<p>are there any chances for an undergrad to get research?</p>
<p>I heard once that it was slim.</p>
<p>and I also recently heard this:</p>
<p>"research opportunity: if u are an engineering student, having some research experience in your undergraduate years is important, many large schools offer tremendous opportunities in research, however, there are smaller schools out there with great opportunities for research as well, ask about them and how easy it is to obtain a position as a research assistant, especially ones in your field of study or the ones that you have the most interest in. "</p>
<p>Many opportunities; the catch is you have to be a bit aggressive to get them. And high GPA. And it will get become somewhat easier to participate in future research opportunities after you get the first position since many prefer those who have prior research experience. Catch 22.</p>
<p>Your gpa needs to not only be high but also have a lot of the prerequisite classes already taken for that major. For example if you want a job as an economics assistant you should've taken econometrics 141, and a bunch of stats classes in addition.</p>
<p>To do this you have to get all the classes out of the way early and then apply.</p>
<p>
[quote]
research opportunity: if u are an engineering student, having some research experience in your undergraduate years is important, many large schools offer tremendous opportunities in research, however, there are smaller schools out there with great opportunities for research as well, ask about them and how easy it is to obtain a position as a research assistant, especially ones in your field of study or the ones that you have the most interest in. "
[/quote]
</p>
<p>First off, whether it's important or not depends on what you want to do. If you are getting an engineering degree in order to get a job right after graduation, then research experience is not very important. Far more important would be things like co-ops and summer internships. If you intend to use it to get into a professional school like law school, med-school, or business school, then, again, it's not very important. It's generally important only if you want to go to a high-ranked engineering graduate school to get MS or PhD. The majority of engineering students don't do this. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Your gpa needs to not only be high but also have a lot of the prerequisite classes already taken for that major.
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<p>I have actually never heard of any engineering students ever being asked for their GPA when they were getting their research assistant positions. </p>
<p>You do, however, have to be aggressive and do a lot of networking. </p>
<p>I would actually say that from an engineering research experience, Berkeley is actually pretty good. Every engineering student who wanted research experience and actually put in a bonfide effort to find a project found one. The issue is to be able to find a project that you are actually interested in as well as being able to do actual high-level work, not lots of low-level monkey work. Lots of those students ended up on projects that they didn't really care for, or ended up doing lots of silly busy work. But just getting on a project does not seem to be a serious issue. Just think of it this way. You're free labor. Very few profs are going to turn down free labor. </p>
<p>However, I would say that this holds only for engineering students. I don't presume to pretend that this holds for L&S students.</p>
<p>What do you mean by this, exactly? I don't think I agree with it. I love taking classes outside of my major, and doing unrelated extracurriculars that I enjoy.</p>