UROP Project

Common App, quantitative research, college readiness, student success, social science
Samuel Luby. Photo. Fall 2020.jpg
Research Mentor: just Sam is fine..! Sam Luby, He/him
Department, College, Affiliation: Education Leadership and Policy Studies, Education, Health, and Human Sciences
Contact Email: sml23@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:
Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Education, Sociology, Social Science, Data Science....

Open to all majors
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 10,
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Topic: Roundtable #1: Investigating the influence of high school activities on undergraduate degree success
Time: Sep 4, 2024 02:30 PM - 03:30PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/99661490854?pwd=uwmoMBwAslsOuC5Q0o5FZNHwbgbDva.1

Meeting ID: 996 6149 0854
Passcode: 951800

Topic: Roundtable #2: Investigating the influence of high school activities on undergraduate degree success
Time: Sep 6, 2024 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/98199461631?pwd=P5rn5aeMbcVILR0JiMb24RCgSZYSen.1

Meeting ID: 981 9946 1631
Passcode: 978247


Project Description

In collaboration between CLASS (Collaborative Lab for Advancing Student Success) and the FSU Undergraduate Admissions Office, the entire project is focused on connecting data between matriculated students’ Common App descriptive and activity sections with their degree progress information to deduce the relationship between high school activities and university success. Essentially, we are trying to explore the impact on pre-college activities during high school on a student’s success during their undergraduate degree at Florida State University.

In this project, we will be using admissions and university student data. Your role is to help collect, clean, and organize the data, along with creating a literature review on the topic. The intention is for you to contribute to the data efforts of the larger project, while creating your own mini-research paper, using parts of this data, to explore similar concepts of education, social science, college readiness, and student success

This project is ideal for someone interested in a career in research and data science, particularly with an interest in social sciences, public policy, or education. This will be a significant boon to your undergraduate portfolio. This can be completely remote if you prefer, but I'll be on-campus to meet too.


Research Tasks: Collect Common App and undergraduate student degree progress data, clean it based on the team’s variables and groupings, and begin organizing it
Conduct literature reviews on related topics of student success and college readiness
Produce own final research paper on related topic using the data


Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Recommended to have background knowledge about Statistics, SPSS, or other social science and quantitative tools

Mentoring Philosophy

My masters degree is in education and I have been a college and career counselor for over a decade. I am an educator at heart and my mentoring philosophy focuses on helping my students find their own paths and futures, and building practical tools and knowledge to pursue those paths.

At the beginning, this will involve us figuring out your starting point; both in your practical skills of completing the project and progressing further, but also in your conceptual ideas about how this experience fits with the bigger future picture, and what that future picture looks like.

I will then work to equip you with the information and skills you need to start completing this project. This will be done through meetings, lectures, and small readings or software review. Yes, it is a research project but treat it as a class, as you will be learning. I believe in autonomy and professional respect, and empower you to create your own schedule and meet me virtually to prepare for a postgraduate future that expects this maturity. I envision, however, that we would have at least 1 or 2 in-person meetings, or more if you believe it is useful for your learning progression.

Lastly, this needs to be a meaningful endeavor for you. Therefore, I will encourage you to shape this experience to meet your individual needs. Support my project, while using the opportunity to create your own benefit. The skill to do that will serve you wisely.

Additional Information


Link to Publications