Advice for summer research???

[ejswenso]

Dear friends,

I was wondering which of these two options sounds better to you:

On the one hand, I could spend the summer working with a graduate student at MIT on a project that he has already begun. This work would be on the experimental side, and I would gain a lot from his expertise. With this option, he has guaranteed me a place on the paper as an author (it would probably be published in a journal). It would most likely require an extra year of work, either after my senior year, or during my senior year.

Option two is to work on my own experiment, using data that the lab has already collected. My job would be to do a computational analysis, and try to drive a model. This option would probably end up with me publishing at my university, and not in a major journal. I would be completely in charge of it, and while I do enjoy autonomy, it would probably take longer to get things moving. I'll be in the lab for 2 months. For this option, I would also probably be working on this project during my senior year so in either case, I will spend about a year and three months working on the project.

You guys have thoughts on which of these sound better?


By the way, I discovered the use of voice to text on Macs (double tap fn), and I have really been impressed with it.

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[La Presse]

The grad student's work, from what you have described, seems a bit more novel. Go with that. That could potentially be published in a solid journal.

 

[MrMe123]

Has the grad student definitely found promising preliminary results? If yes, then option 1. Even if not, I would most likely recommend Option 1.

You likely won't find promising results when analyzing data. If you're being offered a chance to be working on guaranteed significant results, then take it.

Also, it's professional pub vs. university pub. If you can get published in a peer reviewed journal as a second/third author I think that beats a university journal

 

[hoihaie]

Grad student work for sure

 

[DaenarysDuhh]

Grad student work for sure

Agreed. It's always great to take the opportunity to learn from someone else, among the other reasons people listed!

 

[ejswenso]

The grad student's work, from what you have described, seems a bit more novel. Go with that. That could potentially be published in a solid journal.

Has the grad student definitely found promising preliminary results? If yes, then option 1. Even if not, I would most likely recommend Option 1.

You likely won't find promising results when analyzing data. If you're being offered a chance to be working on guaranteed significant results, then take it.

Also, it's professional pub vs. university pub. If you can get published in a peer reviewed journal as a second/third author I think that beats a university journal

Grad student work for sure

Agreed. It's always great to take the opportunity to learn from someone else, among the other reasons people listed!

Well that is overwhelmingly useful/convincing. Thank you guys!