Course Credit

Students can expect to work about 3 hours for each credit. This may vary depending on your advisors. Please be aware that your research advisor may require you to commit to research for more than one semester, because they must invest time to train you. We do not allow students to receive credit and get paid for the same research hours.

After discussing your time commitment with your advisor, you may register for your advisor's section of BIOL 4095-4097. If your advisor is outside our department, you will enroll in section 002, and the Director of Undergraduate Research will coordinate grading with your research advisor.

Research may count as one upper division elective (lab or lecture) for Biology majors if you were registered for at least 3 credits of research in one semester and if you present your research at the Spring Undergraduate Symposium. Other oral presentations may be substituted only with prior approval of the Director of Undergraduate Research. With only a few exceptions such as the WISE and SURF programs, more than one semester of effort will be required to conduct research appropriate for a presentation. Specific requirements are left to the discretion of individual advisors. Most will require effort over multiple semesters. Note that research can be used for only one such elective no matter how many credits or semesters of research you do.

If your undergraduate research meets the requirements for Biology Major Elective Credit (see above) it will usually also fulfill the Capstone requirement. In addition to fulfilling these requirements, you will need to register for 1 credit of Biology Capstone (BIOL 5050 section 002), usually in your senior year, and complete an experiential self evaluation (guidelines for experiential self evaluation).