Any feedback or comments from this past weekend’s CBH interviews and weekend in Tuscaloosa? 53 students were invited for 40 spots…
DS was one of the CBH Freshman that mingled with the prospective CBHers at the reception on Sunday Night…he has to write comments (good or bad) of the students that he met with…he said that there were some great kids.
My son, a prospective CBH’er, had a fantastic time. He was really impressed with the whole thing. Even found himself a potential roommate. 
I thought the weekend was awesome! There was a lot of information packed into such a small amount of time but I really enjoyed learning more about the program and talking to current CBH’ers. The only concern I had was that no one shared my major(current or finalist), but I was still able to find out a lot of information from current students. I believe most of the students were engineering. I waited for the weekend to look for some roommates and I’m glad I did!
@Raxterfawk what’s your major? I’m a currently sophomore and know a ton of the CBHers.
Raxterfawk, I wouldn’t worry about having a unique major. My daughter, while not having a unique major, is not a science/engineering major. What that meant for her was that there was not a project in her major that she could simply choose from the list of available projects CBH had; she had to go find her own. That caught her off-guard the first semester of sophomore year, which is usually the first semester they work on a research project, and she had to scramble to find a project by the applicable deadline. But she has had no problem finding projects, and it forced her to go talk to her department head and meet with several professors to discuss potential projects, which she probably would not otherwise have done and which pushed her out of her comfort zone (a good thing!). The same would be true for a student in any major who wanted to work on something specific that was not on the list or had no interest in any of the available projects. She’s now a senior and has spent two semesters working with one professor on a single project and four semesters working with another professor on a couple different projects.
@beth’s mom I wasn’t sure about how the students got the research projects and forgot to ask while on campus. So you’re saying you can take proposed projects or work something out with professors in the area you’re interested in? I don’t remember hearing much about the process.
@Raxterfawk I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed the weekend! I am a current CBHer and getting to meet you all is one of my favorite times of the year. There are two ways to get a project, and I would recommend that you start investigating research during the spring/summer before your sophomore year to make the beginning of the school year less stressful.
(1) the first two weeks of your sophomore fall you can choose to contact one of the investigators who submitted a project to the CBH database; you will still need to meet with them but you know they are looking for CBH students; this is the most common way to find a project but you may not find something exactly matching your interests
(2) during spring/summer before sophomore year, you can look into the research going on in your department of interest (departmental websites, ACS meetings for chem or chemE, PME meetings for math, etc.). contact the professors who have cool things going on. bonus points if you’ve already had a class with them and made a good impression! you can also ask professors you get along with for recommendations. not everyone you ask will be looking for undergrads, but you might be able to find a really good fit. this is the method I used, but it takes more initiative on your part.
Please let me know if you think of any more questions you forgot to ask over the weekend, or if you have more questions about research! I hope to see you in the lab next fall!!
Anyone aware of when the invitations / acceptances go out for CBH?