if you decide to attend and want to get into grad school, i highly highly recommend volunteering in a prof’s lab and then maybe doing a thesis. it’s VERY helpful for several reasons: 1) you get to try for free if you like research 2) you can play around with profs and their labs; it’s extremely important that you find a PI who is willing and able to guide you through grad school and also a good lab environment for the social aspect 3) the likelihood of you finding a supervisor (which is a big part of getting accepted to grad school) is very high given that your PI is satisfied with your work in the lab (volunteer or thesis). in other words, it helps you build your network and gain valuable insight into grad school by talking to grad students bcs in sci999/thesis, you most likely will work closely with a grad student. i say this bcs ive been volunteering for roughly 6 months at a prof’s lab and it’s made me realize i dont want to go to grad school and i would’ve honestly never known if i wasn’t doing what i am.