<p>I am contemplating going to SURF this summer to research math. My biggest worry is that I’ll come up with absolutely nothing and be ridiculously embarassed and not paid at the end of it. Are these worries unfounded? How often does someone come up with nothing?</p>
<p>you will be paid no matter what. it is almost always possible to get something – it may not be big, but if you work for ten weeks, you will have an interesting insight about something, maybe something small. it so happens that a majority of math SURFs don’t end up in the annals of mathematics, but that’s okay. you’ll have fun, you’ll learn a lot, and you’ll be compensated in sufficient quantities to supply yourself with a surfeit of bling.</p>
<p>same concerns here–i don’t feel like i actually have the background in math to pursue meaningful research at this point, and worry that whoever i’d be working with would expect (and not without reason) either an intelligent student or one with some knowledge of the field, not just someone who’d be willing to work hard.</p>
<p>at this point i think i’d like to go into some sort of research eventually… but i’m also interested in spending this summer doing some slightly lower-key curriculum development work at the boston museum of science. so for some second-order worrying, is it a bad sign not to be excited about doing research over the summer?</p>
<p>nah, if you’re in math, it’s a sign of sanity – the whole undergraduate research dealie fits better with other fields. but i should point out that there have been very successful prefrosh math surfs and i’m sure they didn’t feel any more confident than you do coming in.</p>
<p>on the other hand, a lot of math people have done enriching surfs in applied math, cs, and economics. there you can usually get something serious done. so if the only thing stopping you from doing it is the fear of pure math research, that can be sidestepped in other ways.</p>
<p>i do not recommend third order worrying.</p>
<p>Is this an Axline-recipient’s thing, or is everyone else also entitled for a SURF the summer before freshman year?</p>
<p>Just curious. :)</p>
<p>I had a SURF last year and I didn’t really do anything all summer. I mean, if you find your stuff interesting and you produce some results, that’s great ; and if not, nobody really cares.</p>
<p>
AFAIK anyone can apply for a SURF before freshman year</p>
<p>Hehe. I’m thinking about applying to SURF for next summer, but I also kindof want to spend the summer in Munich learning German or something along those lines. It would get my foreign language requirement over with, and I’d probably benefit a great deal from it. The physical chemistry professor I worked with a couple of years ago rose to fame at the IBM labs in Zurich, Switzerland, and a large fraction of his publications were in German. Not that I expect to be able to understand technical writing after 4 semesters of a language, lol. Sooo, maybe the summer after that. :)</p>
<p>Go to Germany. Research at Caltech before your first year is not as important the experience of going to a foreign country, learning a language and just having fun.</p>
<p>They should have a foreign language requirement at tech…that, or they should admit a bunch of cute french girls to teach the merits of learning another language</p>
<p>but yms, if people DIDN’T learn french you could have them ALLLL to yourself.</p>