In my opinion, the #1 thing that a student should do is look up the research interests of the science professors at the colleges he/she is interested in. Let’s say that you’re a biology person, but what you’re really interested in is the possibility of doing ecology sorts of research in the biology department. But maybe your “#1” school on your list has a biology department that’s heavy in every type of biology EXCEPT for ecology…and in the bio dept list of classes, there’s hardly anything in ecology. AND there’s maybe ONE professor who’s doing ecology research and you look up his/her recent list of publications or research areas and none of them float your boat.
I would ask current students specific questions: how easy is it to get, how receptive professors are to students knocking on their door, emailing them about research positions etc. I would also ask how often professors email students telling them about available research. Is that common? Does the dept actively encourage research for undergrads?
My daughter was a tour guide and was asked about research all the time.
I would ask current students in the major about publishing, the expected time frame (takes a long time), what the commitment is…if any…for students after graduation, etc.
Absolutely! Of course some kids may not know yet what advanced paths they want to follow, and that is fine too. But even then just looking through some stuff like that might spark some interests and at least help get them particularly excited.
And that to me is the goal. I don’t actually think places to get a good undergrad science education are very scarce. But ideally you want to be particularly excited about where you do choose, and the more you dig into the specifics of your possible colleges, the more likely you are to have specific reasons to be excited about all the colleges on your list independent of generic rankings and such. Which is great.
THIS. Ask. At many schools research is for juniors and up. At others you can easily be in a lab by the end of freshman year. The majority of the schools we toured mentioned undergrad research opportunities and were candid with answers. At some, funding for undergraduate research is available, or course credit. Working directly with a professor(ie no grad student) can happen at R1s as well as LACs. However: working with grad students or post docs in a lab is often a great experience with different benefits! There are still lab meetings which include the Prof, grad student, undergrads. Grad students have been in the undergrad position very recently and can be wonderful mentors in the grad-application process.
Students change their minds a lot on what topics they are interested in, so a college having a specific topic of research really does not matter, as long as they have departments the student is interested in plus a culture that supports early undergraduate research(before junior year and easy access to professors). IMO a school should have many different research opportunities across humanities and STEM, because half of undergrads change their major completely .