<p>Gemstone seems more valuable, but does it really open any doors? Would it be better to just take University Honors for more flexibility or is gemstone really that good?</p>
<p>Also, is studying abroad allowed with any of the honors programs? it doesnt seem like gemstone would allow it.</p>
<p>I choose University Honors+Engineering and I like it. Also my friends who are in Gemstone+Engineering all hate it. They said they wished they had done University Honors and joined research with a professor later on. That said, I know not all people feel that way about it and that I dont have any firsthand experience, so hopefully someone in Gemstone will be able to provide an opinion.</p>
<p>zman5, could you expand on that? Any reasons why your engineering friends hate Gemstone? And why you like University Honors? </p>
<p>I’m intending to go into bioengineering into the Integrated Life Sciences but apparently they only have 70 people so I put Gemstone as my “backup.”</p>
<p>To me it seems that gemstone is a bit restrictive: team projects would take up a lot of time, so pursuing other interests might be difficult. Eg:sports, music, ect.</p>
<p>For someone solely focused on engineering, this might not be a problem, but one other thing is that gemstone shouldnt be as valuable as research with a renowned prof. Thus, though gemstone “may” help you get research in the first place, if you open your own doors, so to speak, you can do research-which is really important for grad school apps-, while not having to do a year-or-more-long team project, which might not turn out that well in the end. </p>
<p>Also, the freedom to choose which honors seminars to take, and the freedom to take them in a different order ( I think, if anyone can clarify this that would be great), should allow you to perhaps study abroad, intern, ect.</p>
<p>That said, I would love to have someone with actual experience give some input: this is just speculation based on what the website says =).</p>
<p>“To me it seems that gemstone is a bit restrictive: team projects would take up a lot of time, so pursuing other interests might be difficult. Eg:sports, music, ect.”</p>
<p>Gemstone takes up virtually no time first semester. Second semester you have 104, which is without a doubt the worst thing about the program. You also have 102, which is team selection but unless you are starting your own project it’s very little work. So you take 4 credits of Gemstone second semester, if you go to the standard two hours in class to every one hour out of class you get 8 hours of outside work a week. 104 will hit this but only once or twice.</p>
<p>After your freshman year, you are on your team and take two credits of Gemstone a semester. First semester sophomore year you have your last actual class. The rest of the credits are your team meetings. They take up 2 hours a week of class time. The amount of work you do outside varies, but remember this is a class graded by your peers, if you say “I’ve got two tests and an a intermural chamionship this weekend” they will help you pick up the slack if you help them when they start to get buried.</p>
<p>Even when we start our lab work, it will (during the school year) probably take up a total of 10-ish hours a week at it’s peak, but keep in mind that that isn’t per person and I have an extremely lab heavy project. Only about two people can be in the lab at a time, so between ten people that is about two hours a week and you will not have very much other gemstone work during this time.</p>
<p>What part of four hours a week makes it seem like you can pursue interests outside of Gemstone?</p>
<p>"For someone solely focused on engineering, this might not be a problem, but one other thing is that gemstone shouldnt be as valuable as research with a renowned prof. Thus, though gemstone “may” help you get research in the first place, if you open your own doors, so to speak, you can do research-which is really important for grad school apps-, while not having to do a year-or-more-long team project, which might not turn out that well in the end. "</p>
<p>(I apologize for the formating, quoting doesn’t work for me on this forum for some reason)</p>
<p>Picture an interview with a grad school engineering firm etc. “So this XXX project you worked on, what was your role?”
What sounds like a more valuable experience to you:
“I watered plants” (I know a senior in the Chem frat who does this for a professor)
“I assisted Dr. So and So in doing XXX. Specifically I got to run a lot of monotonous tests and he didn’t really trust me to touch anything important.”
OR
“I was part of the group that modified a plant virus with the receptors found on the outside of HIV, because HIV is one of the viruses that can easily pass through the blood brain barrier. Later on, I was responsible for complexing this virus with a t-cell, to see if that would also pass through the barrier. I also am one of the lead authors on a journal article about our drug delivery system.”</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind the number of renowned professors at Maryland vs. the number of students who want to work with him/her…what is the liklihood that you get picked? How will you get into this professors lab as an undergrad? He may not even be required to teach classes (my Gems mentor isn’t) so there’s no getting to him that way.</p>
<p>And to address not turning out in the end, there has only been one Gemstone team that has actually dissolved completely in the history of the program. Everyone has a project done. Negative results are still results and you could just as easily get them with a renowned professor.</p>
<p>“Also, the freedom to choose which honors seminars to take, and the freedom to take them in a different order ( I think, if anyone can clarify this that would be great), should allow you to perhaps study abroad, intern, ect.”</p>
<p>No…There are no set honors seminars, or any set order. As part of the Gemstone program you can take any honors seminar any semester you want. You can also earn an honors citation by simply taking the Gemstone classes. You can study abroad, but this is the one thing Gemstone does limit (to second semester sophomore year or any semester junior year or any summer or winter). Internships would not be affected at all, except that you’re more competitive for them. For instance my team will be doing research over the summer, but our tentative number is 6 people at any one time, and no one is going to try to stop anyone from taking an internship.</p>
<p>I haven’t looked at the website, but if Rebbecca Thomas wrote it, it probably is unclear.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your extremely informative (not to mention thorough) reply.</p>
<p>The site was a bit unclear, but I’m glad that gemstone isn’t too much of an ec killer.
I have a band and we do club and restaurant gigs pretty often, but hey, school comes first.</p>
<p>In your opinion, how does gemstone stack up with other research? is it a catch-all? or can you finish your project “early”, and then do research elsewhere?</p>
<p>and finally, would you recommend staying in the gemstone dorm?</p>
<p>Thanks again! you’ve cleared alot of stuff up for me.</p>
<p>Very interesting and helpful info 
.If you don’t mind sharing, I’d like to know how groups are formed and how they decide what their project will be (what kind of projects are there and do they relate to your major).</p>
<p>“In your opinion, how does gemstone stack up with other research? is it a catch-all? or can you finish your project “early”, and then do research elsewhere?”
I’m not sure what you mean by “catch-all”, but compared to other research the main difference is that it is actually the undergrad’s project. (They are under the guidance of a mentor) Teams get their paper’s published and present at poster days and other conferences around the country.
The way it’s set up you don’t do much during your first semester, your second semester is largely weed out (104) and team selection (102) it isn’t until sophomore year that your true research begins. The bulk of the actual research usually takes place in Spring of Sophomore year through Spring of junior year, with the summer to finish up if all goes as planned. Senior year is largely working on your thesis and how intense summers are usually depend on the team. </p>
<p>Let me know if that’s not what you asked though.</p>
<p>But the main answer to your question: No you can’t finish early, but you are in no way restricted from doing research elsewhere on campus.</p>
<p>“and finally, would you recommend staying in the gemstone dorm?”</p>
<p>Staying in Ellicott is your call. It is a high rise dorm on North Campus, and not air conditioned. But it is next to the Diner and the ERC. (Also by CSPAC which I think it of interest to you) But there is the sense of a large portion of your floor being Gemstone freshman which sort of helps establish your friends. My best friends lived in Ellicott freshman year and that’s how I met them. If you’re worried about the size of Maryland, I’d definitely recommend it, immersing yourself in the community of it helps the school seems smaller. It’s also a much quieter dorm than the other freshman dorms and you’re far less likely to have puke in the hallways (though it’s not unheard of…but that’s north campus for you).</p>
<p>If you don’t live in Elilcott, unless you end up requesting Denton, where you get placed is just the luck of the draw. You’re most likely not going to get a nice dorm with air condtioning, you’re going to get another high rise. If you do get a nicer dorm it will be with an older student most likely, or you could be filling the last bed in a suite full of friends (not the ideal situation for your first semester of college). </p>
<p>"I’d like to know how groups are formed and how they decide what their project will be (what kind of projects are there and do they relate to your major). "</p>
<p>Okay, so there is an entire one credit class during your spring semester freshman year dedicated to forming teams. What happens is that there is a few weeks of brainstorming project ideas. If you think of something on your own that you really like you can write a project sheet up for it and if enough people like it, it can become a project. They also invite professors to pitch ideas (i think mine was originally one of these) but it is up to a student to write up a project sheet to make these official.</p>
<p>After the initial brainstorming phase, you will spend a few days hearing about different project ideas. There is the first round of votes where you pick your favorite few projects. This is mostly to cut down the number of projects floating around.
Then there are a few more weeks of more serious discussions followed by the final vote where you will rank your project choices from 1 to 5. </p>
<p>The project areas range from engineering to medicine to the social sciences. A few of the projects from my year are: designing and testing a drug delivery complex that can pass through the blood brain barrier (my project), designing higher density batteries out of nanotubes (I’m not sure if they’re still doing nanotubes), using gene therapy to treat obesity in rabbits, something about solar panels, something about hermaphrodite frogs, a study on farmer’s markets, a study on “food deserts” and a study on the differences between online and lecture style learning.</p>
<p>As for relating to your major, some people who have done their projects suggest choosing something not directly related to your major because you might get kind of sick of it.
Depending on your major there may or may not be something directly related, if you are engineering, physics, bio, or chem there will always be something. Same for psychology and sociology. There is usually at least one project pertaining to computer science.
If you’re a education major for example, it’s less likely. If you’re a golf course management or Dance major…you’re probably out of luck there, but Gemstone might not be for you anyway…</p>
<p>Thanks for all the good information. One concern I have about the research project is that it seems that a lot of it is done over the summer. I realize that the majority of students at UMD live in Maryland but what about students that are from out of state. Is it expected that students will spend their summers in Maryland?</p>
<p>I’m actually from NY so I do know what you’re talking about.
The summer after Freshman year there is not going to be any research you have to be there for. (Just lit review which, if done at all, will be discussed over email)</p>
<p>As for sophomore and junior summers, it once again depends on the project. No one expects that the full team can work there. People have study abroad and other internships. In my group there is one girl who spends summers in India and no one gives it a second thought. For most teams, lab work is not an every day commitment so you can still work another job or internship without very strict hours. (But again this depends on the team). I know of a team that did a lot of research at the national zoo over the summer, but I don’t know if they had any out of state students.
For me personally, they understand that I have to get some sort of job or something in order to stay down there. I’m going to apply for internships heavily in both DC and New York city, solely for the reason that I’m not an extremely competitive applicant at the moment and it seems stupid not to take advantage of the two giant cities I can look for work in. If I find something in DC, I will probably take it and stay with my aunt in Virginia, but there are also many students who will sublet their apartments over the summer so you can live near campus if you would like to. </p>
<p>As for junior year, most people have apartments (either off-campus or Commons or Courtyards) where they are paying their lease anyway over the summer so housing isn’t an issue. </p>
<p>But long answer short, your team will understand if you cannot stay in Maryland over the summer. It is not “expected” in any capacity. Most people can’t commit an entire summer even in-state. But depending on where you are from, DC might offer you way more summer opportunities than your home anyway.</p>
<p>Also I should add that many grants include a section for salaries. The students don’t usually receive too much for work outside of normal school hours, but there is something and if money is a huge issue for you and you really want to stay the summer, there is money to be gotten for housing.</p>
<p>Is it possible to switch between honors programs after you’ve already joined one?</p>
<p>That I don’t know. The new system just went into play this year. There was only Gemstone, and Honors Humanities for class of '13. </p>
<p>My guess would be no though.</p>
<p>I was told that anyone can transfer from their program to university honors if they want, but university honors can not transfer anywhere else.</p>