Start here before you email anyone: this searchable CURF database lists faculty projects that are actively looking for undergrads
What is the CURF Research Directory?
100
Two letters for the person who runs the lab, controls the funding and usually decides whether you get a spot
What is a PI (Principal Investigator)?
100
Ware fellow Mónica Velasco-González researches technology in language teaching and teaches this course to future doctors at Perelman
What is Medical Spanish?
100
If a professor hasn't replied, wait about this long before sending a single polite follow-up
What is 1 to 2 weeks?
100
If it's part of your financial aid package, a lab can pay you for research through this federal program
What is Federal Work-Study?
200
CURF's office sits on the second floor of this Locust Walk building, which it shares with several cultural centers
What is the ARCH?
200
Read the byline backwards: in most biomedical papers, the PI is listed in this author position
What is last (senior) author?
200
House Fellows are appointed for terms of this many years, half as long as the Faculty Directors who supervise them
What is two years?
200
A famous PI with a 40-person lab may never answer, but this trainee, between grad student and faculty, often runs your day to day and replies faster
Who is a postdoc?
200
No paycheck, but it lands on your transcript: research done for this type of course
What is an independent study?
300
CURF trains these upperclassmen to visit college houses and coach first-years on how to break into research
Who are Research Peer Advisors (RPAs)?
300
Any study that surveys, interviews or experiments on people needs approval from this Penn board first
What is the IRB (Institutional Review Board)?
300
This senior house leader supervises the fellows and heads each college house's residential faculty team
Who is the Faculty Director?
300
Before emailing, skim this section of the lab's latest paper, where authors admit what they still don't know and what comes next
What is the Discussion (future directions)?
300
Penn nominates sophomores and juniors through CURF for this national STEM research scholarship named after an Arizona senator
What is the Goldwater Scholarship?
400
This CURF summer program pays $5,000 for 10 weeks, is only for first-years and sophomores, and you can only do it once
What is PURM (Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program)?
400
The IRB protects human subjects, while this five-letter committee must approve any research on lab mice
What is IACUC?
400
Each year, House Fellows select one resident for this title to recognize and support undergraduate research in the house
What is the College House Research Fellow?
400
Instead of asking for a lab position in your first email, ask for this low-stakes, 15-minute request, which is much easier for a busy PI to say yes to
What is an informational meeting (a quick chat)?
400
Funded by an alumni group, this CURF grant supports independent research projects by students in the College
What is the College Alumni Society Undergraduate Research Grant?
500
When PURM launched in 2007, its name started with this senior Penn administrator's title instead of the word Penn
Who is the Provost? (Provost's Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program)
500
This metric averages how often a journal's recent articles are cited, and it's why people brag about publishing in Nature
What is impact factor?
500
Ware's faculty fellow, Dr. Alicia Risner-Bauman of Penn Dental, teaches this consent-heavy technique for safely treating patients who resist or move during dental care
What is medical immobilization (protective stabilization)?
500
Search a PI's name in this free NIH database to see which federal grants they hold, a clue to whether they can afford to take you on
What is NIH RePORTER?
500
Ten graduating seniors each win $1,000 from this CURF prize for outstanding research, and a faculty nomination letter is required