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The CCRA blog is authored by Columbia undergraduate researchers, who are invited to reflect on all aspects of the research process and their own undergraduate research experiences, beginning (but not ending) with the Core.
Author Archives: Rhea Sahai
Paid Research isn’t Just a Dream, It Can Be Your Reality
For this blog, I interviewed Esterah Brown, one of my close friends at Columbia who’s also a graduating senior, like me! Esterah is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and studies Political Science and History. As someone with experience only in neuroscience research, … Continue reading
Posted in courses, New York City, postgraduation plans, Senior Thesis, Summer Research
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The Dreaded Global Core Paper
If I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen a STEM-major post in the Columbia Facebook group, asking for a Global Core that required only a short paper or no paper at all, I’d probably have enough money to … Continue reading
Posted in courses, The Core, Uncategorized
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It’s Okay to be Scared of Office Hours!
I am not the type of student who goes to office hours every week. I’m eternally jealous of my friends who are able to just go chat with their professors about anything and everything, but maybe I’m too scared, maybe … Continue reading
Posted in Faculty Mentors, STEM research
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No Thesis, No Shame
Most of the people in my life tend to be a bit surprised to learn that I’m not writing a thesis. After all, I write a blog that talks about research on campus, and it’s frequently assumed that an interest … Continue reading
Posted in postgraduation plans, Senior Thesis, Uncategorized
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Let’s Be Informal
My CC professor has a really beautiful outlook on research, and it’s one that I try to apply to all of my research work. She always used to say that research should only serve one purpose— to amplify knowledge. Yet instead, … Continue reading
Posted in The Core
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A Researcher Without Research to Do
A couple of weeks ago, I heard a mom shriek from my living room and ran to see my mom standing on top of a chair, pointing at a mouse scurrying across the floor. I shrieked and quickly climbed on … Continue reading
Posted in COVID-19, STEM research, Summer Research
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Finding the Intersections in All Subjects
The summer before I got to Columbia as a freshman, I decided that I wanted to go to medical school. Looking back, the nine seasons of Grey’s Anatomy I watched that summer played no small part in that decision—Patrick Dempsey’s … Continue reading
Posted in STEM research, The Core, Uncategorized
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Using the Words of the Past to Define the Future
At the beginning of my second semester of CC, my professor asked us all to write down a response on an index card to the question “What do you hope to get out of this class?” My response was, “The … Continue reading
Posted in The Core, Uncategorized
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