<p>Ok so I'll acknowledge that I'm going to be a freshman in college this fall and it's way too early to think about graduate school, but if you could humor with a response I would appreciate it. I also won't name any "top" graduate schools because I know it's vastly different than undergraduate, but I'll just say I want to have the best opportunities that I can.</p>
<p>Getting to the actual question, for engineering, how important is the college that you attend to the research projects you can join and their significance on a graduate application? From other posts I've gathered that research (along with a solid GPA/GRE scores) is one of the most important factors in where you can go to graduate school. If you can do 2-3 research projects in the same lab and get a strong recommendation from the lab supervisor or professor, that's even better. If anyone has experience with undergraduate research, are the projects generally on your college's campus with professors you've taken classes with, or is it more something you do independently, maybe with the help of your school's research and internship office? Does the fact that a research project is on/off campus matter in terms of your ability to secure a position? Is possible to do research off campus during a school semester?</p>
<p>I won't go into too much detail about what colleges I'm considering, but I'll just list them: RPI, UConn, Northeastern. I know RPI is the most well known for engineering, but would I have just as many research opportunities at the other two? If you think I'm overthinking this and my opportunities will depend a lot more on what I make of them than where I am, you could just say that. If it matters, I'm planning on majoring in electrical engineering.</p>