<p>Has anyone here atteneded the SURF program offered at Cal Tech. If so how was it?
I've been considering it but I need more first hand information.
Thanks in advance for any help!</p>
<p>It's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.</p>
<p>worthless?</p>
<p>No, SteelPangolin is being funny I think :). I've done SURF twice and am in the middle of my third and I love it. If you find a good project, it really does expose you to the forefront of research, and the best work routinely results in publications in refereed journals (about 20% of SURFs). Plus, it's great fun. Check out surf.caltech.edu.</p>
<p>I am currently doing a SURF right now, and although it might not be representative of the entire student body, here's my take on it:</p>
<p>There are four of us working in this little undergraduate cubicle - three freshman-going-sophomores and one that's about to be a senior. In general we all agree that a) it's much better than the school year in terms of stress and sleep, and that b) our work can be pretty interesting at times.</p>
<p>None of us seem to have very big dreams about (say) being published at the forefront of science, although we might find our data being used in a paper published by our mentors, say. I personally wrote two or three pages and produced some tables and graphs that may or may not find their way into a scientific journal, but SURF is what you make it. Many people do publish their work, but this requires time and energy.</p>
<p>Some of us are doing it for the money and others for the experience and still others (outside of the ones in our cubicle, to some extent) do it to contribute meaningfully to the scientific community. We all feel, however, that our work is valuable in a way that wasn't possible in high school. </p>
<p>I personally like SURF a whole lot. It gives me a feel for how research is, it's fun, and for me the hours are pretty good, too (you just have to get the work done, and these days I probably spend about 6 hours a day since I'm a bit ahead of schedule).</p>
<p>To expand on my opinion, the pay is okay and the experience is useful (I got to stick NASA on my resume after last year's SURF) but from what I've seen, the chance to get your name on a paper is not as high as the hype would have you believe, and working in industry will get you a lot more money. However, everyone should do at least one SURF during their time at Caltech.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback! I am going to look into it for sure!</p>