Chances are, you are facing many choices right now, since Carolina offers so many valuable experiences. Might “research” be something that could wait, something you could pursue after you earn your degree?  We in the OUR hope that you will decide instead to begin now—to view your time at Carolina as a series of opportunities to contribute to the university community which values original inquiry and creative expression, including yours. Many students discover that once they decide to get involved in undergraduate research, they become aware of opportunities that they simply hadn’t noticed before. As one student wrote “… in every class [I am taking] I develop these strange brainstorms about what topics I could research…and my grades are improving because of this new thought train.” Once you have decided to get involved, getting started might be easier than you think. Students also have said that the rewards are great:

• I learned first-hand about an aspect of the public policy process that is hard to teach in the classroom—the actual transfer of knowledge form researchers to policymakers who can put that knowledge into practice
• I felt the thrill of discovering something that had has never been realized before… I will continue to carry that excitement derived from my undergraduate research for the rest of my life…
• Thanks for showing me... Research is finding things through imagination...