Drawing from in-depth interviews with alumni across the disciplines, this book explores the benefits of undergraduate research: meaningful intellectual engagement, a sense of belonging in the campus community, and vocational clarity and career success after college.

What matters to alumni about their research experience is often not what is represented in scholarship. The compelling stories featured in this text describe intellectual and emotional uncertainty and excitement; deeply personal mentoring relationships; and the powerful ways in which undergraduate research shapes and directs career paths. The book brings a novel perspective that begins during the research experience and extends into the years after college, offering practical insight into program design, mentoring, and research-to-career practices that are flexible enough to be implemented in the natural sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.

This book speaks to faculty, staff, and administrators at a wide range of institutions, regardless of experience or comfort level with undergraduate research.

This book makes a strong case for investing in undergraduate research programs and experiences.  With compelling stories, A Long View of Undergraduate Research is an excellent reminder to administrators of the valuable investment that undergraduate research is for students and institutions.

By focusing on the lived experiences of recent alumni of undergraduate research, this book provides a refreshing new perspective on the impact of undergraduate research, emphasising a long view of research as partnership. By concentrating on graduates from the humanities and social sciences, the stories about the process of inquiry, undergraduate research as belonging, and undergraduate research as vocation complement previous work. This is a well-written book, full of insights, that I strongly recommend.

This book clearly demonstrates the transformative potential of undergraduate research in their development as scholars. It brings to life previous research which often lists these benefits. However, the power in this book is the student voice! It tells their stories and normalizes what the undergraduate scholar is going through during the undergraduate research experience and how it helps them become career ready and prepared for what is beyond their undergraduate degree. This book will help mentors understand what their students are going through and the importance of their mentoring to help their students and their own development as mentors.