<p>The Penn website seems to really promote/encourage/make available UG research from early on. Is this more hype than reality? Is it real research or cleaning tubes and shadowing? I'm speaking more specifically to the sciences/biology.</p>
<p>If a brand new freshman walks into school and wants to do research... how is the process truly going to go? Will it be "go away and come back in 2 years"? Or is it it fill out an application and we'll see if you're qualified? Or will it be "welcome aboard"?</p>
<p>See for yourself–take a look at the 199 currently open research positions for undergrads that are listed under “Biomedical Science” and “Physical and Theoretical Science” in the Research Directory of Penn’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CURF): </p>
<p>[url=<a href=“Penn CURF”>Penn CURF]Center</a> for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships–Research Directory<a href=“click%20on%20any%20listing%20to%20see%20a%20detailed%20description”>/url</a></p>
<p>Penn is very serious about offering undergraduate research opportunities, and is uniquely equipped to do it with a world-class research complex (Medical School, Nursing School, Dental School, Veterinary School, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Wistar Institute, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, etc.) right there on the very same campus with undergrads.</p>
<p>very interesting information… no matches for my son’s interests at this time, except for one that says “no freshmen”. another one said paraphrased “grunt work, no research”.</p>
<p>of course the offerings change i am sure and i haven’t gone through all of them.</p>
<p>Research, you have to remember, is always based on what you are interested in. If what your son is interested in is a very narrow field, then you should expect less search results. Also, think about what qualifications are indeed necessary for research in the field----sometimes it does take a year or so to gain the necessary skills, or, previous research experience.</p>
<p>Often, you will find that research opportunities just kind of fall into your hands. The idea of “doing research” is very popular among freshmen, but the reality is that very few freshmen have the tools needed to perform meaningful research. You need a foundation of knowledge that is impossible to get before entering college, so it’s unlikely that any first-semester freshmen will be able to be useful. Another difficulty is the size of your classes; once you are in your third semester or later, you will start taking smaller classes, meaning you will have far more contact with the professor, thus far more opportunity to learn about the professor’s research. Of course, this is possible in large lectures if you attend office hours, but it can happen more organically in smaller classes.</p>
<p>Most of my friends started their research during sophomore or junior year. I was in the social sciences, but I did a little research during sophomore year and a LOT of research senior year. If you are dedicated to it, you will get some great opportunities. Stuff my friends have done include figuring out the feasibility of utilizing micro-organisms to strengthen supertall skyscrapers, creating flying robots and evaluating the behavior of bacteria designed to help kill brain cancer cells. These people did this research primarily junior year and after, but they started as sophomores!</p>