FAQ for Mentors

What are the qualifications necessary to advise a DRP project?

You need to be a graduate student in mathematics, physics, statistics, computer science, or a related area. Beyond that, as long as you’re willing to put in the effort to make any project you’re assigned to a success, we’d love to have you!

What am I expected to do as a DRP mentor?

You have three basic jobs:

  1. Help facilitate your mentee’s choice of topic. They will most likely have a rough idea of what they want to do, but you can help to solidify this idea and discourage any unreasonable goals.
  2. Guide your mentee through the book, papers, notes, or other text that you have decided to read. This will involve laying out a timetable and meeting with your student for at least an hour a week. This is a very free-form process: you might have your student prepare a presentation, work through problems, or just come prepared with questions.
  3. Assist in the preparation of the end-of-term presentation or paper. Again, exactly what this looks like depends on the mentee, but to start with you can help them organize their thoughts, give advice about what a presentation or paper looks like, have them give practice talks to you if they’re presenting, and so on.

What is the expected time commitment?

Generally, a mentor/mentee pair will met for about an hour per week. Helping with a practice paper or presentation at the end of term usually takes at most a couple of hours of work on top of that.

How are pairings between mentors and mentees made?

The DRP organizers will pair you with a mentee based primarily on topics of mutual interest. Alternatively, you can organize your own program with mentees you already know.

What are the material benefits from participating in the DRP?

We reimburse up to $100 for textbook purchases and put on a social halfway through the semester with free food (to say nothing of the wild amounts of pizza that usually accompany the final presentations). Plus, we try to have a little something for mentors at the end of term, to say thank you.

Why should I mentor a DRP project?

It’s a great way to learn a new topic, to get practice teaching, and to help a really motivated undergraduate to learn to love your subject as much as you do.

More broadly, all of us had immense help to get where we are today. This may have been through professors, friends, or graduate students, but undeniably it was there. This is a chance to repay that debt, to be that person that helps the next generation of mathematics students get to wherever it is they want to go.