REU Undergraduate Researcher
Department: Department of Agronomy, Horticulture, and Plant Science
My experience
Overview
I used bioinformatics tools to annotate the novel prairie cordgrass genome using data from RNA-seq experiments
Pros
Did original research, good exposure to exactly what research is like as a graduate student, generous stipend
Cons
Program was a little disorganized at times for other students, your experience will depend a lot on who your mentor is
Would recommend it to people who...
Want to do a PhD
Impact of work
Time spent working
Interview advice
How did you find the job / apply?
Interview Rounds
Interview type
Interview questions
There weren't any interviews
Advice on how to prepare
Your personal statement and letters of recommendation are everything. For REUs, the main purpose is to increase diversity in STEM and give opportunities to do research to people who go to small schools without research opportunities, so if you fall in either of those categories, be sure to highlight that in your personal statement. I'm a white man at a huge research university, so I got into this one because I wanted to do bioinformatics research and there was one professor whose project was bioinformatics. Definitely find two or three professors you'd want to work with and talk about how you'd want to work on their specific projects in your personal statement
More questions? Send the reviewer a message!