What to Expect

For Undergraduates

After looking below at the project descriptions, you will be asked to complete a quick application indicating your mathematical background and project preference. Each of you will be placed into a project group with 0-3 other students and a graduate student mentor. You will spend time reading about your particular project topic and working related problems (about 5 hours per week). You will then meet with your mentor individually (about 1 hour per week) to discuss your progress, and with the rest of the group (about 1 hour per week) to collaborate and share ideas.


For Graduates

Each mentor is assigned 1-4 undergraduate students to complete the reading project. You will be asked to meet 1 hour per week individually with each student to discuss their progress, and 1 hour per week with the group to help them collaborate and share ideas. These meetings will be primarily led by student questions, though it is your responsibility to assess whether the weekly goals (as indicated on the project syllabus) were met by each student. As such, you must be prepared to discuss the material being read, the exercises being completed, and be willing to assign students work to complete between meetings (hopefully a combination of problems and reading). Since we want our undergraduates to become better mathematicians as a result of this project, assign work that improves mathematical practices as well as traditional exercises. Mentors are required to take notes during the meeting to keep a record of what was discussed and to assess student performance. Ultimately, you will write an evaluation of each student’s work and submits this to the project coordinator for revisions. Lastly, you are responsible for preparing students to present their work at the end of the project and submitting the written work to the project coordinator.