How many SURF's do Techer's do?

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
1

<p>I know that I want to do SURF at least once while I'm at Tech but I was wondering how many people do it more than once? I'll be far from family and depending on how things go might not have much contact for my sophmore year. As a result I think I want to spend at least some time with them my first and/or second summers even if it means I can't do the SURF. </p>

<p>1) How much time does the SURF take up in the summer? is there time to get away for a few weeks to do other things in the same season? </p>

<p>2) Is doing research during the school comparible, or is SURF something much more intensive? </p>

<p>3) Is it better to wait to do you're SURF later after you've taken more advanced classes, or earlier when you might have a lighter course load during which to do research during the year leading up to it? </p>

<p>4) For reasearch in general do students seek out professors? professors advertise opportunities? or something in between?</p>

<p>5) What other information can you give incoming frosh (and prospective applicants)?</p>

<p>I know its quite a few questions but I think its better to bring in some of the related threads under one broad umbrella. Thanks for any answers you can give.</p>

2

<p>A SURF lasts 10 weeks. The summer break is 15 weeks long. Here's a link with info: Summer</a> Undergraduate Research Fellowships .. S U R F .. <caltech> ..</caltech></p>

3

<p>a little more elaboration on your other questions:</p>

<p>2) SURF is no different than research during the year, you just have more time to devote to it (assuming all variables such as lab group, mentor, etc. are held constant)
3) SURF now! SURF often! You get research experience, good money, and it looks great on a grad school app. Plus if you get a good group / project it can be both fun and fulfilling.<br>
4) Professors sometimes advertise opportunity (and JPL does as well) but I would say mostly students should seek out professors.
5) Frosh- do something useful your first summer after Tech. If you absolutely have to go home for the summer, try to do research or get an internship in your area.</p>

4

<p>0) I will be doing my third SURF soon. I'm definitely not the only one. The number of people who do more than one SURF is probably less than 50%, but off the top of my head I can think of many, many people who did two or more.</p>

<p>1) SURF is in fact 10 weeks out of either 15 or 16, depending on the way the academic calendar is laid out. Very often, you can even get away in the middle of the SURF. The SURF office is very flexible with this, so if your professor is as well (which is very common), then you're golden. This summer I will take three separate trips totaling exactly five weeks, so my SURF will go from the end of finals (i.e., now) straight to the beginning of the fall term. My prof is totally cool with this.</p>

<p>2) It depends... it's a comparison between doing 6 to 9 or so hours a week versus doing 40 a week. I have found that working 40 hours a week doesn't necessarily imply making 40/9 = 4.44 times more progress... it's usually less than that. But all in all, I think research during term and SURFs are not that different. I've done Ae100 (Research in Aeronautics) twice and ME100 (Advanced Work in Mechanical Engineering) twice, and two SURFs on top of that. I'd say that each experience has given me comparable contact with faculty (good for getting recommendation letters!) and comparable chances of publishing. For me, it so happens that I did Ae100 and ME100 later in my career than the SURFs, so the work was more "serious." But it doesn't have to be that way. Which leads to the next point....</p>

<p>3) Depends on what exactly you're going for. The SURF office is not ashamed to say that students should use SURFs as a testing ground to see if they really want to go into a particular field or not. So if you're an underclassman and you just want to gain exposure to a field, then SURF is a great way to do it. And you're right, as an upperclassman your SURF might be more advanced than as an underclassman; so if your goal is to publish, or at least to get serious work done before grad school, then that works too. I should point out, though, that I haven't heard of many people doing research during the term to prepare for SURF. While this is possible, it seems to me that SURFs are usually independent from projects done during the school year. It may have to do with having different sources of funding, or something like that.</p>

<p>4) I'd say in between, but the student should definitely be the one taking the initiative. Professors do post SURF opportunities on the SURF website, but students are encouraged to review professors' research topics, find some that pique your interest, and ask the profs directly for SURF opportunities. There were one or two times after I've already established connections that a professor asked me to do a SURF, instead of the other way around, but that's probably an exception.</p>

5

<p>
[quote]
I have found that working 40 hours a week doesn't necessarily imply making 40/9 = 4.44 times more progress... it's usually less than that.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I've found exactly the opposite. I tend to be way more effective during the summer and am able to get done in one week what would typically take me over a month when I'd work during the school year. I think a lot of it depends on your personality and the types of experiments you have to run. If you're doing stuff that takes a lot of attention and constant tweaking, then working for long stretches will be a lot more favorable than breaking it up into a few small chunks.</p>

6

<p>Actually, it's between 0 and 3 SURFs. you can't do one after you graduate, as you must be a returning student in the fall to be eligible for a SURF (so if you're going to be a supersenior, you could do a 4th, but not if you graduated). I suppose some people get Axline SURFs and do them so they could do 4, but that's not very many people.</p>

7

<p>how likely is a SURF student’s research going to be published? are there statistics/rough estimate? i really hope to…</p>

8

<p>It depends on the field and what kind of research you’re going to do. There are people who get published, but not that many. In some fields, a summer (or even a summer + some time during the year) isn’t nearly enough time to get something that’s publishable.</p>

9

<p>I think a lot of it depends on if you’re working with a grad student/postdoc or doing your own research. If you’re working completely on your own it’s really difficult to get enough material worthy of a publication in 10 weeks. Especially if you have to design and build an apparatus yourself. If you’re working cooperatively with someone else and you give original thought to the project, and six months down the road some of the data you got is used, you stand a solid chance of being included as an author (though likely fairly far down the list).</p>