Within the first month of the fall semester your junior year, you will be matched with an independent work faculty advisor. 

Before this time, you will have the opportunity to meet with multiple Faculty in the Department of Psychology at the Sophomore Open House in late March. We encourage you to use this opportunity to learn about multiple research labs within the department. Then, when you declare Psychology as your major at the end of your Sophomore year, you will meet with the department Undergraduate Program Manager, who will discuss degree requirements and work with you to outline your interests and goals for independent work. Using this information, several potential faculty advisors will be identified for you by August, and during the first week or two of the fall semester, the department will schedule several individual or small group meetings between you and faculty members. This will provide you with another opportunity to learn more about various research labs within the department and ask questions. By mid-Sept, the department will reach out to all students to share their independent work advisor assignments.

An advisor from another department to oversee the student’s independent work (for example if the student wishes to work in a lab from another department) will be considered only after the student has matched with a primary advisor within the Department of Psychology and obtained permission from that primary advisor, the Psychology Director of Undergraduate Studies, and the potential outside advisor. Then the student must submit written notification to the Undergraduate Program Manager indicating the name and department of the outside advisor.

What determines a good advising fit?

Students often match with an advisor based on mutual interest in the same research questions. When the questions being investigated by your advisor make you intellectually excited, the rest of the work is more enjoyable and engaging. Curiosity is a powerful motivator, and your independent work topic should be as interesting as possible to you. 

Students may also match with an advisor based on skills they want to acquire via their independent work. If you think there are specific research methods (e.g., field studies, neuroimaging, experimental manipulations) and/or quantitative methods (e.g., advanced data analysis, machine learning, natural language processing) that would be useful for you to learn, consider faculty advisors who use these methods in their labs.

Students also sometimes match with advisors based on a unique style of advising. Your independent work in Psychology allows a great deal of freedom in pursuing different interests and topics, and the faculty also have flexibility in how they advise. Some faculty provide a great deal of structure, with a specific schedule of meetings, progress checkpoints, and deadlines. Other faculty encourage you to be more self-motivated and set your own course of progress, providing support when requested. There is not a one-size-fits-all style of advising, and you should reflect on what works for you. This particular aspect of advising fit is difficult to determine from faculty summaries, so when you meet with faculty to discuss advising, ask about their advising style to see if it fits with how you work best.

What should you discuss in your meetings with faculty?

Because faculty are meeting with multiple potential advisees, it helps them to know more about your interests and what you’re hoping to accomplish with your independent work. 

For example, do you have specific interests in certain topics? If so, are these interests related to research in their lab? Or, are you generally interested in many topics within Psychology and would prefer to learn more by being part of an ongoing project? Or are you somewhere in between? 

There are no wrong answers- being flexible and open to many ideas is just as valuable as having a clear idea of the research area you want to study. However, we encourage you to take time to reflect on these questions in advance as they inform which advisors may be best for you. If you are certain about a particular topic that you want to work on, please make sure to share this information; though, please note that you do not need to propose original research ideas in this first meeting, as project ideas typically develop as part of JP advising.