Hi everyone! This is Justin Ramos from PEACE.Today’s topic is: I keep getting rejections from URAP! What should I do?I’m pretty sure this is a common problem for many students seeking to do research through URAP. It’s just so darn competitive these days… But don’t worry, I’m here to help!First, you should analyze what is going wrong. Are you carefully composing your statements of interest? They should’ve clearly stated your reasons as to why you want to work in that lab or project in particular. You should’ve clearly told those researchers why you want to do research with them, and how exactly it would further your academic goals. Always be genuine and specific when tackling these personal statements. Have them proofread, and don’t rush through them!Or, are things going wrong during your interviews? I would advise that you do some homework before even meeting up with researchers. PIs absolutely love talking about their work. Read through a few of their publications so you can talk about them during your interview. Try to bring up something that interested you, or even suggest some future directions one could take. Researchers love that. It will soon be all uphill from that point onward!If URAP is still not giving you a break, I would contact other researchers on campus that don’t use URAP. Some PIs actually prefer having students talk to them directly, because it shows initiative. If you don’t have enough chutzpah to just randomly meet professors during office hours, I would just email them instead. One of my previous posts talks about how to email these professors, so check it out!In addition, there are also so many other nearby research institutes you could contact as well! There is CHORI, LBNL, Joint Bioenergy Institute, Plant Gene Expression Center, UCSF and a few others. Definitely don’t limit yourself to just our campus research facilities. You might just find something that works for you. Hope this helps!