<p>This is a general question, but I thought a pool of opinions would be insightful.</p>
<p>Where would be the top/most coveted places (Universities/Research Institutes) to do undergraduate research (summer, semester, etc) for a student interested in going to med school or grad school in the physical sciences?</p>
<p>I am also interested in the answer to this question. I'm aware that you need to go through some sort of application process for summer internships at universities. Which are the most renowned?</p>
<p>The National Science Foundation has a well-respected program: (<a href="http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5517&org=NSF%5B/url%5D">http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5517&org=NSF</a>)
at several universities over the summer. I haven't attended myself but plan to apply in the future. They're called REUs-Research Experience for Undergraduates and are held all over the country, in several fields, including science, engineering, education, etc.
Also, the National Institute of Health has a program in biomedical research in the summers, also very prestigious.
(<a href="http://www.training.nih.gov/student/internship/info.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.training.nih.gov/student/internship/info.asp</a>)</p>
<p>Then there are institutional ones, but I'm not sure how to rank these programs against each other. Those two are the biggest national ones I've heard about, but I know there are several institution-based ones (Case Western, Carnegie Mellon, and University of Pittsburgh for example) and I have friends who attended those and really got a lot out of them, too.</p>