Research Opportunities for Students
Students at all levels are encouraged to collaborate with faculty on research. Faculty welcome help with many different kinds of tasks. These may include: collecting, entering, and managing data; administering experimental and Internet-based protocols; coding open-ended responses; conducting literature reviews; pilot-testing procedures; building and testing models in Excel; analyzing data and interpreting statistical output; and helping in other ways depending on the needs of the individual faculty.
Students benefit by developing skills that are highly desirable to employers (e.g., working in teams, organizing and processing data; National Association of Colleges and Employers Job Outlook Survey, 2015). Furthermore, many students find the process of conducting research to be highly rewarding in and of itself! Many alumni have graduated from Stony Brook and gone on to have successful research careers!
Ideal candidates are motivated, self-starting undergraduates, who are eager to learn about research in a hands-on way. Curiosity, time management skills, and dependability are highly recommended.
If you are interested in getting involved, read through the descriptions of faculty research and identify a faculty you’d like to work with. Send them an email and see if they are taking students. Also, the College of Business has strong working relationships with other departments on campus, all of which have faculty with similar research interests, including the Department of Psychology, the department of Political Science, and the Center for Behavioral Political Economy. Creating connections to other departments is always encouraged, so be sure to check out the faculty pages from other areas to see if there is good fit.
Finally, there are many outlets for showcasing your research. The University sponsors an undergraduate research symposium every spring (URECA). Students may present the results of their own independent research at this event. Students may also be eligible for business honors if they develop and conduct independent research, maintain a GPA of 3.5 or higher, and receive approval from the department.
There are many opportunities to get involved; the simplest way to get started is to just ask!