How many hours of research per week?

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tharealest

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I got a medical research position for the upcoming semester. I was wondering what is considered a typical amount of hours per week that one does undergrad research on avg. Luckily, my position will be paid and up to 10 hrs/week.

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tharealest said:
I got a medical research position for the upcoming semester. I was wondering what is considered a typical amount of hours per week that one does undergrad research on avg. Luckily, my position will be paid and up to 10 hrs/week.

You should work as much as you want to (or can). If you are a full time student, anything more than 15 hrs a week might bite into your studies. It's all about how you can manage your time and how much research you can fit in.
 
I was doing around 20 hours a week on my thesis project and it was starting to bite into my study time and it affected my grades slightly (end of junior year). I found it a lot easier to do 20-25 a week my senior year because I had a much lighter course-load. 10 or 15 a week should be fine though, if that's what you were planning. good luck.
 
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i think if you are an undergrad during a normal semester 10-15 hrs is good. during the summer though most prof's might expect more like 30-40 hrs a week though
 
It can be really difficult to get into things if you do less than 10 hours. I agree that 10-15 hours would probably be ideal. For me it tended to work better to have longer blocks of time available, but shorter blocks on consecutive days can be good too, depending on what you're doing. More than 15 hours is a little difficult to balance with classes, but it could work if you have a light load. If you can't work very much during classes, I would seriously consider spending some time on research over breaks (full time, half time, whatever you can get), because then you can really get a taste of what research is like and you'll have a better chance to move into more independent work, if you're interested in that. Well, I hope you enjoy the research world! :)
 
wait, on the letter of rec you recieve for the research, should the recommender state how many, years, months, hours you worked? Estimate how many hours?
 
Put in as much hours as you can. Your work hours may vary depending on your projects. Some weeks maybe busy and others may not be.
 
tharealest said:
I got a medical research position for the upcoming semester. I was wondering what is considered a typical amount of hours per week that one does undergrad research on avg. Luckily, my position will be paid and up to 10 hrs/week.

I would say 10-15 hours is a very good amount and usually expected from most PIs. If you want to achieve a lot in small amount of time then 20 hours should be sufficient.
 
I did half a unit of research at my school (1 unit equals 1 course), which was about 6 hours a week, all last year, and will probably countinue next semester when I return. I went in twice a week for 3 or 4 hour chunks, and felt it was a perfectly resonable amount of time in the lab. I got a lot done, went through quite a few of my own projects, and was able to be part of a publication and poster. Maybe it's because it was a small lab in a liberal arts school, but of the 4 students who worked with my professor during the year, no one did more than 1 unit per semester, and no more than 10 hours a week, and we managed to get a ton done.

In terms of my own personal wishes, on top of two lab courses, a campus job, and a couple of majorly time consumer extra curriculars, there was no way I was doing more than that.

On a side note, it also depends if you are doing something that requires a lot of waiting or not, or if you are doing something that you need to come back every hour for just a couple of minutes, or if it's something that requires you come in in the middle of the night.
 
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