Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) are one of the most important high-impact practices available to students at universities and colleges. The aim of this study is to describe the lived experiences of nursing students in regards to their long-term project-based UREs. Nineteen participants were recruited by utilizing purposeful and snowball sampling methods. All the participants had experience in designing and carrying out their own research. They all additionally, after completing their nursing research-related courses, had written research papers detailing their work. Colaizzi’s descriptive phenomenology was used to analyze the interviews of the nursing students. The descriptive phenomenological process revealed the experiences of “cultivating the will to accomplish research goals while overcoming unforeseen obstacles”, “achieving the research outcome despite the difficult process”, and “personal growth during the journey of researching”. These results provide empirical evidence that allows for analysis that focuses on the time, space, relationship, change and development process connected with nursing students’ undergraduate research experiences.