<p>Some things that I just thought of…</p>
<p>Do universities normally allow other students to do research in their labs, or is this frowned upon? I’m sure they would give priority to their own students, but does this happen at all?</p>
<p>Also, someone mentioned CalTech’s SURF fellowship program. I did some reading on that and it seems very interesting, something I definitely will try to get into. Are there other good programs from top schools that do this sort of thing?</p>
<p>One more thing. I’ve been reading around a lot looking for colleges that might suit me best. As I [hope I] described in my first post, I’m extremely passionate about physics and mathematics, to the point where doing work in it is actually fun for me (I enjoy reading the textbooks and doing challenging problems as well as reading up on the cutting-edge research). I’ve found one school that, as a whole, matches the amount of passion I have. Only problem is, it happens to be CalTech. Seeing as they admit no more than 30 applicants on transfer every year, I can’t hold my breath on that. But I really love everything I hear about the culture there, especially since it’s so math and science oriented. Are there other schools that mirror this sort of culture?</p>
<p>Thanks again for everyone’s advice.</p>