<p>I'm considering applying to Princeton and recently heard about the research opportunities there. I heard that, since Princeton has many strong research-minded students, the available research opportunities at Princeton itself--with the university's faculty and programs--gets filled up very quickly. Thus, a large percentage of the students who want to do scientific research have too look elsewhere, outside of Princeton, like outside companies and labs to do research.</p>
<p>Is this true? Could someone confirm, debunk, or comment on this rumor?</p>
<p>Most undergraduate research is conducted on campus. A limited number of students may conduct research at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory or conduct climate research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstrations Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), located on Princeton Universitys Forrestal Campus.</p>
<p>Absolutely untrue. S, a junior physics major, has had wonderful research opportunities at Princeton, working directly with faculty as well as grad students.</p>
<p>Totally not true. Pretty much all of my friends are in the sciences are in labs. I do know of one case where a department couldn’t fund a freshman who wanted to stay at princeton over the summer to do research, but she just ended up doing research in that lab as a volunteer that summer (I think they paid for her housing). She’s stayed in that lab since then (now a junior). Other than that, I haven’t heard of anyone having problems finding a lab to work in. </p>
<p>People do often do research elsewhere over the summer, but that’s generally not because of lack of opportunities at Princeton.</p>
Exactly, and the Princeton profs can be helpful with those placements. S wanted to come home for the summer after his freshman year, but also wanted an internship. He mentioned it to one of his ISC profs who asked S where he lived, then asked if that was near the U of ______, our state flagship. S said yes, prof picked up the phone, and five minutes later S was hooked up as the only undergrad on nice (paid) summer internship near home.</p>
<p>What the eff, I have never heard of someone doing research for an outside lab, nor have I ever heard of someone not being able to find a research opportunity. There are a billion professors here willing to have free labor - why would they not let you work for them? Not to mention that all science majors are required to do scientific research to graduate, which means professors here have to take them under their wing whether they like it or not.</p>
<p>The way my daughter described it, once she had declared a major, and her certificate program, she looked at all the labs and programs and kinda said, “Hey, that looks cool.” And it was done.</p>
<p>I’m currently a freshman(have only been here for 6 weeks) and I already have a promised job over the summer, and I didn’t even know they professor who offered it. All I told her was that I was interested in Electrical Engineering and she said that I could probably get into any lab I wanted over the summer, and that if I had any trouble finding one (which she doubted) she would hire me. It’s ridiculously easy to get into research here. Also, as other have pointed out, you have to do some kind of research in order to graduate (senior thesis/senior independent work for engineers).</p>
<p>I don’t know what the deal is with that rumor but I interviewed an applicant to Princeton last year who asked me about the exact same thing. I’m glad you’re asking now because like the other posters have explained, it is totally not true. Independent research, both junior and senior year, is <em>required</em> for graduation! How on earth do these rumors get started?</p>