For the past seven years, Shoals Marine Laboratory -- which lies on a pristine island in the Gulf of Maine, six miles off the coast of Portsmouth, N.H. -- has been a place where undergraduates can get their feet wet in the work and lifestyle of marine scientists to see if the researcher's life suits them.

When compared with the average research laboratory, this setting may create some false impressions. After all, the island is breathtaking and the easy pace is a refreshing break from most people's daily grind.

Looking across the water from the 95-acre Appledore Island, the coastline of Maine and New Hampshire is a line on the horizon, slightly darker than both the sky above and the glassy ocean dotted with fishing skiffs below. For anyone willing to wade, the island's shoreline offers a peek into a world of crabs, shrimp and starfish.

This idyllic seascape is home to a program called Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), which selects about 10 students from various universities each summer to work on faculty research to better understand the island's biological systems and how the island's biology interacts as a whole.

From June 12 to Aug. 18, this year's students -- five from Cornell -- who were chosen from 186 applicants, are working on projects from studying the creatures that live in the island's freshwater pools to whether proximity to humans contributes to the reproductive success of the island's many gulls. And the students are getting a taste of just what life is like for a scientist.

"Being a researcher is pretty intense, and it's not for everyone," said Myra Shulman, a Cornell senior research associate in ecology and evolutionary biology and an REU faculty adviser. "The expectations for academics are really high; this is not a 40-hour-a-week job. It's something you take home with you that you think about all the time, but people do it because they love it."

She added: "Generally, what I am trying to do is train these students to become scientists."

However, the Shoals experience benefits both students who want to become scientists and those who decide on a different career, Shulman said. Deciding to pursue a career outside of academe can save students time and money and help competitive graduate programs invest in clearly committed students, she said.

Patricia Jones, a Cornell ecology and evolutionary biology senior, still hasn't made up her mind about the future.

"The main reason I wanted to do an REU this summer was to get a feel for whether going into academia was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life," said Jones, who is considering either a career as a veterinarian or as an academic researcher. "I'm having a fantastic time here, but I worry a little bit that being a researcher and academic is a 24-hour job, and it is incredibly self-driven." Although she loves watching natural systems and scuba diving while researching subtidal lobsters, she is contemplating whether ecology fascinates her enough to make a career of it.

One REU student last year decided three weeks into his fellowship to go to medical school, Shulman recalled. He still happily finished his program at Shoals. Many of the REU students, though, have gone on to pursue academic careers. Many undergraduates parlay their work at Shoals into honors theses. Of six Cornell honors students that Shulman has mentored at Shoals, four of them published their summer's results as a first author in peer-reviewed journals. Shulman said she and the other faculty advisers work closely with students to get their papers ready for publication.

REU fellowships are funded by a partnership between the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense Awards to Stimulate and Support Undergraduate Research Experiences, New York State Sea Grant, New Hampshire State Sea Grant and the Leadership Alliance Program.