Undergraduate Research Opportunities
Getting Involved with Research
Are you ready to ask questions in your discipline? Curiosity is a main requirement in research, but it’s also important to note that you might not find the answers you seek.
Be prepared to invest time, perseverance and flexibility. When you’re ready to get involved, here’s what you need to know.
Find a Mentor
More than 200 tenure-track faculty are engaged in student research. The Center for Undergraduate Research and Scholarship (CURAS) offers several ways to connect with a faculty mentor and get started on a research project:
Fill out an undergraduate research interest survey. (For current students only.) The CURAS Research Program Planner or one of the CURAS student ambassadors will get in touch with you and help you find something that grabs your interests.
Talk directly to one of your professors in class. Faculty are often looking for talented students to help them in their research programs and often discuss their research in their courses. This can also help you get to know your professors better and put you on a path to success in the classroom!
Check out the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Databases. You can find specific projects that professors are recruiting students for. Or look at the open projects directory for faculty who have an open call for students.
How Research is Rewarded
There are several different ways you might be rewarded or compensated for your research efforts:
Federal Work Study. Students who qualify may be compensated through a work study program.
Graded research credit (e.g. BIO 497). These credits can sometimes count toward your major and are required for the new Concentration in Undergraduate Research and Scholarship.
Hourly wage. Faculty with internal or external grants often include payment for undergraduate researchers in their research groups. Paid opportunities are often advertised in the CURAS Research Opportunities Database
Summer Fellowships. The Summer Undergraduate Research and Creative Fellowships (SURF) program is an undergraduate competition at Creighton hosted by CURAS. It provides a $4,000 student stipend, summer campus housing discounts, and $500 in research supplies for student recipients
It brings me a lot of joy to see the gratification the students experience when they feel they have an answer to their research question or when they share their findings with the world.
— Surbhi Malik, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of English
