Project Advice

You will probably hear most of these advice multiple times throughout your research process because they are REALLY important and they will REALLY help you a lot if you take them into account.Here are some advice from my experience:

1. Work with a partner, but be careful in choosing a partner because you will have to collaborate a lot for the following 10 weeks and don't make your life difficult by choosing a partner you don't like.

2. Take time to choose the topic of the project. Choose something that is interesting for you as well as for the study population or any third party. If you start to research the topic just for the sake of doing the project, you will end up frustrated bored and unhappy because you will have the project all around during the whole term. Choose a specific topic that will give you an opportunity to investigate some related topics as well. After you choose it, try to find any other studies on that topic, that can be really helpful.

3. Always plan your time taking into account that everything, starting from the survey design to writing the final paper, will need multiple revisions and proofreading so start everything as early as possible and don't stress yourself too much in the last minutes.

4. Ask for help every time you don't feel confident about something, because every part of the project is built on one another and one mistake can screw the study results.

5. At the end, don't be frustrated if you don't get the results you were expecting, it doesn't mean that you are bad researchers and always look for something interesting and new that you can base you assumptions on.

There are many interesting topics on campus as well as out of the campus that you could explore. One of the interesting things to study is how effective Kalamazoo Promise is. Kalamazoo Promise is a chance for kids from interfaith communities who go to Kalamazoo public schools to get full or partial scholarships at public universities in Michigan. It would be interesting to find out how the lives of the students who have used Kalamazoo Promise have changed. One problem with this study is to find those people. Another, easier project could be about the reasons why students choose to attend their current college or their major. You could also investigate the different effects of social networking on teenagers, or how different the students with working moms are from the students with home sitting moms. Student spending patterns, importance of munch money or effectiveness of different organizations on campus are also good topics to consider. I am sure you can come up with many other good ideas. Don't be stressed or nervous, everything will work out just perfect if you give enough thought and time to your work. Good Luck!