"UTRECS is a program intended for non-University of Toronto undergraduate students."

Really? Goddammit. That's stupid. Ask UGO about it anyways? I mean... it can't be exclusive to non-UofT students, can it? What would be the purpose of that?

What happens during summer research is that you're usually working with a graduate student as a mentor. Maybe you'll meet the professor weekly, but the graduate student is your primary contact. You're - hopefully - going to be given small but interesting tasks that you can finish by the end of the summer. If you're with a home-DCS professor (i.e. not cross-listed or whatever), you'll be part of our summer undergraduate research student program - which I've helped organize! - where we "make" you do presentations for each other and socialize and mingle a bit every week.

I would not take summer courses alongside a research opportunity, not necessarily because you can't do it, but because then you're not getting the most out of a rare opportunity. (Unless you're taking a course ABOUT the research you're working on.) I hope that's fairly common-sense as to why.

Mindset? Be prepared to for the first few weeks to just be overwhelmed and lost. Hopefully your mentor will ease you into it, but it's hard to make the curve shallow enough. Don't be afraid to ask questions - kinda one of the reasons you get a graduate student mentor rather than reporting just to the prof - and if possible, try to maintain professional-ish hours. I mean, your mentor might not, but don't plan to work at 2 AM every night when your mentor's asleep, cuz you'll get stuck and be unable to get a question answered.

Also, always TRY TO DO SOMETHING before asking your mentor for help. Nothing pisses off graduate student mentors than UGs who just need too much hand-holding. Part of the point of research is trying new things, taking risks, learning how to learn how to do things on your own. If we wanted you to follow a carved path, we'd give you a homework assignment.