<p>D has visited campus twice (once summer without tour and another recruiting weekend without tour) but doesn't feel like she has full info on the strength of Wellesley's Biology department as it related to research. </p>
<p>I am urging that just because it isn't a "research university" doesn't mean they don't tackle impressive things and have state of the art equipment for doing so. I was thinking since there won't be grad student's to compete with to get opportunities, she would have more opportunities - D is worried they just won't have great research because they don't have grad students and thus national research won't be funded there.</p>
<p>I would like to add to the question - is it possible/likely a kid could cross register a class in the bio dept. at MIT and parlay that into a cross research opportunity at MIT over the summer? Would the reciprocity extend that far?</p>
<p>I appreciate any input - I cannot find an answer to these types of questions by googling or on W’s website.</p>
<p>FWIW from a full professor at a Research I university-- My daughter intends
on majoring in Biology this fall. In other words she will be a freshman!</p>
<p>We studied several university types- major state flagship AAU members, major
Research I privates i.e. several Ivies plus Duke - Northwestern - U of Chicago etc.,
as well as liberal arts colleges. Like my daughter I believe it is important to have
maximum focus on her for her education as an undergraduate. This will happen
at various high quality LAC’s. It may or may not happen at the Research I intitutions.
Certain of the folks I work with give lip service to the undergraduates but when
push comes to shove-- the doctoral and masters students are focused upon as
it is in the interest of the faculty members research agenda. (various ways)</p>
<p>In the end, D applied to our home state AAU flagship and 4 Womens LAC’s. We will
be accepting the offer at a particular WLAC-- thrilled with a quality education
upcoming.</p>
<p>The college is on spring break right now, so I’m not sure if you’ll get many student responses for awhile, but my DD is a first year student studying biology, so I am familiar with some recent research from the Wellesley biology department that involved students co-authoring papers. Here are some links to a very recent study in which two Wellesley undergrads were among the co-authors: </p>
<p>Faculty in the neuroscience department received a total of $2.6 million in grants in 2011, which will provide even more research opportunities: </p>
<p>So, in answer to the OP question, there are definitely research opportunities available and those are for undergrads, since there aren’t any grad students.</p>
<p>Summer research ([Students</a> Summer Research](<a href=“http://www.wellesley.edu/ScienceCenter/Students/summerResearch.html]Students”>http://www.wellesley.edu/ScienceCenter/Students/summerResearch.html)) is a very popular option. My friends who were accepted into the program have had great experiences. I am not a science major, but from what I understand my friends are doing serious, publishable research. They have gone to conferences and presented. My friends are also really “close” with their labs. For instance, a few weeks ago a friend went out to lunch with her lab to celebrate a coworker’s birthday. Lab professors can write good letters of recommendation because they know their students well. </p>
<p>I think a real strength of a liberal arts school like Wellesley is that there are no TAs teaching lab sections or huge lectures. The downside to this is there are fewer courses and sections being taught.</p>
<p>I don’t know how chem and bio classes work regarding problem sets, but I know that the math and physics departments use student graders for psets. This actually works well. Students get helpful feedback on their homework, and graders get the experience of “finding where students went wrong.” Students can also apply to work as a tutor in the chem/ bio/ math/ physics/ computer science/ geoscience “help rooms” ([Wellesley</a> College Pforzheimer Learning and Teaching Center](<a href=“http://www.wellesley.edu/PLTC/QuickLinks/TutoringSchedules.html]Wellesley”>http://www.wellesley.edu/PLTC/QuickLinks/TutoringSchedules.html)) or as a peer tutor. This is not lab work, but it is certainly good practice for grad school. </p>
<p>I don’t know if the MIT- Wellesley reciprocity extends to lab research. There is UROP ([MIT’s</a> Undergraduate Research Opportunties Program (UROP)](<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/urop/]MIT’s”>http://web.mit.edu/urop/)) which is open to student from all schools. There is also REUs for undergrads.</p>
<p>You might want to look on the Wellesley website for abstracts from the annual Tanner and Ruhlman conferences, where Wellesley students present on their research and internship experiences.</p>
<p>I thought of this thread as I was reading a recent article on the Wellesley website about more student research involvement, although this was in the chemistry department and I know that your DD was interested in biology, Maidenmom:</p>