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What are the opportunities for conducting biology research, freshman and sophomore year? How competitive is it to get research opportunities? Many schools with large intro classes and grad shools make it troubling connecting with professors and TAs for positions in labs, which of course have limited seats. If it’s hard to get a position your freshman year, will having previous lab experience help? I have a few summers of lab internships under my belt, and would really love to continue doing some of the stuff I was doing, my first year here.
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Where do most underclassmen go for research and internship opportunities? How hard is it to get a lab outside campus?
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Rigor of research. What do you make of it?
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General student culture and enthusiasm - are fellow students involved in their program of study? Is it fast paced, just right, too slow?
- There is definitely no shortage of research opportunities at case. Finding research positions is mostly about asking around for who is hiring. People either find stuff by asking professors or their friends. You could also ask the source office if they know of any openings or tips to get involved in a lab. Source is very helpful. It is harder for underclassman to find research positions, but that is mostly because they are not as well connected yet.
- Case researchers, Cleveland Clinic, and University hospital are the most common places people do research in. Again this is also not hard. Case has connections to these places. It is mostly about finding open places.
- It's whatever you make of it. You are not going to have a ton of free time, but it is definitely possible to do very good research. Many people on campus get published during their undergrad years.
- The culture is very intense. Classes are quite difficult and fast paced (freshman year isn't too bad though). It is not cutthroat because grades are already at a predetermined percentage at the beginning of the semester. People are always willing to help you out. Everyone has to work very hard to pass, so you will find that people care about their majors.
@ohiokid1234 Thank you so much for the answer! I have a few follow-up questions I hope you could reply to:
- What do you mean by "grades are already at a predetermined percentage"? As in, they curve up to a B (for example) or curve down to a B? Is there grade deflation? How are GPAs in general?
- I understand that Case students are more studious - How would you describe campus activity during the day or over the weekends? Do most kids tend to stay on campus, or go out to Cleveland?
- How helpful have your counselors been with setting up your schedule / guiding you through the course selection process? Are you on your own, or are there people out there willing to hold your hand?
- Predetermined percentage means the first day you walk in the class they say A is x%, B is Y%... The bio department doesn't have grade deflation (or inflation). Engineering can definitely feel like it. I found today out in one of my classes 45% of the people have a c or lower... Also, predetermined percentage is not for all departments. In terms of gpa, it is also very departmental. The bio department is all about who you have as a professor. There are definitely versions of the class that are way harder than others. In predetermined percentage classes, test are made harder if the class is doing too well and students are generally told they are stupid when the class does poorly, so it definitely doesn't mean it is easier than most of my classes with surprise grades at the end of the semester (no grading scale until final grades are handed out).
- During the week, everyone is pretty busy doing schoolwork. You get a ton of work here and you will probably have to do at least 20 hours of outside work a week not to fail out. Over the weekends, there is definitely more activity but people still have a lot of work to do. It is not unusual for people to not want to hang out Friday nights because of homework. In terms of where people go, it depends. There is lots of stuff to do off campus, and it's not too hard to find stuff to do on campus.
- You have an adviser at Case you can talk to whenever and you are supposed to meet once a semester. However, your adviser might not always be right. All requirements are posted on case western bulletin which allows you to be able to figure most things out yourself. http://bulletin.case.edu/. I would recommend asking upperclassman or going to talk to one of the deans if your adviser doesn't work out well. For most departments, it should not be too hard to figure out on your own once you get an idea of what scheduling is like (exceptions cs, stats, bme, double/triple major).
SOURCE at Case also funds summer research and travel, about $3000 grant per student, plus travel grants for all areas of research work, including biology, biomedical and bio engineering and bio statistics. This is competitive, open to freshman and sophomores as well as upper classmen, and a student must write the proposal him/herself. My son won a grant to work at on campus this summer, econometrics research. He is working with the Federal Reserve Bank, economics research department!
http://www.case.edu/source/
There are research opportunities abroad, at companies and on campus. One Case premedical student student we know did research in Barcelone Spain after her sophomore year at Case. She is a polymer sciences major. She has a summer position at Covidien this summer after her junior year. There are co op programs in the bio medical engineering fields, but there are some for arts and sciences too, so probably some for biotech research.