On Sun, 2 Jul 2006, Scott Calvin wrote:
So this makes it perfect for a talented undergraduate. Undergraduate interns have the time to spare for that 80-hour learning curve; that only takes the first two weeks of a summer internship. And there's no reason that the best of them shouldn't have better general research skills than a mediocre graduate student.
And that's what I've found. The average quality of work does depend on the level of the student in the expected way: high school < undergrad < masters < Ph.D.. But the variation within groups is considerably greater than the variation between groups. In fact, the best member of my research group I ever had, the one who did the most sophisticated work, was a high school student!
In my experience with having undergradautes in the lab and at MRCAT over the years, I totally agree with this. They all get something out of the experience and many contribute to the lab or to the beamline by building something. There are a few who go beyond this and make a real scientific contribution. Carlo -- Carlo U. Segre -- Professor of Physics Associate Dean for Special Projects, Graduate College Illinois Institute of Technology Voice: 312.567.3498 Fax: 312.567.3494 Carlo.Segre@iit.edu http://www.iit.edu/~segre