<p>what research opportunities are at Vandy for freshmen, sophomores and juniors?
are there students who give presentations at professional conferences?</p>
<p>bump...............</p>
<p>ok... nobody cares about research?</p>
<p>What department/major are you interested in? Are you asking about engineering, A&S, Peabody? You should provide more info.</p>
<p>i'm premed
are students assigned a reseearch advisor?
are there opportunities to do summer research in the early years?</p>
<p>JohnC, I think it is a mistake to think Vanderbilt students are not interested in research. This year, all four of VU's nominees for the Goldwater Scholarship were chosen as winners--this is a prestigious national award for students doing research in science, math or engineering. (Four is the maximum number any school can nominate).</p>
<p>The semester is out and not many current students are checking in here, so that is one reason you are not getting replies.</p>
<p>I'll volunteer my son's experience if you'd like. One month into his freshman year, he approached a computer science professor and asked if he could get involved in the any of the projects going on within his group (not for money, just for experience). He said sure, and my son worked with his group for the rest of the year. In the spring, the professor asked if he would like to do research full-time, for pay, over the summer. So, that is where son is right now, doing some very interesting research, getting paid and getting great experience.</p>
<p>In the engineering school, according to one of the deans with whom I spoke at a gathering, all students are doing research by their junior year, many by sophomore year, and a fair number of those who enter with advanced course work do research during their freshman year.</p>
<p>I really can't speak for the rest of the university, but I have noticed in past years that quite a few of the Goldwater winners won during their sophomore year, which means they started their research during freshman year.</p>
<p>thanks midmo!</p>
<p>I'm a fellow premed, so I'll share my experience with research.</p>
<p>I, along with 10 other students, started doing research as part of the "Community of Scholars" at Vanderbilt during the summer between my freshman and sophomore years. (11 just for this program; there were lots of other rising sophomores doing research either through the Summer Science Academy or independently through a faculty member they approached themselves). I had an undergraduate mentor and a graduate student mentor to get me acquainted with lab and worked full time during the summer.</p>
<p>I continued this research sophomore year as part of Directed Lab Research (BSCI 283) and then Independent Lab Research (BSCI 286) second semester. As a result of this work, I gave a poster presentation at the Southeast Regional Yeast Meeting and am now second author on a publication in Molecular and Cellular Biology! I've continued this research and will be returning to the lab in a week to work over the summer again, this time as a mentor myself to a new rising sophomore. Next year (my senior year), I'll be performing honors research and may even squeeze out another publication.</p>
<p>So, yes, Vanderbilt is rife with research opportunities for eager premeds. All you have to do is look!</p>
<p>slipstream, your accomplishments are very encouraging. congratulations and thanks!</p>