Using the Online UROP System
New for summer 2008, the UROP application process is now online. Note: students must initiate online applications no later than 5 PM on the posted UROP deadline for the given term/mode of participation.
Comprehensive instructions to help you navigate the online UROP application and review process, can be found below, including:
Accessing the Online Proposal System for Faculty Supervisors
Use of the UROP system requires authentication using MIT web certificates. To obtain certificates, please go to: http://web.mit.edu/ist/topics/certificates/, and follow the instructions provided.
Once you have certificates installed, you can access your UROP homepage via the following link: https://sisapp.mit.edu/uropweb/facultyHome.mit. We recommend that you bookmark this link for future reference.
Your UROP Home Page displays options to:
- View proposals needing your review,
- Search UROP projects (including numerous search fields that you can use to look-up the projects that you have supervised),
- Submit URN Credit Assignments, and
- Submit Student Evaluations.
Reviewing Online Proposals
- If any of your UROP students have submitted online applications for your review, then you will see a message that notes the number of proposals awaiting your review.
- To access these proposals, click the Proposals needing your review link. This will produce a list of proposals submitted for you to review.
- Click on the student’s name to view their project detail, which lists their term pay or credit information and their project proposal.
- If you supervise UROPs in multiple departments, please be sure to check the UROP department listed on the student’s project detail. If the wrong department is noted, please click the Edit Application button and choose the proper department from the available dropdown list. Then, click the Save Application button to return to the project detail.
- To review the student’s proposal, click the View Proposal link. NOTE: this will open a PDF version of the student’s proposal in another browser window.
- If any required fields are not completed, then you will see an error message at the top of the page.
- To correct errors and omissions, simply click the Edit Application button and correct any missing or incorrect fields, then click the Save Application button.
- Review the application to make sure that all edits have been saved.
- At this time, you may either:
- Click the Submit to Department button to approve the electronic application and submit it for your department’s UROP Coordinator to review, or
- You may return the application to the student with a comment (e.g. need to expand/revise proposal, etc.).
NOTE: clicking the Submit to Department button is the electronic equivalent of signing the paper application form.
If your department’s UROP coordinator does not wish to review proposals online, your students will be able to print a copy of their application for coordinator signature and submit the paper copy to UROP staff by the given term deadline. However, we ask that you hit the Submit to Department button to indicate your approval.
NOTE: All UROP applications must be signed (electronically or via the paper print for signatures option) by both you and your department's UROP coordinator, before submission to UROP staff.
Searching UROP Projects
To look up current and past student projects that you have supervised, simply click on the Search UROP projects link, which will bring you to a search page that will allow you to search for projects, by student name, year, UROP type, application status, and a number of other options.
From this page, you can elect to view query results as a query list, as student contact information only or as a student email list.
In addition, you may choose to export your results in either Excel or XML format.
NOTE: Only those UROPs that you have supervised from Fall 1995 to present are available for online viewing. Any projects submitted in the old paper format will display project details only and will not include proposals for online viewing.
Submitting URN Credit Assignments
If you have outstanding UROP URN Credit assignments to process, then you will see a Submit URN Credit assignments link. From this page, you have the option to either grant or deny URN credit for your recent pay and volunteer students that are awaiting transcript notation for their UROP participation.
- To confirm satisfactory completion of these UROPs, please select the 'Grant' radio button next to each student's name. Selecting the 'Grant' button means that the student will receive one unit of non-degree credit (otherwise known as a URN notation) indicating that undergraduate research was completed in your academic department.
NOTE: Only students who have worked a full term, the equivalent of at least 80 hours per semester (equivalent to a six-unit seminar), should receive URN credit.
- To deny this notation for a given student, please select the 'Deny' radio button and use the 'Note' field to enter the reason for denying transcript notation. Please note that the student will not see this comment, it will be viewable only to UROP staff.
When you have finished granting/denying URN credit for the term, use the 'Submit URN Credit' button at the bottom of the page to send your URN Credit assignments to UROP staff electronically. You will also receive a confirmation of your entries.
NOTE: Only students who are not assigned an explicit 'Grant' or 'Deny' will appear on your list for that term in the future.
Submitting UROP Evaluations
Faculty feedback is an important part of the UROP process. Your comments help guide our support of UROP projects, and help us identify the students best suited to represent MIT and UROP in public presentations to parents, alumni, and prospective students.
It is also very important that you give regular feedback to your UROP students on their performance, and we hope you will take this opportunity to do so.
- To submit outstanding UROP evaluations for your students, simply click the Submit Student Evaluations link.
- Clicking this link will display a list of student projects for which you have yet to provide an evaluation.
- For each UROP you have to evaluate, you will see a Provide Evaluation link in the Evaluation Needed column. Click this link to access the faculty feedback form.
- Answer all applicable questions. Then, hit the Submit Evaluation button. Once you have hit the Submit Evaluation button, it will be submitted electronically to the UROP staff.
- To access the next student on your awaiting evaluations list, you can simply click the Next Evaluation >> link at that top of the page.
NOTE: To submit evaluations outside of the specified term range, or to amend an evaluation after you have submitted it, please contact UROP staff at urop@mit.edu.
Understanding UROP Status Codes
Below you will find a list of the common status codes that you will encounter in the UROP system, along with their equivalent meaning.
- Faculty Review: Student has submitted an online proposal for you to review, but you still need to review it and submit it to the your department’s UROP Coordinator for review.
- Department Review: Student has submitted an online proposal and you have approved it, but your department’s UROP Coordinator is still reviewing it and needs to submit it to UROP staff for final review/approval.
- Admin Review: Student has submitted an online proposal and both you and your department’s UROP Coordinator have approved it, but UROP staff is now reviewing it. There are also a number of sub-statuses that may appear for application that are under UROP admin review; examples include:
- Review: signature missing: Student submitted a paper application or a combination of an online and paper application that is missing a required approval signature.
- Review: info missing: the application is missing required information (e.g. proposal detail, payroll/credit information, etc thus the application cannot be approved until this information is supplied).
- Review: evaluation missing: student has yet to submit a required end of term UROP evaluation from a prior UROP, thus the application cannot be approved until it is received.
- Approved: The student’s proposal has been approved for the term by not only you and your department’s UROP Coordinator, but also by UROP staff.
- Returned/Rejected: Reasons for returning or rejecting projects can vary (e.g. denied UROP funding, the student failed to correct required missing or incomplete application information, the student submitted a proposal that lacks sufficient detail, etc.). Thus, a number of sub-statuses will appear to explain the return/rejection in more detail. Example sub-statuses include:
- Returned: denied funding: student’s request for UROP Direct Funding was not approved.
- Returned: info missing: student never responded to requests to clarify missing required information, thus the application was returned.
- Returned: evaluation missing: student never responded to requests to submit a required end of term UROP evaluation, thus the application was returned.
NOTE: when applications are returned to the student, s/he must initiate a new application and resubmit it to change the funding type or correct errors/omissions. Students will not be able to initiate a new application after the UROP deadline for the given term has passed.
- Rejected: the student’s application was rejected for one of two reasons; it was received late or the proposed research was deemed inappropriate for a UROP. The rejection reason will appear as a sub-status (e.g. Rejected: received late or Rejected: inappropriate, etc.).
- Cancelled: the student submitted a UROP application for the term, but it has been cancelled for some reason (e.g. lack of time to complete the UROP, s/he decided to switch to pay or credit, etc.). If a project is cancelled a sub-status will appear in parentheses to indicate the status of the application prior to cancellation; these will include:
- Cancelled (Approved): Application was cancelled after UROP staff had already approved it.
- Cancelled (Admin Review): Application was cancelled while still under review by UROP staff.
- Cancelled (Faculty Review): Application was cancelled while still under your review.
- Cancelled (Dept. Review): Application was cancelled while still under review by your department’s UROP Coordinator.
- Cancelled (Draft): The student cancelled the application before submission for faculty and department review.
- Expired: the student had created an application that never reached a final status (e.g. approved or cancelled).
How to Report System Issues or Other Concerns/Suggestions
Please note: the the system is NOT available between the hours of 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. EDT due to regularly scheduled server maintenance.
Should you encounter any other error messages when using the online system, please copy and paste the text of the message into an email to UROP staff at: urop@mit.edu, so that we can troubleshoot the issue and get you back online as quickly as possible.
In addition, should you have any other system concerns or usability suggestions that you wish to share with our staff, do let us know. |
