is UROP only useful for people who are interested in going into academia?
Nope. I think it's very useful, and not only for people interested in going into academia.
- It's a solo project. No fked up teammates; you're on your own.
- You get to work with profs. If you need any help after your urop, can just email them. (Can see it as networking ba)
- You read lots of paper, learning what's fked up and what's not. In the process, you learn not to write like the fked up ones, and learn what goes into a paper (or a report).
- You get to do a presentation. How often do we get a chance to give one.
- You learn lots of stuff, although my friend disagree with me on this one. His point is you can take 2x mods to replace urop which you can learn as much, if not more. My point is you learn whatever it takes to do your urop, and you have your profs to guide you.
I think the 2 most impt thing that I learn from doing urop, is that writing well is important. Although I don't really don't feel like giving a presentation, it is one of the feel times u can practise, screw up, and learn.
Screwing up in Uni is always less painful than screwing outside in the working world.