How long should you do research and shadow for?

[rajp98]

How long should you be in a certain research position? Can you do 1 summer and then stop?

also,

How long should you shadow a certain physician for? I have typically done 1 week per physician.

Is there a certain position you have to be in the research for it to count? Can you just be called a volunteer in a lab?

Thank You!

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[MaxPlancker]

1 week per physician seems plenty unless they have an unusual schedule as do some directors of institutes, etc.

Research: You want to actively participate in the research design, experiments, troubleshooting, and ideally dissemination (manuscript, presentation, funding, etc). If you just clean glassware, make buffers, or do Western blots for years, it won't have much weight.

Sure, you can do 1 summer and stop. You could also do multiple years. It's all up to you and your goals and whether you actually enjoy research. You sound like you are in the classic box-checking mentality right now...

 

[JustAPhD]

Prolonged research in a single lab ending with a paper is the best, in my opinion. I can't imagine you'd get much accomplished in a single summer, especially if you're joining the lab as a new assistant. So yes, you can do one summer of research, just don't expect it to be a highlight of your app.

Your official position in the lab doesn't matter, it's what you do that matters.

And I completely agree with @MaxPlancker, this sounds like box-checking 101. Sigh.

 

[piii]

3

 

[rajp98]

3

?

 

[rajp98]

Prolonged research in a single lab ending with a paper is the best, in my opinion. I can't imagine you'd get much accomplished in a single summer, especially if you're joining the lab as a new assistant. So yes, you can do one summer of research, just don't expect it to be a highlight of your app.

Your official position in the lab doesn't matter, it's what you do that matters.

And I completely agree with @MaxPlancker, this sounds like box-checking 101. Sigh.

Thank You! Sorry if it sounds like box-checking, I just wanted to be super clear and make sure I do what is needed or reccomended.

 

[rajp98]

1 week per physician seems plenty unless they have an unusual schedule as do some directors of institutes, etc.

Research: You want to actively participate in the research design, experiments, troubleshooting, and ideally dissemination (manuscript, presentation, funding, etc). If you just clean glassware, make buffers, or do Western blots for years, it won't have much weight.

Sure, you can do 1 summer and stop. You could also do multiple years. It's all up to you and your goals and whether you actually enjoy research. You sound like you are in the classic box-checking mentality right now...

Thank You! Sorry if it sounds like box checking, I just want to be clear on what needs to be done so I'm not making any wrong moves.

 

[Acoustica]

I would say definitely try to shadow as a pre-med, but you don't have to dedicate extensive time to it, because it can be a mind-numbing experience to spend days and days merely standing there watching someone talk. I would say that no one asked how many hours I shadowed and cared more that I took the time to shadow docs of different specialities to learn more about what medicine was like.

 

[Astra]

For shadowing, I head that 50 hours is reasonable.

For research, it could be hundreds of hours before you get meaningful experiences and are able to talk about it in interviews. Research is such a broad field that different labs get results in different speeds.

The pharmacology lab I worked in required atleast 500 hours before we got any meaningful results due to having to extract, isolate, analyze compounds and learn how to use different machines.
Whereas, my friend who worked in a chemistry lab had his results come through shorter because they would synthesize the compounds and the testing was sent to another department.