The selection process for summer research students, comprising both a formal application and informal negotiations with faculty, works effectively to provide a group of students who are well prepared and who have high expectations for success. Only one student withdrew from the program. Fewer than half-dozen others expressed serious criticism of their experience. Faculty use a variety of tactics to find a middle ground between structuring a successful project and allowing students to have input on projects. In the initial phase of the projects faculty-student interactions are intense.
Faculty sometimes work side by side with student researchers for five or six hours per day.
Later in the project, students work more independently. Most faculty arrange for small groups of students to work as teams or as members of the same laboratory community. In the few cases of dissatisfaction students cited their student peers as a reason for their unhappiness. Science faculty have experienced a change in culture. Most faculty now see the summer research projects as opportunities to teach rather than free time to pursue personal research.