Research Opportunities Program

Students from the Research Opportunities Program share their experiences from the field. 

Get Hands-On Research Experience

The Research Opportunities Program is a second- or third-year course in which you can join an instructor’s research project and earn 0.5 or 1.0 course credit. ROPs take place throughout the academic year.

Benefits of the Research Opportunities Program (ROP)

In an ROP course, you will: 

  • Learn research methods and further develop your research skills
  • Strengthen your graduate school applications by developing a close working relationship with a faculty member
  • Build peer connections with fellow ROP students as you acquire new knowledge together
  • Have the opportunity to share your work at the bi-annual Research Fair — an exciting highlight of the program 

Who is Eligible to Participate? 

Students are eligible to apply for an ROP if they meet the following criteria:

  • Are registered as a full- or part-time student entering their second or third year of an undergraduate degree program within the Faculty of Arts & Science at the St. George campus
  • Have accumulated between 4.0-13.5 credits (including transfer credits) by the end of the April exam period

Is there an Additional Cost?

No, there are no additional fees for ROP courses. ROPs are covered through your regular tuition fees. 

ROP Courses

If ROP faculty members have identified their prospective student(s), their ROP courses won’t be posted on CLNx. Students can search for courses on CLNx by entering the faculty’s first or last name. Should you encounter any difficulties, please reach out to rop.artsci@utoronto.ca.

The general ROP application deadline is March 22, and you can submit up to five ROP applications. Below is a full list of ROP courses for 2023-24 and no additional courses will be added.

Any applications submitted for the following two courses will not be considered as part of the maximum five applications allowed. This means that students can submit additional applications for the these courses until March 29.

  1. Synthetic Half-Reactions for Understanding Chemical Synthesis, by Dr. Andrei Yudin
  2. Perception of scenes in the real world and the visual arts, by Dr. Dirk Bernhardt-Walther
Terms Department Faculty Supervisor ROP Project Title Available on CLNx

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

BCH

Warren Lee

Mechanisms of LDL transcytosis across the coronary artery endothelium

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

CHM

Al-Amin Dhirani

Quantum nanoengineered materials

Y

Summer 2023

CHM

Alan Aspuru-Guzik

Using edge technology such as IoT, Quantum, and machine learning in the self-driving lab to accelerate material discovery.

Y

Summer 2023

Fall 2023

CHM

Andrei Yudin

Synthetic Half-Reactions for Understanding Chemical Synthesis

Y, posted on March 20. The application deadline for this course is March 29. 

Summer 2023

CHM

Haissi Cui

Visualizing intracellular RNA trafficking

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

CSB

Shelley Lumba

Molecular dialogue between plants and fungi

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

CSB

Ritu Sarpal

Developing a laboratory to study gene expression patterns in Drosophila embryos

Y

Summer 2023

CSC

Marsha Chechik

Testing and analyzing reliability of computer vision models

N

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

Fall 2023

Winter 2024

CSC

Joseph Williams

Enhancing & Personalizing Technology for Education & Health by Integrating Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Statistics & Machine Learning

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

ECO

Jonathan Hall

How Are New Technologies Affecting Transportation Safety?

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

EEB

Asher Cutter

Genetics and development in nematode evolution

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

ENV

Brad Bass

Land Use Economics and Sustainable Planning

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

ENV

Brad Bass

Simulating Complexity, Chaos and Emergence

Y

Summer 2023

ENV

Tanhum Yoreh

Environmental Action in Faith Communities

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

ENV

Brad Bass

Will Internet Connectivity Improve Access to Opportunities

Y

Summer 2023

ESS

Andrei Swidinsky

Developing a mineral deposit exploration project using legacy data and machine learning

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

ESS

Miriam Diamond

Characterizing lots of microplastics in Toronto outdoor air and surface waters

Y

Summer 2023

GGR

Nidhi Subramanyam

Planning for urban water security

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

HMB

Leanne De Souza-Kenney

Rising food costs and the effects on underserved/vulnerable communites and their cardio metabolic health outcomes

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

IRE

Jenna Myers

Upskilling and Worker Mobility through Bootcamp Training Programs

N

Summer 2023

LIN

Ivan Bondoc

Incremental Sentence Processing of Tagalog Flexible Word Order

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

LIN

Myrto Grigoroglou

Events in speech and gesture

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

LMP

Golnaz Karoubi

Effects of Biophysical Cues on Airway Epithelium

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

LMP

Kelsie Thu

Investigating new therapeutic strategies in lung cancer

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

LMP

Susan Done

Heterogeneity and the Immune Response in Breast Cancer

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

MGY

Marc Meneghini

Discovering pathways of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease through multi-species genetics

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

MGY

Aaron Reinke

Development of large-scale sequence alignment methods for the detection of microsporidian parasites

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

MGY

Derek Van Der Kooy

“Learning and memory genes” and “Neural stem cells”

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

Fall 2023

Winter 2024

MGY

Thomas Hurd

Determining how deleterious mitochondrial DNA mutations are eliminated  

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

NMC

Adrien Zakar

Instruments of Empire: Histories of Mapping in the Middle East and the World

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

Fall 2023

Winter 2024

OISE

Esther Geva

South Asian Immigrant Parents’ Involvement in the Education of Children with Learning Difficulties: Developing and Testing a Cultural Beliefs and Attributions based Intervention Model

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

OISE

Eunice Jang

Diagnostic Assessment of Early Reading and Oral Language Skills

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

OISE

Kaja Jasinska

Impact of interrupted schooling on the development of neural systems for reading in resettled refugee chidlren

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

OISE

Kang Lee

Academic Integrity Study

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

OISE

Jennifer Jenkins

The role of pregnancy complications in the association between maternal early adversity and offspring mental health: A mediation meta-analysis

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

OISE

Becky Chen

Reading Comprehension among Majority and Minority Language Children in French Immersion

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

OISE

Todd Cunningham

Understanding of Assistive Technology witch School Age Students

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PHY

Carolyn Sealfon

Towards Scalable Assessments of 21st Century Competencies in Physics

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PHY

John Wei

Exploratory Synthesis of Oxide Superconductors

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PHY

John Wei

Cryomagnetic Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

POL

Lynette Ong

Politics & Society in China, Greater China and Southeast Asia

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

POL

Donald Kingsbury

After Extraction: On the Politics of Mine Reclamation in the Americas

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSL

Andrea Jurisicova

Role of Mitochondria in establishing developmental competence of oocyte.

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSL

Shuzo Sugita

Genetic analysis of synaptic transmission in C. elegans

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSL

Brian Cox

Modelling human trophoblast interactions with decidual natural killer cells

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSL

Adria Giacca

The role of NOD1 in obesity-associated diabetes

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSL

Haibo Zhang

Lung Gegeneration in ARDS

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSL

Denise Belsham

Regulation of brain neuropeptides by nutrients, chemicals, and hormones.

Y

Summer 2023

PSL

Mei Zhen

Neuronal development by automated electron microscopy

Y

Fall 2023

Winter 2024

PSY

Odilia Yim

"Allow me to re-introduce myself”: The Role of Language and Identity Integration among Ethnic Minorities

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSY

Alison Chasteen

Stereotyping, Prejudice, & Discrimination

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSY

Spike Lee

Politics, Ideology, Morality, Science Denialism, Social Class, and Digital Technology

Y

Summer 2023

PSY

Kaori Takehara

Brain circuitry supporting transitive inference

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSY

Meg Schlichting

How does the developing brain remember?

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSY

Christina Starmans

Development of Moral and Social Cognition

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSY

Rebecca Neel

Prejudice, stigmatization, motivation, and social invisibility

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSY

Jessica Sommerville

The developmental origins of children’s thinking and behaviour in the domains of social, cognitive, and moral development

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSY

Alexander Barnett

Uncovering how the brain forms and retrieves memories

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSY

Felix Cheung

The Science of a Satisfying Life

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSY

William Cunningham

Social Others

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSY

Katherine Duncan

Understanding Human Memory

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSY

Laura Corbit

Neural control of reward-related learning

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSY

Morgan Barense

How does the brain support memory?

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSY

Nicholas Rule

The Science of Snap Judgments

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSY

Suzanne Wood

Drug Usage Rates and Attitudes Among U of T Students

Y

Summer 2023 

PSY

Gillian Einstein

Estrogens and Cognition - Body Mapping

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

PSY

Allison Sekuler

Vision and Aging: perception/cognition links in health aging and dementia

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24  PSY  Dirk Bernhardt-Walther  Perception of scenes in the real world and the visual arts  Y, posted on March 17. The application deadline for this course is March 29. 

Fall/Winter 2023-24

RLG

Pamela Klassen

Remediating the Mound Builders: The Mounds Research Collective

Y

Summer 2023 

SOC

Ito Peng

The Hidden Costs of Care: qualitative research into unpaid childcare and eldercare in Canada

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

STA

Pascal Tyrrell

Sample size determination methodologies for machine learning studies in medical imaging research

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Hance Clarke

Toronto General Hospital- Anesthesia and Pain Research

Y

Summer 2023

Fall/Winter 2023-24

TRN

Nicole Spiegelaar

Trinity Food Systems Lab

Y

Fall/Winter 2023-24

VIC

Hakob Barseghyan

Visualizing Worldviews: Deciphering the Process of Scientific Change

Y

Department Professor Research Project
CHM  M Cynthia Goh  Continuous disinfection of surfaces by nanomaterials coatings 
CHM  M Cynthia Goh  Storm pond water: analysis and potential remediation by photocatalysis 
CHM  Alan Aspuru-Guzik  Synthesis of New Organic Light-Emitting Diode Materials 
CSC  Alan Aspuru-Guzik  Automatized implementation of non-unitary embeddings for quantum computers 
ENV  Brad Bass  Simulating the Spread of COVID-19 and the Effectiveness of Preventive Measures with a Fixed Facility, Nigeria 
HMB  Leanne De Souza  Hindsight 2020: Post-secondary Insights on Learning in a Pandemic 
LIN  Sali Tagliamonte  Language Detectives of Toronto: Science and Craft 
MGY  Thomas Hurd  Determining how deleterious mitochondrial DNA mutations are eliminated 
PHY Carolyn Sealfon Summarizing learners' free responses at large scales
POL  Peter Loewen  How do governments respond to COVID-19? A cross-national comparison of policy responses to a pandemic 
PSY  Meg Schlichting Mack  How does the developing brain remember? 
PSY  Michael Mack  The mutual interaction of attention and memory in concept learning 
PSY  Gillian Einstein  The relationship between estrogen loss, inflammation, sleep, and brain atrophy 
PSY  Gillian Einstein  The relationship between sleep, cortical thickness, estrogen, and memory 
APHD  Becky Xi Chen  The International Bilingual Education Project 
CSC  Joseph Williams  Helping Students Improve their Education & Health by Integrating Behavioral/Social Sciences like Psychology, Economics, Public Health with Computer Science 
CSC  Joseph Williams  Building Intelligent Self-Improving Technology for Student Education & Health by Integrating Machine Learning, Statistics, Economics, Computational Social Science 
ENV  Tanhum Yoreh  Faith-Based Environmentalism: Mapping and Analysis 
LIN  Suzi Oliveira de Lima  Internationalized learning at home: investigating African languages spoken in Toronto 
MGY  Derek Van Der Kooy  Learning and memory genes 
MGY  Tae-Hee Kim  Mechanisms of gut stem cell niches 
NMC  Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi  Persianate Women Poets 
POL  Lynette Ong  Analysis of Socio-political Conditions in China and Beyond 
PSL  Haibo Zhang  Lung Regeneration in ARDS 
PSL  Sheena Josselyn  Understanding memories in mice 
PSL Sheena Josselyn  Examining the impact of stress on memory in mice
PSL  Adria Giacca  The role of NOD1 in obesity-associated diabetes 
PSL  Shuzo Sugita  Genetic analysis of synaptic transmission in C. elegans 
PSY  Jessica Sommerville  The infantile origins of social thinking, learning and behavior 
PSY  Spike Lee  Morality, Values, and Intuitions 
PSY  Spike Lee  Social Class, Social Dominance, Relative Deprivation, and Lay Beliefs 
PSY  Christina Starmans  Children's Understanding of Moral Conflict and Temptation 
PSY  Morgan Barense  How does the brain support memory? 
PSY Nicholas Rule Social Perception and Cognition
STA  Pascal Tyrrell  Sample size determination methodologies for machine learning studies in medical imaging research 
TRN  Michael Kessler, Nicole Spiegelaar  Sustainable Food Systems 
CHM  Barbora Morra, Andy Dicks  CHM - Developing New Microwave-Assisted Organic Synthesis Reactions for Use in the Undergraduate Laboratory Curriculum 
EEB  Stephen Wright  EEB - Genomic basis of sex determination in the plant Rumex hastatulus 
HMB  Leanne De Souza  HMB - Hindsight 2020: Post-secondary Insights on Learning in a Pandemic 
ANES  Hance Clarke  (1) Phonemics and Genomics of Chronic Postsurgical Pain, (2) The Transitional Pain Service Database Project, and (3) The GoodHope Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) Project 
APHD  Michele Peterson-Badali  Mental Health in Youth Criminal Court 
APHD  Todd Cunningham  Exploring Teacher Mental Health Literacy as a Determinant of Mental Health Service Access by Elementary School Children 
APHD  Todd Cunningham  School Engagement and Performance Among Refugee Youth 
APHD  Earl Woodruff  Emotions and Learning: Examining affective and cognitive processes in real-time 
APHD  Esther Geva  Exploring the Literacy Outcomes of a vocabulary and Reading Comprehension Intervention Targeting Immigrant Adolescents 
APHD  Esther Geva  Developmental, Cognitive and Typological Spelling Error Patterns of English Language Learners Coming from 3 Typologically Different Home Language Backgrounds 
BCH  Warren Lee  LDL transcytosis by coronary endothelial cells and the initiation of atherosclerosis 
CHM  Al-Amin Dhirani  Nanoengineering Quantum Electronic Behaviour 
CHM  Helen Tran  Synthesis of soft tissue-compatible bottlebrush elastomers 
CHM  Helen Tran  Self-assembly of biomimetic peptoids into 2D nanosheets 
CSB  Nicholas Provart  Molecular and Bioinformatic Characterization of Novel Environmental Stress-Associated Genes from Plants 
CSC  Peter Marbach  Evaluating Models and Algorithms for Social Networks using Twitter Data 
CSC  Peter Marbach  Network Protocols for the Internet of Things 
CSC  Joseph Williams  Enhancing & Personalizing Technology for Educational & Physical/Mental Health by integrating Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology & Statistical Machine Learning 
EEB  Asher Cutter  Genetics and development in nematode evolution 
EEB  Chelsea Rochman  Contamination and Effects of Microplastics in Aquatic Ecosystems 
EEB  Megan Frederickson  Host-microbe interactions across an island archipelago 
EEB  Jacqueline Sztepanacz  The evolution of sex differences in wings 
EEB  Benjamin Gilbert  Ecological selection and drift 
ENV  Brad Bass  Simulating the Emergence of Unexpected Change within Natural Systems 
ENV  Brad Bass  Simulating the emergence of behavioural change and the impact on the environment 
HIS  Jennifer Mori  Early modern English household manuals, 1660-1800 
HMB  William Ju  Developing EDI (Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity) learning modules for biology courses 
LIN  Myrto Grigoroglou  Cross-linguistic expression of events in speech and gesture 
LMP  Warren Lee  Mechanisms of acute lung injury - development of novel therapeutic approaches 
LMP  Kelsie Thu  Characterizing novel treatment strategies for lung cancer 
LMP  Susan Done  Heterogeneity and the Immune Response in Breast Cancer 
LMP  Shinichiro Ogawa  Human Pluripotent Stem Cells for Modelling Human Liver Disease and Cell Therapy 
MAT  George Elliott  Classification of C*-algebras 
MBP Daniel De Carvalho Genome-wide CRISPR Screen in Primary Human CD8+ T Cells
MGY  Marc Meneghini  Molecular and genetic investigations of viral innate immunity 
MGY  Peter Roy  Identifying novel nematicides to combat plant parasitic nematodes  
PCL  Roger McIntyre  Synthesizing the Pathophysiology of Post-COVID-19 Syndrome: A Systematic Review 
POL  Donald Kingsbury  Extractive Frontiers of the Post-Carbon Energy Transition 
PSL  Denise Belsham  Understanding the role of excess nutrients, endocrine disrupting chemicals, and circadian rhythms in the regulation of neuropeptides that control energy homeostasis and reproduction 
PSY  Alison Chasteen  Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination 
PSY  Spike Lee  How Physical Firmness Affects Metacognitive Firmness Leading to Stronger Beliefs, Reinforced Processing Styles and More Entrenched Judgments 
PSY  Geoffrey MacDonald  Singlehood and Well-Being 
PSY  Rebecca Neel  Prejudice, stigmatization, motivation, and social invisibility 
PSY  Katherine Duncan  Investigating Episodic Memory in Parkinson's Disease Patients 
PSY  Amy Finn, Nicholas Rule  Attending less, but learning more: Do children's reduced selective attention boost memory for irrelevant information? 
PSY  Amy Finn, Nicholas Rule  Neural development of the perception and memory of event structure in continuous narrative 
RLG  John Marshall  Gospel Parallels 
VIC  Hakob Barseghyan  Visualizing Worldviews: Diagramming Belief System 
CLA  Jonathan Burgess  Theories of Myth 

Dates and Application Process

Date Activity

February 22, 2023

2023-24 ROP applications open on CLNx. Students are allowed to apply to a maximum of five ROP projects.

March 16, 2023

Prospective ROP students are encouraged to attend the bi-annual Research Fair to learn about Fall/Winter 2022-23 ROP research projects and connect with current ROP students. The Research Fair will take place at Hart House in the Great Hall. Register via this link to attend. 

March 22, 2023

2023-24 ROP applications close at 11:59 pm.

March 27, 2023

Student applications sent to ROP faculty supervisors. Supervisors begin reviewing applications and extending interview invitations to students.

March 27 – April 6, 2023

Round One interview period: Faculty members review applications, interview students and present offer(s).

April 6, 2023

Deadline for faculty to present Round One offers to students.

April 6 – 9, 2023

Students consider Round One offers. 

April 9, 2023

Deadline for students to accept or decline Round One offers. 

April 10 – May 19, 2023 

Round Two interview period for unfilled opportunities: Faculty members review applications, interview students and present offers to student(s). Students accept offers on a rolling basis.

April 19, 2023

Last day for Summer ROP student(s) to be selected and for ROP contracts to be submitted.

April 21, 2023

Experiential Learning & Outreach Support office to enrol students in Summer 2023 ROP courses. 

May 19, 2023

Last day for Fall (F), Fall/Winter (Y) and Winter (S) ROP student(s) to be selected and for ROP contracts to be submitted.

Early June 2023

Students enrolled in Fall, Fall/Winter and Winter ROP courses.

September 2023
(date TBD) 

Fall Research Fair for summer ROP students.

March 2024
(date TBD) 

Spring Research Fair for Fall, Fall/Winter and Winter ROP students.

To do in the Fall term:
  • September: Attend bi-annual Research Fair to familiarize yourself with the type of research projects your peers have worked on throughout the Summer term
  • September - December: Gather information: Review ROP deadlines for 2023-24, talk with professors, classmates and ROP alumni
To do in the Winter term:
  • February: Review list of ROP proposals posted on the CLNx portal
  • March: Attend bi-annual Research Fair to browse posters and ask questions
    • Apply for ROP by the deadline listed in CLNx
    • Prepare for a possible interview
    • Round 1 interviews
  • April: Deadline to accept or decline a Round 1 offer
    • Round 2 interviews
  • May: Deadline to accept or decline a Round 2 offer
  • Students must apply to ROP course postings on CLNx by the program deadline in order to be considered
  • You will be required to sign an agreement (ROP contract) with your supervising instructor, which will serve as your course syllabus for your 299 course (if this is your first ROP) or 399 course (if this is your second ROP)
  • You may enrol in a maximum of two ROP courses (with different supervisors) during your undergraduate studies

For the 2023-24 application period, students can apply for up to 5 ROPs on the CLNx platform, between February 22 to March 22, 2023. If students submit more than 5 applications, only the first 5 applications submitted will be considered. Applications included four documents: resume/CV, a letter of intent, an unofficial transcript and an Applicant Profile Summary. For those interested to learn about the 2023-24 application process, please view the CLNx application process video. All applications will be sent to faculty supervisors on March 27, 2023. 

After student applications are sent to the faculty supervisor, they then make their selections in accordance with the relevant deadlines. Some faculty supervisors will have interviews, phone calls or email questions to students they are considering. Each faculty supervisor has their own method. Only students who are being considered or are selected for an ROP course will be contacted by the relevant faculty supervisor. Selected students are required to sign an agreement (ROP contract) with their supervising professor to participate in an ROP course, and will be enrolled into the course by the Office of the Dean prior to the start of the relevant term.  

Interested students can attend the ROP Application Tips Session in February and March, and gain tips on how to prepare their application. If you have any questions while preparing your application, please do not hesitate to write to us rop.artsci@utoronto.ca or attend one of our drop-in sessions via this MS Teams link (Feb 22, 2:00-3:00pm; March 3, 1:00-2:00pm; March 7, 4:00-5:00pm; March 13, 12:00-1:00pm; March 20, 10:00-11:00am).

What are the course requirements of ROPs?

  • ROP projects in Fall (H), Fall/Winter (Y) and Winter (H) typically require 8-10 hours of work per week on the research project. ROP projects in Summer (Y) typically require 18-20 hours of work per week on the research project
  • Students are expected to keep a journal documenting their research progress, and what they have learned about the project and about the process of research more broadly
  • Students should meet at least every other week with their faculty supervisor and record the dates and times of those meetings in their journal
  • Students will attend any training or orientations that the supervisor may require
  • Written assignments must constitute at least 50% of the final grade in an ROP course  
  • Final exams are not allowed as part of the grading scheme for an ROP
  • Supervisors must return assignments worth at least 20% of the course mark before the relevant course drop date in a given term

Do ROP courses (299H/Y and 399H/Y) count towards my degree? Yes. You will receive 0.5 or 1.0 course credit (depending on whether your ROP is an H or Y course) towards the 20.0 credits required for an Honours Bachelor of Arts (HBA), Honours Bachelor of Science (HBSc), or Bachelor of Commerce (BCom). 

Do ROP courses count towards my program requirements? 

It may, depending on the nature of the ROP project and your Program of Study. You will have to discuss this with the faculty supervisor who oversees your ROP to see how it fits into an academic program and then discuss this with your program coordinator.  

Are ROP courses in-person or online? 

ROP courses can be in-person, online or hybrid — this will vary based on the research project and is at the discretion of the faculty supervisor.

I am an A&S degree student, but I am over the credit limit for ROP – am I eligible for ROP?  

A&S degree students with 14.0 or more credits are not eligible to participate. Please note that transfer credits count towards your overall credit count. If you are above the credit limit for ROP and are keen to build research experience, you can also consider taking Independent Study or other research-based courses or connect with professors directly for additional opportunities to volunteer or work with them. Individual departments or programs may also have information on potential ways you can engage in research — please contact your department or program directly. You can also consider funded avenues to conduct research; to get started, review the funding opportunities listed on the Sidney Smith Commons website, under the Grants section. Finally, there are also Lab/Research Assistant Work-Study positions that you can apply for; Work-Study program eligibility details and dates can be found on the CLNx website.  

I am a visiting or exchange student / a student from another Faculty / a student from another U of T campus — am I eligible for ROP? 

Students who are not Arts & Science (St. George) degree undergraduate students are not eligible to participate in ROP. Please connect with your department or program to find out about other avenues to build your research experience. 

How many ROPs can I apply for? 

Students are allowed to apply for a maximum of five ROPs per application cycle (the February 2023 application cycle includes Summer 2023, Fall 2023, Fall/Winter 2023-24 and Winter 2024 ROP courses). If a student attempts to submit additional applications (above the five ROP limit), only their first five applications will be considered valid; they will automatically be ineligible to participate in ROPs related to those additional applications. 

Does it help to get my application in right away, well in advance of the deadline? 

No. Applications will only be shared with professors after the application period is complete. We encourage you to take your time to read over and refine your application(s). However, students submitting their application documents close to the end of the application period should be mindful to leave enough time before the final deadline to mitigate the impact of any technical issues that may interfere with your ability to submit your documents. 

Should I contact the faculty supervisor of the ROP project I am interested in? 

Due to the high volume of applicants, and out of respect for your professor’s time, please review the ROP posting carefully as your first step. If, after reviewing the posting, you have outstanding questions concerning deadlines, eligibility or requirements, please feel free to contact the Experiential Learning & Outreach Support office. Should you have additional, outstanding questions concerning the nature of the research project itself, or the faculty member’s research needs, then please feel free to contact the supervisor directly for an appointment to discuss the project further. Please note that supervisors may receive numerous applications. As a result, they typically only contact those students whom they wish to interview. Unless you have specific, unanswered questions concerning the nature of the research involved, then we do not recommend reaching out to supervisors.

Will my marks or GPA play a role? How can I increase my chances of getting one of the positions? 

The importance of your GPA will vary, based on the requirements of the ROP course that you have applied to, and the selection criteria noted by the supervising professor. Most faculty supervisors would prefer to see enthusiasm for the research and a positive attitude over the highest grades. In general, highlight your skills and relevant experience and tailor your documents to the position.

How can I increase my chances of obtaining an ROP position?

ROP Application Tips and the Resume and Cover Letter Toolkit may be useful resources to support you in crafting your application documents. Finally, you may find it helpful to attend the Research Opportunities Program Poster Fair to speak with ROP students about their projects and the application process.

What does the acceptance process look like? How will I know that I am officially accepted? 

Faculty supervisors will schedule interviews or phone calls, or email questions to students they are considering. Each faculty supervisor has their own process. If a professor is interested in moving forward with your application, your eligibility will be verified. If you are eligible to participate in an ROP course, you will sign a contract with your supervising professor. Students will be enrolled directly into the course by the office of Experiential Learning & Outreach Support. 

I have not been contacted with regards to my ROP application(s). Is there still a chance that I might get selected for an ROP course? 

Only students who are being considered or are selected for an ROP course will be contacted by the relevant faculty supervisor. Unfortunately, if you do not receive and sign an offer by either April 19, 2023 (for Summer 2023 ROP courses) or May 19, 2023 (for Fall 2023, Fall/Winter 2023-24 and Winter 2024 ROP courses), you have not been selected for a 2023-24 ROP course. 

I have already signed an ROP contract with a professor but have received an offer from another professor. Can I withdraw from the first contract and sign another contract? 

No. Students are not allowed to sign more than one contract per application cycle. If a student signs more than one ROP contract, only the first signed contract will be honoured and the other contract(s) will be considered void.  

I am enrolled in an ROP course, and the term is about to begin next week. I last spoke with my faculty supervisor when I signed the contract. Am I supposed to reach out, or should I wait to hear from them? 

The start of term is a busy time for many people, including professors. If you have not yet heard from your faculty supervisor, we encourage you to send them an email. If you face any challenges connecting with your professor, please email rop.artsci@utoronto.ca.  

I am enrolled in an ROP course and need to withdraw. However, I cannot drop the course via ACORN. What steps should I take? 

If you have not yet started the course, but need to withdraw: 

  1. Inform your faculty supervisor about your decision to drop the course
  2. Email rop.artsci@utoronto.ca, copying your faculty supervisor, to let us know that you need to be unenrolled from the course

If you have already started the course, and need to withdraw: 

  1. Inform your faculty supervisor about your decision to drop the course
  2. Email your college registrar, copying rop.artsci@utoronto.ca, to request to withdraw from the course

I am interested in or already working on a professor’s research project. Can my work on their research count as an ROP course? ROP proposals by faculty members must be submitted for adjudication before they are approved as a course, to ensure that the research project aligns with ROP course policies and requirements. The deadline for faculty members to submit ROP proposals for 2023-24 is January 16, 2023. Special approval may, however, be granted in exceptional circumstances for late submissions; please reach out to rop.artsci@utoronto.ca.  

Alternative ways for your work to be counted towards course credit is to investigate whether your participation in this research project may be eligible for Independent Study or other research-based courses

Is ROP eligible for Credit/No Credit?

Courses where an individual student works on independent study or individual research supervised by a professor are not eligible for Credit/No Credit; this includes ROP courses.

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