Physics Directed Reading Program

@ The University of Michigan

Overview

The Physics Directed Reading Program (DRP) provides an opportunity for undergraduate students at the University of Michigan to work closely with a graduate student at the Department of Physics. This program is designed to help motivated undergraduate students explore physics topics in more depth than possible in a classroom setting. In consultation with their graduate mentors, the students choose a topic and text to study for their project. During the semester, the students read their chosen text and meet with their mentors regularly to discuss their progress. At the end of the semester, the students give brief presentations on their topics.

Physics building Homer Neal Laboratory (right) and Astronomy building West hall (left) in the snow.

Expectations for mentees

Undergraduate students accepted into the program will meet with their mentor to decide an appropriate project for the semester. Each week students will be expected to spend at least 4 hours on DRP related work and meet with their mentor for at least 1 hour. At the end of the semester, all participating undergraduate students will give a 15-20 minutes presentation on what they learned during the semester. Mentors are expected to attend.

Undergraduate students who are interested in participating in the program should fill out the undergraduate application form in the application page.

Expectations for mentors

Mentors are expected to meet with students weekly for an hour and attend the end-of-semester presentations. The general structure of the meetings is flexible and should be agreed upon by both mentor and mentee. As a mentor, you should discuss with your mentee what topic they would be interested in studying for the DRP. You can propose textbooks, papers, lecture notes, or any material that you think will be helpful. The weekly meetings can then be answering questions from your mentee, having them present what they read about, proposing new avenues in reading, etc.

Graduate students who are interested in becoming mentors should fill out the mentor sign up form in the application page.

DRP participants in Winter 2025

DRP participants in Fall 2024

Benefits for Students

Learn physics in a friendly and interactive environment
Pursue a topic not covered in their curriculum
Connect with a graduate student mentor
Learn how to learn independently
Develop oral communication skills in physics
Figure out what research topics they are interested in if they want to go to graduate school

Note that the DRP is not an undergraduate research program. Nor will the students receive any course credit for their projects (this means no exams and no grades).

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