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Research Experience Plan, Have Some Questions


avalanche72

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Hi, I'm going to UCI this year for CS, and I was wondering how I would approach research experience. So far, here's my plan :] I know, plans almost always never work out D:

After first year, find a professor that I liked and ask to work with him/her for my honors thesis/research till 4th year. Get into CS honors program for junior year and work with a different professor till 4th year, as UCI recommends 2 different research projects if you're campuswide honors and school-specific honors. Apply for REU/SULI/SURF for summers between sophomore and junior year and junior and senior year.

However, I'm unsure about a couple of things and would love if you could help me out :D

1. Is research after the first year too early?

2. Is it possible to maintain a high GPA with 2 research thingies?

3. What's the difference between an REU, SULI, and a SURF, and which is most valued for grad school admission (to a top 10 school)?

4. Is it possible, or better to go to the "same" REU/SULI/SURF for 2 summers to strengthen relationships rather than to have 2 "weaker" ones?

5. Should the research areas that I go into be consistent for both research projects, and both summer research programs?

6. Kinda offtopic, but how important are fellowships/academic awards for admission?

Sorry, I know it's a lot of questions, but thanks! :]

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Hi, I'm going to UCI this year for CS, and I was wondering how I would approach research experience. So far, here's my plan :] I know, plans almost always never work out D:

After first year, find a professor that I liked and ask to work with him/her for my honors thesis/research till 4th year. Get into CS honors program for junior year and work with a different professor till 4th year, as UCI recommends 2 different research projects if you're campuswide honors and school-specific honors. Apply for REU/SULI/SURF for summers between sophomore and junior year and junior and senior year.

However, I'm unsure about a couple of things and would love if you could help me out :D

1. Is research after the first year too early?

2. Is it possible to maintain a high GPA with 2 research thingies?

3. What's the difference between an REU, SULI, and a SURF, and which is most valued for grad school admission (to a top 10 school)?

4. Is it possible, or better to go to the "same" REU/SULI/SURF for 2 summers to strengthen relationships rather than to have 2 "weaker" ones?

5. Should the research areas that I go into be consistent for both research projects, and both summer research programs?

6. Kinda offtopic, but how important are fellowships/academic awards for admission?

Sorry, I know it's a lot of questions, but thanks! :]

Hi welcome to the forum!

Here are my answers!

1. Nope :)

2. yes!

3. they are all summer research programs for undergraduate to obtain research experience. don't worry about which one looks best, they all look good! you could also work in a lab instead of doing a summer program. i hear mixed results about them

4. its unlikely they would accept you twice to the same program. i wouldn't worry about that stronger vs weaker relationships

5. doesn't really matter as long as you obtain quality research experience

6. they are nice but not that important unless directly related to research

best of luck! great job starting early but remember, plans can change :)

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1. getting started early is never a bad thing

2. yup

3. I don't know what a SULI is, but REUs and SURFs are functionally identical. Usually, REU is the term used for NSF-funded summer research programs.

4. I wouldn't do that if I were you. One summer program is definitely enough, and summer is a great time to get research done back at your home campus. But if you'd like to do two summer programs (assuming you get in), I'd recommend going to different places, just so you get a feel for how things work at different institutions.

5. Nah. It's better to have diverse interests for undergrad, in my opinion. I did research in two completely different fields for undergrad (both not in my major), and am going to grad school in a third field, also different from my major.

6. Unless they're big grants (we're talking >$10k, e.g., NSF GRF) for funding grad school, they're probably just padding for your CV.

Edited by waddle
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