Undergraduate scientists need plenty of help to grab and hold those first few rungs on the career ladder. Starting this week, we extend our coverage of science careers to the issues and decisions undergraduates face.
Research experience gives undergraduate scientists a chance to learn what it's like to do real science. And it's practically required these days at top-tier graduate schools.
Science Careers provides direct links to GrantsNet's funding database, so you can find your next science scholarship, internship, or research opportunity.
NSF created STEP to produce more U.S. citizens and permanent residents with undergraduate degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Reposted from Science magazine, August 31, 2001. Andrea Martin took off for Jamaica's Discovery Bay after completing her junior year at the College of Wooster. But the geology major wasn't there to have fun in the sun after a grueling academic year. Instead, she and two other Wooster students spent 10 days collecting 125,000-year-old pieces of coral reef and rhodoliths. Then they lugged them back...
Reposted from Science magazine, August 31, 2001. PRAGUE--Prague's historic castle was an appropriate setting for a meeting this past spring of Europe's top education officials. The topic was the future of higher education in Europe, and the castle--a majestic but confusing maze of structures that inspired Franz Kafka's classic novel about modern alienation and bureaucracy--served as a metaphor fo...
Reposted from Science magazine, August 31, 2001. San Francisco --As part of her doctoral studies in public health at Harvard University, Alissa Myrick spent this month collecting blood samples from malaria victims in Senegal. Using the latest molecular biology techniques, Myrick hopes to understand drug resistance in the parasite that causes the disease. But Myrick, 25, says she would not be work...
Students who are committed to learning and interested in science should consider graduate school, regardless of their past academic records. Although I was never a poor student, I entered graduate school lacking the proper preparation. Yet I was still able to do well. I was able to succeed in my transition into graduate school and beyond thanks to good mentors, excellent time management skills, p...
Anthony Franco was determined to attend the University of California at Berkeley even though it meant he faced financial and academic challenges compared to his peers. Fortunately, he overcame these obstacles right away thanks to the Level Playing Field Institute (LPFI), a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco that seeks to ensure fairness in higher education and the workplace. The Initia...
What do science and engineering (S&E) undergraduates of color need to know as they prepare to make the transition to graduate school? Who better to tell them than fellowship recipients from the Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science (GEM) program? With their academic credentials and prestigious fellowship funding, the futures of GEM fellows seem bright. But they are not immune...
Pursuing a science degree is never easy. For minorities, generally, it is even tougher, as cultural differences and the dearth of role models present obstacles that non-minority scientists don't face. Rather than face those obstacles in isolation, Diana Gomez sought out organizations that could help her maneuver around them. One of the organizations she found was especially helpful: the Society o...
Jennifer Bloomquist, an assistant professor in the Department of Africana Studies at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, studies linguistic variation among residents of the Appalachian Mountains.
