There are many obvious reasons to get a summer job in physics during your undergraduate years, and we hear them often: getting a taste of real research and learning how much you love physics beyond the textbooks, determining whether a particular field is right for you, and simply acquiring some research experience. Further aspects of the work to consider include the type of supervision offered by the professor and/or the research group, and performing busy work versus truly original research.

Something not to be forgotten is that the success of these jobs will have a significant impact on graduate studies and thus future career opportunities. Many criteria affect the awarding of a postgraduate scholarship or the admission into a graduate program, but the two most important are research potential and academic excellence.

The research potential is simply research experience, gained from a summer job, an honours project or the Co-op program. If a research article bearing your name is published following this work, this strengthens your research potential. Contacts established during such work lead to another crucial proof of potential: recommendation letters. I don’t think one should view or develop academic relationships solely with this in mind, but it is a point that cannot be neglected.

I can't help smiling when recalling the words of a friend beginning his doctoral studies: "It really is a Mafia." He was suggesting that students possess an idealized vision of university, thinking that it is possible to succeed on talent alone, but in fact, there are a lot of politics involved: not only has one to be recommended, but well recommended, by the right people (i.e. Consigliere Hagen), and to the right people (i.e. Don Corleone). I invite the reader to repeat the analogy regarding the Mafia to a professor. I bet that most people will respond with laughter as my professors have, not because the metaphor is naïve, but because it is surprisingly accurate.

Academic excellence is measured in terms of previous scholarships and marks. The scholarships obtained during undergraduate studies, particularly ones leading to summer research positions, are themselves awarded mostly on grades. Does this system place too much importance to the scores obtained at the beginning of undergraduate studies? For instance, I know first-hand the story of a student who, after literally wasting his first year of studies, obtained his best marks in his third and fourth years but did not receive a NSERC postgraduate scholarship. Those in a similar situation should not despair: scholarships, though useful, are not the be all and end all! A cynic, which I am sometimes, would suggest that a student without scholarships will earn many thousands of dollars less than another who has one, for the same job with TA duties. The fact is that many universities offer generous supplements to scholarship holders.

Some students are frustrated or discouraged by how scholarship committees and graduate programs award money and positions. A few of these students have tried to discourage me... However, I view the system instead as a reasonable balance between the true talent of the students and the "political weight" of professors. And I’m not saying that because I am among those who has, until now, never had a problem with it. What I am suggesting is that with hundreds of candidates to judge from for a scholarship or graduate program, the people in charge, at NSERC or at any university, have no choice but to aim for equity instead of justice.

Perhaps the best thing to do, then, is to find a godfather and get introduced to the traditions of the famiglia.

Jonathan Ruel
Editor-in-chief

Notes: I invite readers to comment on this editorial on our forum or by writing a letter to the editors.

I am excited to be CUPJ's new Editor-in-Chief. At the same time. I must salute the immense work of the one whose chair I now occupy, Iva Cheung. CUPJ exists thanks to her alone. Iva is still in the team, and her help and experience remain invaluable.

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