What is RSRI?
The Regents Scholars Research Initiative (RSRI) is an invaluable opportunity for Regents Scholars to get matched with a professor to participate in research during their very first quarter at UCSD! RSRI is one of the biggest perks of being a Regents Scholar, but it can be overwhelming at first. To help you through the process of getting matched into a lab, we've compiled advice based on scholars' own experiences with RSRI!
Hear From a Scholar About RSRI!
I had a fantastic RSRI experience! I joined my lab before the first day of freshman year and will graduate in this lab. I was paired with a remarkable woman of color in her first year of her PhD, and we have been working together and getting dinners as friends ever since. She was such an inspiration. My research is exactly what I wanted it to be: highly hands on but also creative and partially advisory. Also, I got to witness surgery my freshman year of the placement of an abnormal aortic aneurysm stent!
I went through a change in my PI due to the tragic loss of Professor Juan Lasheras, who used many of his last days alive to ensure that the undergraduates in his lab could continue their research. My current PI, Geno Pawlak, graciously adopted us into his lab and exposed me to environmental engineering research, which vastly expanded my view of fluid dynamics to a macro scale. I ended up focusing my education on fluids due to the fluid dynamics work I did in my lab, and I am looking to continue researching aortas in my professional career. I literally have so much about this experience that has been amazing!
-Emily Beckman, Bioengineering major and Math minor
General Advice about RSRI
There are many things to consider when filling out the RSRI forms, but it’s almost all about getting to know you personally. Labs are generally happy to accept young, intelligent freshmen, especially when they are backed by a scholarship. This means it is not your responsibility to get into a lab, but rather to pick a “good” lab to be admitted to!
Also, note that hindsight is 20-20. Many of us realize that we could have been more critical in our choices, but we recognize that we felt overwhelmed at the time. Whatever decision you make, you are more likely than not going to be in good hands. Any research experience is valuable, especially during your first year. If you wind up not enjoying your experience in a lab, there are systems in place (both within the school and RSRI) that allow you to switch labs or leave. There are many opportunities on campus, both through research and outside of it, so it’s important to find activities you find fulfilling!
Finally, as always, ask questions and don’t give up! Never hesitate to let your lab know when you don’t understand something or when something might not be within your capabilities! It can be very helpful to learn more about what’s being done in the lab, what is expected of you, and what you can expect of your lab.
Also, note that hindsight is 20-20. Many of us realize that we could have been more critical in our choices, but we recognize that we felt overwhelmed at the time. Whatever decision you make, you are more likely than not going to be in good hands. Any research experience is valuable, especially during your first year. If you wind up not enjoying your experience in a lab, there are systems in place (both within the school and RSRI) that allow you to switch labs or leave. There are many opportunities on campus, both through research and outside of it, so it’s important to find activities you find fulfilling!
Finally, as always, ask questions and don’t give up! Never hesitate to let your lab know when you don’t understand something or when something might not be within your capabilities! It can be very helpful to learn more about what’s being done in the lab, what is expected of you, and what you can expect of your lab.
Finding a Good Match
This is probably the most overwhelming part of the process, where we all think, "what the heck am I supposed to do?" The best way to start is by exploring online. Pretty much every professor is doing research, so there's a huge amount of variety and many opportunities to get involved. RSRI hooks you up with a pretty sweet deal, because most students don't get involved in research until later years (if they get involved at all--it's totally okay not to). Let’s look at our recommended strategy for finding the perfect match:
- Get an idea of what you want to research. What topics/subjects are you interested in? This could be related to your major, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be anything you have done before or even anything connected to your major. Try to find five topics/subjects (be as specific as you can) that you think you would be interested in learning more about. You’re more likely to learn and stick with it if you really enjoy it!
- Look for labs which more or less align with at least one of your interests. For example, you can look up [topic] UCSD and try to find faculty that have done or are doing research related to this topic. If your interests aren’t too specific, you can also search [major] UCSD and go to faculty/labs. You might have to be more discerning if you go this route, since you will get a wider array of professors to look through!
Take note of any specific labs you find interesting. You might want to record the name of the PI (principal investigator) in charge of the lab, a note about what the lab researches, what the lab has accomplished in the past and a link to the faculty member’s page. - From your list of interesting labs, filter out labs which might not be a productive match.
For example, you might want to avoid professors who have zero undergraduate students listed in the "group members" tab of their website. Professors who already have or have had undergrads would be more open to working with one and likely better equipped to mentor you.
You might also check whether a lab has published anything recently--you’ll ideally want to participate in a lab which is still actively researching and publishing.
Be wary of picking distinguished and full professors as they may not be actively researching or will always be busy with other work. These professors may have less time or interest in being mentors.
The bottom line is to try to get a feel for how productive your time in a lab might be. A non-productive relationship is just that: non-productive. It’s ok to start slowly on this step; you’ll continue filtering out labs and figuring out which would be the best fit in the following steps as well. - Reach out to potential professor matches if you’re comfortable. You can send PIs an email letting them know you are an incoming student who is part of a research initiative program, and as part of this program you are looking to be matched to a lab/mentor. Ask if they would have the time or interest in supporting an undergraduate in their lab; if they don’t seem very interested, you might filter that lab out.
If you are particularly interested in a certain PI, consider meeting 1:1 with them or sitting in on a lab meeting to gauge what your responsibilities might be or if their lab is right for you. This would be a request you might make if a potential mentor responds positively to an initial email.
- Take note of all your thoughts as you look through labs, and ultimately use these notes to list out the top 5-10 labs you would most like to join. One idea is to assign a score to each potential lab for each of several categories, such as productivity (how often the lab has been publishing recently), size (you might want a small lab so you can work more closely with your PI), and interest (how interested you personally are in the work). Feel free to include any other important traits in your own ranking!
By the end of this process, hopefully you’ll have an idea of which pairings would be most productive for you, as well as which ones would be legitimately interesting.
Resume
The biggest thing to keep in mind is that this resume is not like other resumes you have written or will write, because other resumes will be written with the goal of landing you a job or position. With RSRI, you've basically already gotten the position, so you don't need to focus on impressing anybody. The focus of this resume should mainly be a showcase of the things that you're passionate about or interested in.
The actual content will be similar to other resumes. The main difference is that it isn’t necessary to include GPA or test scores--again, stats to impress the reader. Your resume should be kept to one page. The main things to include are club, leadership, and volunteer experience. What have you spent your free time in high school doing? Put it down, especially if it was influential in helping you choose your major! Another good inclusion might be "relevant coursework", especially AP, IB, or community college coursework. You can also have a "skills" section, such as a bullet point list where you could note programming proficiency, experience with a certain software or tool, or other soft skills like public speaking.
To reiterate, the goal of this resume is to provide prospective professor mentors with an idea of who you are and what your interests are. Include interests and skills that you want people to know about you. It doesn't have to be the most impressive thing in the world (ours certainly weren’t). They'll know you're just coming out of high school and haven't had a ton of opportunity for college-level experience. Hopefully, the knowledge that you're already accepted into the program will take the pressure off and really allow you to focus on being genuine and sharing your interests.
The actual content will be similar to other resumes. The main difference is that it isn’t necessary to include GPA or test scores--again, stats to impress the reader. Your resume should be kept to one page. The main things to include are club, leadership, and volunteer experience. What have you spent your free time in high school doing? Put it down, especially if it was influential in helping you choose your major! Another good inclusion might be "relevant coursework", especially AP, IB, or community college coursework. You can also have a "skills" section, such as a bullet point list where you could note programming proficiency, experience with a certain software or tool, or other soft skills like public speaking.
To reiterate, the goal of this resume is to provide prospective professor mentors with an idea of who you are and what your interests are. Include interests and skills that you want people to know about you. It doesn't have to be the most impressive thing in the world (ours certainly weren’t). They'll know you're just coming out of high school and haven't had a ton of opportunity for college-level experience. Hopefully, the knowledge that you're already accepted into the program will take the pressure off and really allow you to focus on being genuine and sharing your interests.
EASy Requests for 99H Course Credit
Frankly, EASy requests aren’t super tailored to RSRI. The EASy system is just how you get clearance to enroll in courses which aren't open to all students by default, so you don't need to "make a case" for taking 99H. As long as you submit an EASy request with some semblance of effort put into it, it should go through.
When filling out your EASy request, it’s ok to ask for help from the professor with whom you got matched, and the details of your plan for individual study don’t have to be solidified. From one of our members, “My documentation was just the email I got saying I was matched with a professor in the program.” The bottom line is to just do your best and check your email in case there’s any follow-up you need to take to enroll in your 99h course.
When filling out your EASy request, it’s ok to ask for help from the professor with whom you got matched, and the details of your plan for individual study don’t have to be solidified. From one of our members, “My documentation was just the email I got saying I was matched with a professor in the program.” The bottom line is to just do your best and check your email in case there’s any follow-up you need to take to enroll in your 99h course.