<p>However exceedingly small my chances for one of these may be, I'd still like to know how these work. Is selection based solely on grades (Freshman grades are pass/fail for 1 and 2 though?), or do recommendations and extracirricular activites also factor in? How many people get these per year, and how amazingly smart are they?</p>
<p>I'm hoping for one myself actually...I'll let you know how it turns out in a few weeks, lol.</p>
<p>I think grades and research matter, I don't know what else does.</p>
<p>How hard is it to get involved in research during one's freshman year? The summer after?</p>
<p>Not too bad. I think that if you have a desire to do research during frosh year, you have to take two factors into account: how much direction you have, and luck. I know some frosh who are like... yeah I think I want to do a project? Um maybe I'll talk to a prof about it? But I don't know what kind of work I want to do.... It's harder for them to find a project, just because they may not have the sense of devotion that others have. Luck is important too... I consider myself pretty lucky because the Aero prof that I have been working with liked me a lot from the start. During second term he even asked me if I wanted to take on a project with him, instead of me asking him for a project... I think that's kind of rare. Some people aren't as lucky, and the profs they ask for projects are already lined up with other stuff.</p>
<p>In general, I'd still say it's not hard. The SURF office advertises the fact that not as many frosh do SURFs than other classes, but the skew isn't that significant.</p>