Question for those who have done an REU.

[rodigee]

Hello, I'm a math major so this is primarily posed at people who have done math REUs, but I welcome comments from the physics people as well.

My question is: How does taking part REU compare to just doing research on your own under minimal supervision by a professor? Are REU's just more structured? More group oriented? If you have done both do you prefer one over the other?

I ask this because all the decisions from the summer programs I've applied to are starting to come back, and I'm trying to decide which genre of program to partake in before I chose a specific program.

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Oxymuon]

Your REU experience is really going to depend on your advisor. It does tend to be very group-oriented (you will spend a LOT of time with the other REUers) but how structured the research is will depend on how good your advisor is. Most likely you will have to write a paper and/or give a presentation at the end of the summer, so that by itself will provide some structure.