw Scholars: Through the Laidlaw Scholars program at Tufts, students get funded to conduct research over the summer for 6 weeks, while participating in leadership training and workshops for professional development. In addition, Laidlaw Scholars are funded for a second summer to undertake a leadership expedition to further develop their leadership skills. Throughout the whole process, students take on a more hands-on and independent approach to research and learn to be better leaders in the research community.
3) Summer Scholars: The Summer Scholars program is similar to Laidlaw, having students use a summer to conduct independent research. However, different from Laidlaw, the Summer Scholars program only spans one summer, and professors can only work with one student at a time on a project. At the end of the program, students are able to present their research at a conference, as well as a poster session.
4) Senior Honors Thesis: With many majors at Tufts, students have the option to write a Senior Honors Thesis, based on whatever research they have conducted during their time as undergraduates. Though this sounds like a daunting task, I have quite a few friends who’ve completed theses or are currently working on them, and it seems to be an opportunity students are quite happy to partake in.
These options are only a few of the vast number of research opportunities at Tufts, but I hope they provide a sense of the enrichment you can find through Tufts programs. For some more information about other research positions and scholarships, please check out this link: https://students.tufts.edu/academic-advice-and-support/scholar-development/what-we-assist/research-opportunities-and-funding/research-opportunities-and-funding-tufts