<p>I was wondering how possible it is for students to become involved in undergraduate research at Umass, especialy in engineering. Is it common for students to be involved with research? How early can they start?</p>
<p>I know someone at Georgia Tech who started doing research her freshman year and she is from the same high school as us. A friend of mine goes to UMass Amherst and joined as a research assistant her sophomore year; another who went to my school (and is now at HBS) started 2nd semester freshman year. I’m pretty sure that you can start as soon as you want as long as the professor is comfortable working with you, although most don’t start as freshmen (lack the background or professor doesn’t know thier skills yet).</p>
<p>It shouldn’t be too hard at UMass since not a large percentage of undergrads do research (many don’t even graduate in four years) and there are a lot of facilities.</p>