Advising FAQ

If you have met the pre-requisites, you may petition to take iCons 2 and iCons 3 at the same time, and you may be added on a space-available basis. Students wanting to get into iCons 3 in the normal sequence have priority over students wanting to take iCons 3 early.

Yes, for most majors, but please double check Page 4 of the iCons at a Glance document. If your department is not listed, please contact icons@cns.umass.edu.

There are two sections of iCons 3 Biomedicine/Biosystems (Bio 383H):

1. Section 1 - Monday 12:20 - 4:25/Wednesday 1:25 - 4:25
2. Section 2 - Tuesday 11:30 - 4:05/Thursday 1:00 - 4:05

1. iCons 1 and iCons 2 RE, with a grade of C or higher. 
2. Calculus 127 and 128 or Calculus 131 and 132 with a grade of C or higher. 
3. Science lab courses (or science courses with associated labs, such as Chem 112 or Physics 132) from at least two different departments, with a grade of C or higher.

You must be able to articulate the following details in your plan, due April of your Junior year:

• Title: An overall topic to study
• Paragraph on Objectives: A particular question that you yourself will focus on, and why this question is important
• Paragraph on Methods: An idea of the battery of methods you plan to use to answer the question
• Paragraph on Impacts: If your work is successful, how will it impact your field of science, and the related societal problem?
• Reading list: That you begin in time to hit the ground running by September of your Senior year

View the 499-Y Honors Research Instructions and Contract and Registration Form

iCons starts with the premise that to solve really big problems, we need interdisciplinary technical approaches. So for every research project in iCons 4, it is crucial (why crucial?) for a student to engage in two different but related reflections: 

1. Problem: connect the dots in writing between your research and a big problem, i.e., if your research were to go fantastically well, what big problem could you solve or get much closer to solving? This is easier for some project than for others, but this should be done FOR ALL PROJECTS. 
2. Approach: reflect in writing on the extent to which you took an interdisciplinary approach in your research and thinking. And we mean interdisciplinary in the broadest possible sense, including not only bridging fields of science, but bridging all fields in your work. So for example, Ryan needed to know things about geography (altitudes and population demographics) in addition to the statistics and other epidemiological principles applied to understanding the Haitian disease. You blended several disciplines in your work. It is of great importance to reflect on how and why such blending was crucial to whatever success you enjoyed in your research.

No. The problem is that many potential advisors won't welcome you into their lab at the late date of senior fall or even summer's end. Many advisors will not allow a student to begin a new research project at the beginning of senior year, because that student has so little time to get up to speed on things. For many advisors, you'll need to convince them that you'll do some reading over the summer to get up to speed, so when you start in the Fall you can hit the ground running. It's much harder (namely impossible) to make that case if you approach them at the end of the summer or the beginning of senior fall. We strongly suggest you find a lab during junior spring, before you leave campus.

Your iCons 4 project can be built upon your previous research and performed in the lab where you already work, provided that the research connects to your iCons theme (Biomed or RE). 

If your independent research will not overlap with your iCons theme, then you could do one of two things. One option is to take on a second research project. That’s a lot of work, so the other option is to shift your research focus, about which you’ll need to talk to your PI to ensure s/he has the necessary knowledge to advise you.