Joseph Wang, C’13, W’13

Wang-JosephWhy should you do research as an undergraduate? The short answer is because research will be part of your job even if it’s not in your job description. Most people think about research in a narrow sense — sitting in a scientific lab hunched over a microscope looking at cells.  The reality is that research is simply the ability to distill and communicate two perspectives: the status quo and what’s new. In business, much of the value being generated by the brightest minds simply comes from identifying the status quo (“the market,” “the existing competitors,” or “the way we’ve always done things”) and developing solutions that are contrarian, innovative or show us a better way. The path between those two steps is often fraught with uncertainty so learning to apply rigor to that mass of uncertainty is what you learn in research… and you can use that every day.