The Real World... of Research
Undergraduates experience academic research first-hand

Winter 2004, Volume 26, Number 1

Aroop Chatterjee talks with Chris Taber.

Thirty-eight Northwestern undergraduates spent their summer at IPR, learning the techniques and trials of research by helping faculty with ongoing research projects. The program, in its sixth year, aims to help undergraduates discover early whether research suits them, before committing to research in graduate school or a job. It is open only to Northwestern undergraduates.

“Focusing on one research project engages the undergraduates in a purely intellectual enterprise and teaches them how to think about the big research picture,” said Chris Taber, the Household International Inc. Research Professor of Economics and IPR faculty fellow, who heads the program. “I was impressed with how much these students understood about the research projects, and what they were getting out of their experiences.”

Senior Aroop Chatterjee worked with Taber this summer developing a model to explain how merit-based governmental aid affects college education. A double major in material sciences engineering and economics, he became interested in the project while taking a class with Taber. He said the program attracted him because he wanted to learn more about how to conduct research and analyses.

Junior Michael Wong, a psychology and political science major, took a more direct route, contacting faculty fellows whose research interested him. He wound up working with Kathryn Edin, associate professor of sociology and IPR faculty fellow, on her study of couple dynamics. She and other IPR faculty are investigating why low-income couples stay together or break up, how this affects their children’s development, and the extent of the fathers’ family involvement.

“It opened up another realm of research—that was very refreshing,” said Wong, who worked on coding taped field interviews. “I learned it’s not just quantitative.”

Wong also took home some valuable lessons in life, especially in how economic status can affect quality of life. “I don’t have kids; I’m not married—it really gave [me] insight as to what that world was like,” he said.

For program information, please contact Ellen Whittingham at
h-whittingham@northwestern.edu.