<p>Do undergrads at Columbia get a lot of research opportunities with the Chemistry department? Or is conducting research with professors/faculty more for the grad students?</p>
<p>I attended a Summer Science Invitational at Columbia this summer and they gave us tours of their labs and stuff. We got to meet current undergrads who were doing research. From the kids I talked to, it sounded like if you wanted to, you could definitely find research opportunities at Columbia. But then again, this could have just been a marketing tactic to try to get potential researchers to apply/matriculate... but I don't think so. :) And plus, their labs were REALLY nice.</p>
<p>(BTW, I'm interested in chemistry, too, so the tours I got were of the chemistry labs. Plus, I'm in Columbia's Science Honors Program on Saturdays, and I'm taking Organic Chem, and they have some VERY nice, VERY expensive equipment that they even let us high-school-age SHP-ers use, so I am willing to bet that real undergrads get a chance to do research too.)</p>
<p>do a search, look at the helpful threads post, this has been asked many times.</p>
<p>however, since i am in a generous mood: research opps are there if you ask. no prof is going to single you out of a class of 100 in an intro chem class and ask if you want to do research with them. you have to go knock on doors and make an effort. but yes, besides that, it's easy to get research. you might not be doing the most exciting stuff as a freshman but the point is to stick with it for awhile and it'll get better</p>