<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I was recently admitted to Berkeley off the wait list as a chemical engineering major (planning to switch to chemistry). I've been reading about undergraduate research at Berkeley online and found that there are plenty of opportunities to work with professors or graduate students, although competitive. I'm heavily interested in performing original research as an undergrad, though, and haven't found any information regarding this. I was wondering: Does Berkeley have any program where you submit a proposal and, if it shows promise, you receive funds/resources to carry out such project? (Ex. USC's Discovery Scholars, Mellow May Undergraduate Fellowship, etc.) Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>*Planning to switch to chemistry if I were to attend.</p>
<p>surf.berkeley.edu </p>
<p>Thats the closest thing to what your describing. There are probably more within the College of Chemistry, but this varies heavily on what is the subject of your research, and if it has commercial interest or not.</p>
<p>Hmm that does look interesting; spots seem very limited, though… :/</p>
<p>I was lurking around the College of Chemistry site, and found this article which explains how undergrad research works:</p>
<p><a href=“http://chemistry.berkeley.edu/publications/journal/volume8/no1/8-15.pdf”>http://chemistry.berkeley.edu/publications/journal/volume8/no1/8-15.pdf</a></p>
<p>This quote drew my attention:</p>
<p>Page 8: “It is unusual that I have my own project,” she says. “Most of the other undergrads doing research are working under a graduate student.”</p>
<p>And I was hoping someone could disprove it…?</p>
<p>Well, this tells me everything I need to know. Just trying to determine if the opportunities were worth it for undergrad…Guess not.</p>
<p>@Lilliana330 </p>
<p>You need to define what you mean by “original research” and your own “project”. For any serious research project, that intends to be published in an academic journal, you need lab space to do that in, simply because there are machines that are needed, like an NMR spectroscopy machine which cost in the millions, much more than any grant could give you.</p>
<p>I go to Berkeley, and I work in a cancer biology lab. I have a specific project that I work on, that deals with testing new derivatives of a specific drug compound on prostate cancer cells. My project, however, correlates with the interests of the lab I am in, which are investigating the potential use of a class of organic molecules (beta amino indoles) in treatment for endocrine cancers. I call this project my own because I am the only one who works on it, and it is not going towards a grad student’s research thesis.</p>
<p>Whatever project you do or want to do, it can be your own, but has to be correlated to the interests of a lab on campus. I hope this makes more sense.</p>
<p>@Jweinst1 Yes, that makes more sense. Thanks. How difficult would you say it was for your project to get approved? Also, are you a freshman/soph/junior/senior? Do you have a specific grant or “unlimited” (to a reasonable amount) funds?</p>
<p>@Lilliana330 </p>
<p>I am a Sophomore, and started my project the beginning of this past semester. For my project, I first found a lab I was interested in, and wrote up a Research Proposal, which is in a sense an Essay, of your hypothesis that you want to explore, and cited references that advocate why your idea would work in an experimental project, which was about 5-7 pages total. I first submitted this to the Principal Investigator of the lab, to make sure that I had a senior professor that was interested in sponsoring me with lab space/equipment. So far, I have not had to apply for an additional funding because I have had sufficient resources from the lab.</p>
<p>Overall remember for any of your research to get published, it would need to have a PI’s name on it as well. so the easier your project will be approved is if you have more cited evidence from other papers, and also if your project is closely related to the PI’s interests. It’s very likely something your interested in will have a lab that does that type of research. </p>
<p>@Jweinst1 Oh okay! Sounds pretty straightforward. Wow, I definitely have some thinking to do, and I only have a day left. I’ve visited both campuses + done my research on student life, and I felt right at home at USC. However, I can’t let go of the prestige in Cal’s College of Chemistry so easily…Ahh. :/</p>
<p>I’m trying to get a PhD afterwards, by the way. Would going to Berkeley an an undergrad be more helpful in grad school admissions?</p>
<p>@Lilliana330 </p>
<p>You should choose the school where you feel most comfortable, and are most likely to succeed in academics, research, and overall enjoy your time there. This is up to you and no one can decide this but yourself.</p>
<p>Now if we are talking only based on prestige in terms of Chemistry, Cal beats USC hands down, there is not even a comparison. Berkeley discovered 14 of the elements on the periodic table, and discovered the covalent bond itself (Gilbert N. Lewis). In 1931, the cyclotron was discovered by Ernest O Lawrence, which produced the first way to produce very heavy elements, which lead to many discoveries in nuclear medicine etc. in the 1940’s Wendell M. Stanley at Berkeley developed the first flu vaccine. Also the atomic bomb was invented at Berkeley, along with the world’s first wet suit. And there are so many more discoveries in Chemistry</p>
<p>I am not saying Berkeley is better than USC, but in terms of Chemistry Berkeley has USC beat by a mile and a half. They are both very good schools overall though.</p>
<p>@Jweinst1 Yeah, Cal’s prominence in chemistry is what’s making this such a hard choice. I have a lot of thinking to do…</p>
Berkeley’s pretty awesome, but it’s not for me at the moment. To those who will attend Cal -I’m sure you’ll do great, and best of luck! I will be applying there for grad school, sooo our paths might cross. 
Go Bears! (& Fight On! 
)</p>