<p>Getting a paper done in a summer/3 months (really less depending on the timing of the program vs your school’s schedule) is a matter of luck + the field you’re in + your work, but in my opinion the last of those is a smaller contribution. In bio or chemistry where you’re doing lab work, it’s very very very unlikely unless you were lucky enough to get a project that is near completion or something. Things simply take time to grow and three months isn’t long enough to plan, setup, do experiments, analyze data, write up, and publish–especially not if you’re working with cells where you might take two weeks just to get enough to do an experiment with!</p>
<p>In math it’s also a lot of luck and a combination of other things. If your advisor has a specific idea he wants you to pursue and it works out so that you actually prove something, then yeah that’s great. But realistically speaking, you’re probably (in the probabilistic sense) not going to get a paper out of a single summer.</p>
<p>I just felt that the REUs/internships I did were great experiences for me and good to talk about when I was writing my statement of purposes, but I didn’t produce enough to feel that the REU professor’s rec would be stronger or better than the ones I had at my university. </p>
<p>Rumor has it on the street that for (pure) math, research isn’t actually that critical (unless you’ve got an actual published paper or more) to your application the way it is for the sciences. Reference:
<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Mathematicians-Survival-Guide-Graduate-Development/dp/082183455X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-7488924-0257614?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173758856&sr=8-1[/url]”>http://www.amazon.com/Mathematicians-Survival-Guide-Graduate-Development/dp/082183455X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-7488924-0257614?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173758856&sr=8-1</a></p>
<p>Anyway, back to the original topic… I personally wouldn’t go into a class with the intention of never attending lecture. I’d rather pick a different class with more interesting lectures/better professor instead of paying money to the university for a course I’m essentially not taking advantage of. </p>
<p>Because if you don’t go to class, then really you could just as easily buy the textbooks, read them yourself, and then go to the professor’s office hours to chat with her/him.</p>
<p>But again, that’s just my personal opinion.</p>