FAQ

For many students, there is not an obvious time of the year to search for research positions. For this pilot program, STRAND will run four rounds per year. One round is timed for the start of the Fall semester, which advertises positions available in Fall semester. A second round will be available in late fall for Spring research. The third round is timed for early in the Spring semester to advertise Summer opportunities, and a fourth late spring round targets Fall semester research.  With timed rounds, students can feel confident that they can look for projects at specific time periods and not worry about constantly searching throughout the year.

Definitely not! This site not a comprehensive list of all research projects at Notre Dame. If there's a Professor who doesn't have any projects listed on the site, we recommend getting in touch with them directly.  Here are some other great places to look for research opportunities:

1. fiNDscience.nd.edu - a database of internal and external research opportunities
2. the Flatley Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement
3. The College of Science Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships
4. The College of Engineering is piloting a different tool in Canvas called Edusourced

Each semester, new projects will be added up until the "First day to apply for projects." Although you can see the projects that have been added to the site before then, new projects are continually added, which makes it difficult to keep track of them. We recommend that you check this site after the "First day to apply for projects" because no new projects are added after that date.

A desire to learn and commitment to the position is valued over prior experience.

1. Log into STRAND and fill in the general information
2. Upload your transcript.
3. When the application period opens, select your favorite projects. These will then appear under "My Applications"
4. Write a 1-2 paragraph statement about your interests in the project. More information is available below
5. Check to make sure you have updated and filled out the information and transcript in your profile
6. Submit your application
7. You can edit your essay and profile anytime until the application period closes by withdrawing the application and then resubmitting

There are some areas of research where a large number of students are interested in gaining some experience, but for which there are a limited number of spots. There are other areas of research which have many more openings in their labs.  We think providing application numbers is an important feature to promote transparency. Having more information can help you better understand your chances of success for competitive research positions. Some projects might be less popular, but may still be interesting to you. If the project you wanted looks like it might be oversubscribed, branch out!

But if you'd prefer not to know, we recommend that you apply on the "First day to apply for projects" when application counts are low.

• The application essay should be 1-2 paragraphs long, written specifically for each project. Remember a desire to learn and commitment to the position is valued over prior experience.
• Do not include your name in the essay, or contact the respective mentor to maintain an initial “blind stage” of the application process.
• Investigate the project and the research group to have a basic understanding of their research focus, methodology, and overall work. Express how your particular interests and skills match the project. Be specific and relatable. The mentors and their research group may have their own website, or their work are likely to be found online.
• Keep in mind that research mentors can extend beyond principal investigators or professors. These mentors may include graduate students, postdocs, visiting scientists, lab coordinators, or research administrators. If a project lists a mentor within a principal investigator’s lab, consider researching that specific mentor’s role and research focus within the primary lab.
• Remember, a well-crafted essay that reflects your genuine interest and alignment with the project can significantly improve your application. Best of luck!

You can take 1, 2, or 3 credits of research per semester, and most students start with 1 credit. If you are accepted to a project, you will need to talk with your advisor about filling out an Add/Drop eform.  We do not encourage overloading for research, as these must be approved with an Overload Approval eform, and approval is at the discretion of your advising dean. Note that overloads cannot be approved after the 6th class day of each semester.

Contact the STRAND team (using the Contact form once you are logged in to the site) to make suggestion for category options that match your field of research.

After you post your project, you can make changes to it up until the “Last day to post projects” deadline. After that, students can start applying to your project up until the “Last day to apply for projects” deadline. There is nothing to do for mentors during this time.

Once the “First day to accept applications” date occurs, you can begin reviewing applications. Log in and go to “Mentor tasks > Applications”. You can click on the “Take a tour” button to see an overview of the application process, or for more details, you can follow along below.

Going from left to right in the applications menu will guide you through the process:

1) “New applications”: The site provides a “blinded” first phase of review. Before you can see an applicant’s details (name, transcript, resume, etc.), you are presented with the applicant’s essay to your group. From their essay, you decide whether they move on to a full unblinded review. You are free to choose whatever criteria you’d like in determining which applicants move on to a full review. Select to move the applicant to “in review” or “rejected”.
Note: Students do not see whether you’ve reviewed their application until after the “Last day to accept applications” deadline has passed. After that date, students will either see “Accepted” or “Reviewed” (the word rejected does not appear on the student interface).

2) “Application review”: For the applications that you put “in review”, you can now see the full applicant information. At this point in the process, proceed with your hiring process as you would normally. Read over transcripts and resumes. Contact the student’s provided “recommender” as a reference. Get in touch with the student by email for an interview. Discuss applications with colleagues in your department. You have complete control over how you make your hiring decisions.

Tip: If you expand each application and then print the page as a pdf file, you can easily view all applications at the same time.

When you are ready to make an offer to a student, update the status of their application to “Accepted”. This “Accepted” status is equivalent to a job offer in the site. You may also communicate the offer to the student directly if you'd like, but please do not require a response from them before the "Last day to accept applications" deadline. We want students to see all their on-campus offers before deciding which one to take. After the “Last day to accept applications” has passed, students will be able to view which positions they were accepted to, and they will also receive an email for each position they were accepted to (mentors who offered them a position). It’s up to you and the student to get in touch to discuss whether they are going to accept your offer, and for you to impose any deadlines for them to accept the offer. If the student does not accept your offer, proceed to your second choice, and get in touch with them directly (outside of the site) about offering them the position.

Note: Two weeks after the “Last day to accept applications” deadline, students will receive an email from the site that informs them the round is over. We recommend that if you have any students who are “short-listed” but you aren’t able to offer a position to yet, you get in touch with them directly informing them of their status before this “round is over” email gets sent out.

3) “Accepted applications": This is where applicants who you will/have offered a position to get placed. You can move students out of this status anytime up until the “Last day to accept applications” deadline.

4) “Rejected applications”: This is where applicants who you will not offer a position to get placed. You can move students out of this status anytime up until the “Last day to accept applications” deadline. Students in this pile will only see that their application has been reviewed, not rejected. If you interview students, you might want to inform them of your decision not to hire them directly.

No. Coordinating offers based on student preference is not currently handled within the campus-wide site. This type of coordination is more easily negotiated on a departmental level. If your department is interested in collecting student preferences outside of the site, please feel free to do so!

It happens! Just move any applicants over to the decision area of your application portal and your project will be closed without accepting students. If you did not receive enough applications, keep working on posting projects that engage undergraduates. Undergraduates have a lot of options here at Notre Dame, and the way the project is presented can make a big difference.

Great! The next steps are the same as you would have done without the STRAND site. If the student is going to do research for academic credit, have them fill out and submit an Add/Drop eform with your section of the correct research class (e.g. CHEM 48498, BIOS 48498, etc.). If the student is going to do paid summer research, make sure you contact the undergraduate coordinator in your department to arrange for payment of the research stipend.