I’m currently a college freshman planning to major in computer science, and I would love to get some research experience over the summer. The problem is, I’m not sure how hard it would be for a freshman to get into an REU program. More specifically, since I’ve only been in college for one semester, I don’t know any professors well enough to get even one (let alone two) good letter of recommendation.
How much do the letters of recommendations factor into getting selected into an REU program? Actually, how hard in general is it for a freshman to get admitted? I’m planning to apply to as many as possible (that I’m interested in) to maximize my chances. Will that be enough, with potentially weak letters of recommendations?
I am fairly certain that recommendations factor in a lot, and I think it is pretty difficult for freshman/rising sophomores to get admitted to REUs. Many REUs actually restrict their eligibility to rising juniors and seniors only.
One reason is exactly what you stated - freshman don’t have enough experience in college to have gotten good recommendation letters. Even if you are a rising sophomore, you really only have 1.5 years of college grades before you apply to an REU, and maybe you just started your major (or the courses beyond the basics for your major) a semester ago. Therefore, recommendation letters are important because your professors can speak to your potential to succeed in more advanced research despite you only having completed the basics so far. They can also discuss diligence, intellectual capabilities, etc.
Secondly, freshman don’t yet have the foundational knowledge that’s often necessary for an REU to be maximally enriching. In my field (psychology), even a freshman who knew from day one that he wanted to be a psychological researcher would have only taken introductory psychology by the time he applied for an REU in January to February; he wouldn’t have taken research methods or statistics, both of which are necessary for success when doing research. He wouldn’t even have the opportunity to have taken those classes before coming to the REU in the summer (or at the very least, not both of them). Likely his research interests, if he even has any yet, are subject to a lot of shifting and solidifying.
So certainly apply, but don’t be surprised if you don’t get into very many or any at all. You’ll have better chances next year when you’re a sophomore/rising junior.
As juliet pointed out the letters do factor a lot for REU. Most schools use REU as a recruitment tactic for grad school. So getting a freshman in is not really worth it all the time for them. Having said that you don’t need to get a REU to do research over the summer. If you are interested in a field find professors at your school who work in the field and read up on their work. Then send them email stating your interest and use your research on them to show knowledge of the group and willingness to take the extra step on your own (assuming their are research proffs at your school). Where I am, i knew two people personally who got research positions with highly reputed professors even before attending a single freshman class. They showed promise and dedication. Having talked about the email, if your professor is good, chances are he won’t respond to the email (even after reading it!), so you will have to go to their office and talk to them. Tell them you even sent them an email (worked for me twice). Some proffs may want you to volunteer your time initially for a semester or a summer maybe (part time ofcourse!), so they can judge your work. If you do well, they may even put you on payroll next time. As long as you are doing research, the name REU doesn’t matter much.
You are at Brown, right? My daughter went to Brown and I don’t think she ever applied for an REU, although that might have been a good experience to work at another uni, esp for seeing if she would like it for grad school. There is so much research going on at Brown and undergrads are wanted and needed. Let’s see, the first summer she got a paid position crunching numbers for a physics professor and his grad students. He took them all to the Fermi Lab at the end of summer to present. Next summer she applied for and got an UTRA grant to do independent research with a CS prof, something to do with graph algorithms. I think that year she had also been on robotics team under Chad Jenkins and she was sent during summer with his grad students to the International Robotics competition. Next summer she applied for a group UTRA under a prof and did a cryptographic/privacy& security project. She did an independent research in spring to prepare and that work went on from summer through the year and the next summer and was presented to a conference with a pub she got a credit on. There was also some research in the year.
So, I suggest you look at job postings and see what is out there for the semester, not just in CS but other groups like physics, cog sci/neuro, engineering etc may have work. (Of course as summer approaches there may be listings for that.) That can get you a reference. Or. better. you look at department pages and see what research groups interest you, or professors pages and see what they are up to. Then you can drop by and see them and find out if there is any room to join a group, this will likely be volunteer–and ask about what projects might need help over the summer. Once you chat a few up, they will get to know you and maybe keep you in mind. That happened with my daughter. If you actually have some skills, you might make a simple one pager resume type thing. Just list languages, relevant classes, projects, any work experience.
You said elsewhere you are interested in computer vision so find out who is working on that and talk to them. There are 2 profs specifically in this area and other groups like @LEMS. There is a job posting for Cognitive, Linguistic & Psychology Sciences you might not be qualified for as you need matlab/python and CUDA (who knows, if you are they need someone 10 hrs a week asap) but you might talk to this group to see if they will take someone on:
Our group works at the interface between computer science/engineering and neuroscience. We develop bio-inspired machine vision algorithms ranging from the visual control of locomotion to object and action recognition as well as tools for automating the collection of neuroscience data. More info on our lab web page: http://serre-lab.clps.brown.edu.
No, you usually don’t have to leave your large research university to do summer research if you don’t want to - so if you are at a large university, I agree that you can look internally for summer positions, especially in your freshman year.
However, it’s a good idea to do at least one summer somewhere else if you can. It just may not be your freshman summer. A summer at another university extends your network and gives you new mentors unrelated to the old ones to give you advice and letters of recommendation.
It’s also the case that if you can’t find any summer work this summer, it won’t necessarily tank you. Few people expect freshmen to do summer research. I spent my first two summers in undergrad working as a summer camp counselor.