For whatever reason, whether it be intellectual curiosity or academic improvement, students of all ages and all schools can strike out on their own, and take their education into their own hands. All students, of all fields, can and have benefitted enormously from research experience. Academic classwork provides the solid core of each disciplines. Whether designing one's own project, or taking part as a team member on someone else's, a researcher is in a position to make a solid committment to the world of knowledge. She had the ability to discover facts that might be printed in textbooks for the next generation to study and learn.
Research also provides crucial insight into the inner-workings of a discipline.
This is of particular importance to a freshman or sophomore considering a major, or a junior or senior preparing for graduate school. Benefits of Research Research breaks down the divisions between students and teachers, and between academic disciplines. It allows students to take advantage of Penn's strength as a major research institution. As a researcher, even the junior member of a large team, one is included and recognized for one's contributions. Penn undergraduates are often co-authors, and sometimes primary authors, of academic papers.