Undergraduate handicap and/or impossible to get ahead predicament. Need help

[Alkayus]

Undergraduate "handicap and/or impossible to get ahead" predicament. Need help :(

Good evening all,

I know I have recently posted several graduate questions recently as I was trying to think out/plan ahead. In doing so, I did some reading and research, particularly on this physics gre website, and found a topic where people would post where they went, gpa, gre, awards, etc. and then what schools they applied to along with whether they were accepted or denied. I have noticed that to get into not only a top school obviously, but many of the lower tier schools, that besides a great gpa and gre score, a lot of research and great letters of recommendations have a great bearing on where you get into. My predicament is as follows, and I don't know if this line of work will end up being a dead end for me after my B.S., or if I can work through this and get into a good school:
I am currently attending SUNY Empire State for my Physics degree. Virtualy unknown school, with a "non existent" physics department per say. I have a great teacher, but he is "the" Physics teacher for our three Long Island centers. No physics department, and a huge hindrance to me, no labs. This is unfortunately (and I mean this in no way as a frown upon the school) the only school I was able to go to due to my current life situation.
Though I am sure this in no way makes up for no labs, I had the idea of performing my own labs, perhaps with his help, from a website I found a massive list of Physics labs along with materials required, performing them and keeping a detailed log in a Lab Notebook. I don't know if this will be looked down upon in general to a graduate school, or if it will look proactive, creative, etc. Then my other problem is also kind of obvious, but I have NO research opportunities at my school, and this seems to be a big, big plus to graduate comities. I have learned about REU's, but even they seem to like people with some research experience, and are highly competitive (especially for someone like me, coming from such a school). Then, since I am 90% sure he is the only Physics professor (as well as being my math teacher, lol, but he isn't the only math teacher around) I have access to, how will this work out for letters of recommendation...
So as you can see, I have discovered I am in QUITE the pickle. I would love everyones advice on how I should go about best preparing:

-Does that idea I have for labs sound OK? Or is there a better route you think I may be able to take advantage of?
-What about research experience? Could REU's have pity on me for my lack of resources at my school? lol!
-Are there other opportunities out there besides REU's to get research experience?
-Other ideas for future letters? Obviously I could get ones from anyone I happen to get to help with research.
-The other idea I had just recently, though I am almost 100% sure it can't happen, is that even though I am in one college, perhaps since it is a SUNY school, another SUNY school's professors may be willing to use me for research help?
I have just been worrying about this all the last day or so, therefore I have not had a chance to talk to my professor, but I will asap and get his insight, and see if perhaps he knows of ways and/or people.
I am so, so sorry for this ridiculously long post. I am just in dire need of help. Of course I would like to set myself up to be able to apply to a top school, but is this an impossibility as it stands, even for a non-TOP school I would love to attend like UVa or Michigan or William and Mary? Do I need to quit my job and move and try to get into a different school?
Thank you all so very much for your time and help. All advice would be more than happily welcome.

P.S. Would it also make more sense to perhaps try to get into a M.S. program first, then move onto a PhD program due to this? Also I forgot to mention, but this schools' main form of education is what they call "guided independent study". I am basically teaching myself everything (and currently have a 3.8 GPA), while also meeting with my teacher every week or two (and emailing if need be) to ask any questions/clear up things and to test. It is a SUNY school, so its not some bo-dunk made up school. If anyone is curious as to my degree plan, feel free to ask and I can post it so you can all see what I have set up to learn by the time I finish my degree.

 

[Alkayus]

Anyone?

 

[Ryker]

It's been two hours and a half and your thread was still at the top of the page. Where was the need to bump it? If someone wants to chip in, I'm sure they will.

 

[Choppy]

Maybe I'm misreading your post, but you're getting a physics degree with no labs?

Well before you worry about research experience, you need to determine if your program will actually qualify you for graduate school. Doing experiments on your own is a great idea as far as building independent skills, but it will take a lot of self-discipline to do them in a timely manner, a lot of equipment, and in the end you won't get any academic credit for them, and this will be a big problem when you apply to graduate school.

If you're not already 100% sure, I would make sure that you CAN get into graduate school from the program you're in. Contact graduate departments that you're interested in applying to and confirm that your current program satisfies the requirements for admission. If it does not, you have to transfer into a program that does.

 

[Alkayus]

I see, thank you very much. For whatever reason, I never even thought of that...

 

[101physics]

With regard to REUs, they are in part designed to give undergrads their first taste of research (well, that's the impression I get anyway). In fact, I was accepted onto my first REU last summer with only basic lab work from undergrad labs, and tbh I doubt it was that experience which got me the place- I reckon as long as you are very enthusiastic and passionate about wanting a future in a research setting (or in a career which uses similar skills), and have decent grades then you stand a good chance. I'd recommend applying to as many as you can next summer- knowing computing languages would also help so maybe try and and learn one over the next year.

For other research- are there any schools nearby with a larger physics department? You could give a professor a call and explain your predicament. Or maybe another science department in your University?- my friend is working in a difference field this summer as they were looking for someone with knowledge of physics to help their research.

If you feel comfortable enough with your lecturer I would approach them and explain your concerns. You will not be the first person on this program and so he might know what people have done in the past.

Finally (sorry for the long post haha!)- buying your own equipment is probably going to be expensive. If you are set of performing your own labs then maybe go for some computational labs which would only require a good computer and a programming language - no idea where you could find these however.

What year are you in btw? Are you sure there are NO labs, maybe in later years, as I would be very surprised if there are not.

 

[Alkayus]

Sorry for the late reply.
Thank you very much for that advice. As for me right now, I am only in my second year. But, how my degree was planned out (tried to get a bunch of GenEd out of the way so I can focus on what I love), along with taking college algebra and precalc to catch up, I haven't taken a physics course yet (also screwed up first semester and a half or so because of horrible habits from HS, reinforced with being out of school for 6 years, and getting away with it during my first semester at an online college I originally attended first, so classes for moved further ahead ^_^; ). I will be in Physics 1 and Calc 1 this fall. Yeah, ironically, this school has no laboratory facilities, yet you can pursue a physics degree. They mention on the website that you can either do computer simulations, or cross-register at another school's class and the credits transfer right over. The problem is that the available classes I can reasonably reach, are during hours in which I work. As for the equipment, I can purchase (some used?) most of the basic stuff to do labs in classical mechanics, electromagnetism, waves/optics, though not advanced labs (that equipment is ridiculously expensive, lol), along with simpler labs in nuclear physics, along with computer simulations for the more advanced stuff. I was originaly planning on sitting down with my professor, and finding/designing labs that will equate to other universities lab standards, and keeping a detailed lab notebook, obviously supervised and signed by him.
As for graduate schools, I tried emailing and have not really gotten anything back yet.
Anything else anyone has that they can input would be greatly appreciated. Have an awesome day everyone, and have a great weekend!