Well this is a problem - I need some serious advice

[glasscandie]

I think some of you know that I was interning at NIH this summer. Now I have a giant problem. I was hoping someone could give me advice as to what to do.

From the start of my internship, the PhD who gave me the fellowship to work at the lab was not present. He is ill, and his absence is completely understandable. Instead of the head of the lab. as my supervisor (the PhD), my direct supervisor turned out to be one of the lab. personnel who was given the job of corralling the interns, I guess. From the start of the internship, I was given nearly no work to do. The very first week I was there, I was told to do some online training sessions, and was told to go home early for the entire first week by my new direct supervisor. I spent maybe 3 hours/day at the lab. that first week. The next few weeks turned into much of the same. I was given the task of behavioral coding (watching a video and coding the movements of the primate using The Observer), but before I could code by myself I needed to become reliable with the other intern who was also going to do coding (e.g. code the same way consistently). The other intern, who happened to be 16 years old, didn't want to code with me for more than an hour every day. I would ask if there was any more work to do, and my direct supervisor would say no.

Many, many times over the internship my supervisor told me to go home early. He'd say "We have no work for you to do here, go home and see your daughter." or "That's about it for today, we'll see you tomorrow." A few weeks of this, and in observing the other interns watching cartoons online (literally - the 16 year old would watch Family Guy episodes and the college student would be reading gossip news columns), it was apparent to me that there was not much work to be done. While I admit I did ask to leave early sometimes (again, because there was no work to do), the supervisor always said Ok, it was never a problem. And it wasn't just me - very literally, other interns were watching Family Guy episodes on the lab computers for hours on end, or reading gossip news on various Web sites.

Fast forward to 5 weeks into the internship. The PhD comes back from his medical leave, and my guess is annoyed that his interns aren't doing any work. My direct supervisor (the lab manager) sits down with me and says that I need to begin staying for the 8-2pm that I signed up for. Perfectly fine with me - are you going to give me work now? BUT, the very next day at 12:30pm...guess what? The same lab personnel who told me to stay for an entire day sent me home the very next day after only being there 3 hours. And that's exactly the type of thing that went on the entire internship. Overall, I'm so disappointed that I didn't learn anything, and I literally turned down the opportunity to do my senior thesis at Hopkins just to take this internship, so I basically wasted my summer.

Fast forward another weeks, 6 weeks into my 8 week internship, and I am "let go" by the PhD, citing the fact that I am not committing myself full time. I am quite annoyed, because clearly the lab personnel who was my supervisor did not tell the PhD that he was telling me to leave early. And clearly the PhD was not very in touch with what was going on in his lab, otherwise he would have noticed that for 6 weeks I wasn't given the opportunity to accomplish anything there. I wrote a letter to the PhD a few days after this, explaining the situation, but never heard back.

I am now contemplating writing a formal letter of complaint to the fellowship office. I'm not sure if this is the right path. I know I'm in the right here. I'm a hard worker, a good researcher, and I put towards a project more than is expected of me. My two previous internships, one at Hopkins and one at a psych. rehab. clinic, had nothing but good things to say about me, and can vouch for commitment level and work ethic. My Hopkins internship gave me a paper to first author this summer, which they probably wouldn't do if I sucked; and I coordinated the evidence based practice therapy groups at the psych. rehab. clinic, which again - probably would not have had that responsibility if I sucked as an intern. And I know personally that I am a good researcher and am committed to my education. It pains me to think a researcher out there, especially at a research institute as prestigious as this, thinks I don't care about the research when he was clearly not given all the information about the situation, and not even present for more than 80% of my internship in the first place.

I don't want this to follow me around. Would you write a formal letter of complaint, or would you let it go? I'm pretty sure I'm leaning towards the complaint letter, just so my side of the story is on record.

On a personal note, I'm so very disappointed. I was so excited about this internship, so sure that I was going to be learning tons, and it turned out to be a joke. On more than one occasion I was tempted to quit b/c of the situation, but in the end did not because I didn't think it would seem professional. In retrospect, I probably should of b/c it would save me from the situation that I'm in now.

Any advice? I'm distressed.

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[psyed4clinPhD]

I think some of you know that I was interning at NIH this summer. Now I have a giant problem. I was hoping someone could give me advice as to what to do.

From the start of my internship, the PhD who gave me the fellowship to work at the lab was not present. He is ill, and his absence is completely understandable. Instead of the head of the lab. as my supervisor (the PhD), my direct supervisor turned out to be one of the lab. personnel who was given the job of corralling the interns, I guess. From the start of the internship, I was given nearly no work to do. The very first week I was there, I was told to do some online training sessions, and was told to go home early for the entire first week by my new direct supervisor. I spent maybe 3 hours/day at the lab. that first week. The next few weeks turned into much of the same. I was given the task of behavioral coding (watching a video and coding the movements of the primate using The Observer), but before I could code by myself I needed to become reliable with the other intern who was also going to do coding (e.g. code the same way consistently). The other intern, who happened to be 16 years old, didn't want to code with me for more than an hour every day. I would ask if there was any more work to do, and my direct supervisor would say no.

Many, many times over the internship my supervisor told me to go home early. He'd say "We have no work for you to do here, go home and see your daughter." or "That's about it for today, we'll see you tomorrow." A few weeks of this, and in observing the other interns watching cartoons online (literally - the 16 year old would watch Family Guy episodes and the college student would be reading gossip news columns), it was apparent to me that there was not much work to be done. While I admit I did ask to leave early sometimes (again, because there was no work to do), the supervisor always said Ok, it was never a problem. And it wasn't just me - very literally, other interns were watching Family Guy episodes on the lab computers for hours on end, or reading gossip news on various Web sites.

Fast forward to 5 weeks into the internship. The PhD comes back from his medical leave, and my guess is annoyed that his interns aren't doing any work. My direct supervisor (the lab manager) sits down with me and says that I need to begin staying for the 8-2pm that I signed up for. Perfectly fine with me - are you going to give me work now? BUT, the very next day at 12:30pm...guess what? The same lab personnel who told me to stay for an entire day sent me home the very next day after only being there 3 hours. And that's exactly the type of thing that went on the entire internship. Overall, I'm so disappointed that I didn't learn anything, and I literally turned down the opportunity to do my senior thesis at Hopkins just to take this internship, so I basically wasted my summer.

Fast forward another weeks, 6 weeks into my 8 week internship, and I am "let go" by the PhD, citing the fact that I am not committing myself full time. I am quite annoyed, because clearly the lab personnel who was my supervisor did not tell the PhD that he was telling me to leave early. And clearly the PhD was not very in touch with what was going on in his lab, otherwise he would have noticed that for 6 weeks I wasn't given the opportunity to accomplish anything there. I wrote a letter to the PhD a few days after this, explaining the situation, but never heard back.

I am now contemplating writing a formal letter of complaint to the fellowship office. I'm not sure if this is the right path. I know I'm in the right here. I'm a hard worker, a good researcher, and I put towards a project more than is expected of me. My two previous internships, one at Hopkins and one at a psych. rehab. clinic, had nothing but good things to say about me, and can vouch for commitment level and work ethic. My Hopkins internship gave me a paper to first author this summer, which they probably wouldn't do if I sucked; and I coordinated the evidence based practice therapy groups at the psych. rehab. clinic, which again - probably would not have had that responsibility if I sucked as an intern. And I know personally that I am a good researcher and am committed to my education. It pains me to think a researcher out there, especially at a research institute as prestigious as this, thinks I don't care about the research when he was clearly not given all the information about the situation, and not even present for more than 80% of my internship in the first place.

I don't want this to follow me around. Would you write a formal letter of complaint, or would you let it go? I'm pretty sure I'm leaning towards the complaint letter, just so my side of the story is on record.

On a personal note, I'm so very disappointed. I was so excited about this internship, so sure that I was going to be learning tons, and it turned out to be a joke. On more than one occasion I was tempted to quit b/c of the situation, but in the end did not because I didn't think it would seem professional. In retrospect, I probably should of b/c it would save me from the situation that I'm in now.

Any advice? I'm distressed.

Hi,

I am truly sorry for the difficult situation that you find yourself in.

I have certainly had internships that have been disappointing as well. One, in particular, was at an equally prestigious institution. One of my fellow interns had a problem where she wrote an article over break that was assigned to her, and her supervisor took credit for it and it was published with him as the first author without her knowing until it was in print.

What I took away from this is knowing that there will always be ethically-challenged researchers who are only out for themselves. While the majority of the research professors I have worked with have been awsome, just know that you may run into this again.

It sounds like you do want to write the letter. I don't have any great advice for you expect before you write this, make sure you don't burn any bridges. Also, make sure that you are willing to be as objective as possible. If you can't do this, I would suggest taking a little time so it doesn't seem like you are bashing the lab. I would stay just stick to the facts. I expect that the professor will eventually figure out that he is out of touch with his lab when nothing gets done, if that is any consolation. I also expect that you will have many more opportunities to prove that you are indeed a committed and reliable researcher! Good luck.

 

[deleted176373]

Let it go... nothing good will come of this. If you have plenty of great references losing this one won't matter... upsetting the apple cart, pissing and moaning (regardless of how justified) will not accomplish anything.

Ask yourself this; What do you hope to accomplish by complaining?

If you have a good answer, then ask yourself this; What are the chances that I will accomplish what I hope to accomplish with this complaint?

BTW, you did learn alot... some reflection will provide plenty of life lessons, I'm sorry that it went down that way for you. That's unfortunate.

Mark

 

[numbereight]

i've never experienced this sort of thing but IMHO if you want to write a letter for yourself, don't bother. As Mark alluded to, nothing good will come of it for you. Writing a letter to get this feeling "off your chest" and release some of your frustration falls in to this category. You'll have to let it go, chalk the whole thing up to bad luck, and see it as a learning experience.

However, if you want to help them sort their act out, then mabye you should write the letter. It sounds like the right thing to do if you're sincerely interested in making sure that this doesn't happen to another student. I am not entirely sure that this is a good idea. Perhaps the PI will suffer for something that he was unaware of while on medical leave, when his PhD is really to blame. Then again, it was his responsibility. It's something that you'll have to decide. I guess my advice would be: unless you are sure that you'd like to go on record (more than leaning). The best thing to do is move on.

I hope and trust that you've learned to be a bit more proactive in the future. Not that I place any blame on you whatsoever, i believe that the blame lies with the supervisor. Yet i remember at some point in the first few years of my research career, i learned that sometimes I had to use some initiative and do a few extra experiments on top of the ones i was assigned if i wanted to really get things moving forward. just my 2c

 

[Ollie123]

I would agree with the others if the faculty member was the problem, but it sounds like it was the lab manager who was the primary culprit here. I'd wager the faculty member was getting conflicting reports, and this "supervisor" was probably trashing you to try and save their own butt when the faculty member got back and asked why nothing got done while he was gone. I don't know what "level" the lab manager is at...is this a senior research scientist with a PhD who has been a long-time collaborator of the PI, or was this a recent BA grad killing time til grad school? That may make a big difference in how receptive people will be to this kind of information.

You should recognize it is a professional risk to do something like this. How big a one depends on a number of factors and I'm not close enough to comment. That said, I have a lot of respect for whistle-blowers, what happened to you absolutely sucks, and I'd like to see it prevented in the future, so I'm reluctant to tell you not to take that risk - that's something you need to decide for yourself.

 

[6SAnthony]

INMO, you should write the letter. Informing the fellowship office shows them what was happening on your side of things and hopefully will make them take stock of that lab. It sounds like there needs to be someone that tells them about this. No it might not get you back into the position, but if the situation ever arises where you are asked about it at a future site, you will have evidence (for lack of a better word) about the situation.

Ultimately it is your choice, but I would write the letter.

 

[glasscandie]

Thank you all for taking the time to read that long post.

The person who was my supervisor (not the Phd) was...I'm not sure. I assumed he had a bachelors, but he was around 40 or 50 years old. I think he was really a lab rat with no real interest of doing research on his own. I know he's been with the lab for about 10 years, and besides him, there was only a post-bachelors fellow who'd been there 2 years and was heading to a PhD program in the fall. The post-bac actually left about 3 weeks into my internship. So the older guy (in the sense he was older than the post-bac) was the logical person the task of coralling the interns would fall to. The only person at the lab with a PhD was the supervisor who "let me go" and who was not there for medical reasons for nearly all of my internship.

I guess I mainly wanted to write a letter to get it on record that I wasn't OK with the experience, and that there was more in fact behind what happened to my internship ending early than what the PhD was reporting. If I was truly just screwing around and slacking off, I probably wouldn't go through the trouble of writing a formal letter of complaint; however, if I go through the process of formally complaining, I at least have a leg to stand on if someone I'm applying to work with in grad. school hears what happens. E.g.: I don't know what happened, I've gotten nothing but good reports from my other internships, and I filed a letter of complaint because of the lack of guidance I surprisingly found at my NIH internship.

The PhD was saying I wasn't committing myself fulltime, when simultaniously the lab guy was telling me to leave early nearly every day and obviously not telling the PhD. I am worried that something like this (with only one side out in the open) will haunt me as I apply to graduate school, as all the schools I'm applying to are in the area of this internship. In fact, one of the PI's I'm really interested in working with knows personally the PhD who now thinks I'm a slacker. That sucks, I might have to cut that school off my list if this turns out to be something career-haunting.

I do blame myself a little bit - probably I should have contacted the PhD, but honestly, he is very ill. I definitely don't want to go into details on a public forum, but ill enough that I didn't want to bother him with mundane things like not having enough work from an intern who would only be there for the summer and who he only met once or twice. I did talk to the lab guy who was my supervisor about having more work - I volunteered to work in the wet lab, I volunteered to work on a different project at a different location, all which yielded no results. On many occasions the lab guy said "go home" at 11am and I came back at 12pm after my lunch break, and he asked me why I was still there. I guess the predicament was - if you're getting paid for fulltime work, do you stay even though the supervisor is saying leave? If I were at Hopkins, where I've been for awhile and am comfortable with the projects, I probably would have just jumped in; as a summer intern at a new place for only 8 weeks, I really didn't feel it was my place.

I think one way or another, the bridge is already burned - whose side do you think the PhD will take, the lab rat who's been there for 10 years or the intern who was there for 6 weeks? The PhD was rather annoyed when ending my internship, and rightfully so IF the situation actually happened as he understood it to happen. But it did not...and I guess that's my reasoning for writing the letter, because it annoys the f- out of me that my side isn't being told, and I'm being portrayed in a bad light.

 

[psy86]

To put things a bit more bluntly: Do not write the letter.

I completely understand your frustration and bewilderment about what has happened. Use this as a learning experience about how to get along in the workplace. You're absolutely right that you could have learned more and done more. However, you probably managed to tick off the lab supervisor with your many questions about the lack of work and what else you could be doing. (This also indirectly highlighted the fact that the lab supervisor wasn't doing anything).

Learning to get along in these situations is an important part of grad school and of life. There will probably be many times when your talents will be underutilized and you will be bored and feel like you're wasting your time. Hole up somewhere, read journal articles, and keep quiet about it.

 

[psyed4clinPhD]

Thank you all for taking the time to read that long post.

The person who was my supervisor (not the Phd) was...I'm not sure. I assumed he had a bachelors, but he was around 40 or 50 years old. I think he was really a lab rat with no real interest of doing research on his own. I know he's been with the lab for about 10 years, and besides him, there was only a post-bachelors fellow who'd been there 2 years and was heading to a PhD program in the fall. The post-bac actually left about 3 weeks into my internship. So the older guy (in the sense he was older than the post-bac) was the logical person the task of coralling the interns would fall to. The only person at the lab with a PhD was the supervisor who "let me go" and who was not there for medical reasons for nearly all of my internship.

I guess I mainly wanted to write a letter to get it on record that I wasn't OK with the experience, and that there was more in fact behind what happened to my internship ending early than what the PhD was reporting. If I was truly just screwing around and slacking off, I probably wouldn't go through the trouble of writing a formal letter of complaint; however, if I go through the process of formally complaining, I at least have a leg to stand on if someone I'm applying to work with in grad. school hears what happens. E.g.: I don't know what happened, I've gotten nothing but good reports from my other internships, and I filed a letter of complaint because of the lack of guidance I surprisingly found at my NIH internship.

The PhD was saying I wasn't committing myself fulltime, when simultaniously the lab guy was telling me to leave early nearly every day and obviously not telling the PhD. I am worried that something like this (with only one side out in the open) will haunt me as I apply to graduate school, as all the schools I'm applying to are in the area of this internship. In fact, one of the PI's I'm really interested in working with knows personally the PhD who now thinks I'm a slacker. That sucks, I might have to cut that school off my list if this turns out to be something career-haunting.

I do blame myself a little bit - probably I should have contacted the PhD, but honestly, he is very ill. I definitely don't want to go into details on a public forum, but ill enough that I didn't want to bother him with mundane things like not having enough work from an intern who would only be there for the summer and who he only met once or twice. I did talk to the lab guy who was my supervisor about having more work - I volunteered to work in the wet lab, I volunteered to work on a different project at a different location, all which yielded no results. On many occasions the lab guy said "go home" at 11am and I came back at 12pm after my lunch break, and he asked me why I was still there. I guess the predicament was - if you're getting paid for fulltime work, do you stay even though the supervisor is saying leave? If I were at Hopkins, where I've been for awhile and am comfortable with the projects, I probably would have just jumped in; as a summer intern at a new place for only 8 weeks, I really didn't feel it was my place.

I think one way or another, the bridge is already burned - whose side do you think the PhD will take, the lab rat who's been there for 10 years or the intern who was there for 6 weeks? The PhD was rather annoyed when ending my internship, and rightfully so IF the situation actually happened as he understood it to happen. But it did not...and I guess that's my reasoning for writing the letter, because it annoys the f- out of me that my side isn't being told, and I'm being portrayed in a bad light.

I honestly think you will have better luck explaining to the schools that you are applying to what happened, if they ask. I would try to downplay this internship on your CV and since you weren't assigned many tasks, this shouldn't be hard. I think you can spin it as a positive learning experience about who you want to work with in the future and what type of researcher you aim to be.

About the letter, there are pros and cons. My advice is to take time and really think them through.

 

[glasscandie]

OK, so I'm going to think about the letter. Is this something you'd put on a CV though?

I hate that I have absolutely nothing to show for my summer now. Should have just stayed at Hopkins and worked on my darn thesis, now I'm going to have to do it in the fall!

 

[cara susanna]

I have no advice, but I wanted to express my sympathy for what happened. I remember how excited you were about the internship and it sucks that it didn't turn out the way you expected.

 

[JockNerd]

I would agree with the others if the faculty member was the problem, but it sounds like it was the lab manager who was the primary culprit here. I'd wager the faculty member was getting conflicting reports, and this "supervisor" was probably trashing you to try and save their own butt when the faculty member got back and asked why nothing got done while he was gone. I don't know what "level" the lab manager is at...is this a senior research scientist with a PhD who has been a long-time collaborator of the PI, or was this a recent BA grad killing time til grad school? That may make a big difference in how receptive people will be to this kind of information.

You should recognize it is a professional risk to do something like this. How big a one depends on a number of factors and I'm not close enough to comment. That said, I have a lot of respect for whistle-blowers, what happened to you absolutely sucks, and I'd like to see it prevented in the future, so I'm reluctant to tell you not to take that risk - that's something you need to decide for yourself.

I agree with this. It sounds like there's indifference to the work, if not nigh-on sabotage, going on from the lab manager. If I were the faculty member I would want to hear this. Were I writing the letter I would make it clear that I wasn't looking to get re-hired or anything, but also make it clear that there were definite conflicts of communication going on and that I don't want the experience to be repeated for others. But, I've been told that my brain-to-mouth filter is pretty weak, so that may not be the best choice for you.

 

[Cosmo75]

OK, so I'm going to think about the letter. Is this something you'd put on a CV though?

I hate that I have absolutely nothing to show for my summer now. Should have just stayed at Hopkins and worked on my darn thesis, now I'm going to have to do it in the fall!

I agree with what a lot of the others have already said about really weighing the pros and cons of writing a letter.

I had a similar problem with a supervisor in a research coordinator position where I worked for 2 years. I did put this position on my CV but I didn't ask him for any LORs or the like. So don't knock yourself on the experience in terms of your qualifications. Even though it wasn't what you'd hoped for, you still did it. I wouldn't want a big hole on my CV personally. From my experience, nobody really asked why I didn't secure a letter from that supervisor when applying for internship. I had sufficient other experience and other writers to make it not matter. Hopefully that's the case for you?

As for sending the letter to the internship site, I lean toward not doing this. You never know when this stuff will come back to bite you in the butt. Yes, you may get some satisfaction in airing your grievances and there *may* be some changes made to prevent this in the future. On the flip side, you're complaining about the NIH indirectly. Sure it's an enormous bureaucracy and this may never affect your chances at receiving funding (assuming you plan on being a researcher and will apply for grants through the NIH). Maybe I'm just paranoid. But to me, it doesn't seem worth the risk. If you are really considering writing the letter, give it a few weeks to decide. I know full well the sting of getting burned by a supervisor.

Good luck to you!

 

[glasscandie]

Thanks - I might put this on my CV then. I was worried, like you said, about having the hole in my resume - essentially it will look like I did nothing this summer. That's partly why I was so annoyed, because as I mentioned I could have been working on my thesis. I guess I'll just make a brief note about it, and hope no one wants to contact the researcher.

Still pondering over the letter. Good point about funding the future.

 

[futureapppsy2]

Like the others, I'm sorry it turned this way--it sounded like an excellent opportunity (in fact, I was a bit jealous of you) I know how excited you were about it.

I'd say don't write the letter. I had a friend do something very similar with an incompentent, unstable study abroad director (who *all* the students complained about), and it really ended up biting her, so to speak, especially when the other students threw her under the metaphorical bus.

As for your CV, I agree that you should put it on there, but down-play it. You sound like you've had other great resxearch experience, IIRC, so play that up in your SOP, interviews, and other materials.

Also, forgive me for being dense, but if you're graduating in May, why can't you do a senior thesis if you get started ASAP?

 

[glasscandie]

Also, forgive me for being dense, but if you're graduating in May, why can't you do a senior thesis if you get started ASAP?

I definitely can, I have enough time - the proposal and everything is done and approved, I just have to implement it. But I had been planning on working on it over the summer to (hopefully) finish up by December so I could take the spring off - now if I do decide to go back in the fall to finish it, I won't have any break from internships at all before I graduate. I've been doing internships + school + kid for pretty much the entire time I've been an undergraduate, and I was looking forward to less responsibility lol I suppose since I decided to delay applying to 2011 instead of 2010 I'll get a bit of a break, but I was going to take some grad. classes at night or something, or try to find a p/t lab job.

 

[deadmau5]

Thanks - I might put this on my CV then. I was worried, like you said, about having the hole in my resume - essentially it will look like I did nothing this summer. That's partly why I was so annoyed, because as I mentioned I could have been working on my thesis. I guess I'll just make a brief note about it, and hope no one wants to contact the researcher.

Still pondering over the letter. Good point about funding the future.

++ put it on your CV, it's experience nontheless, but forget the reference, it will probably be half- you know what anyways. Seems like the lab is not as professional as you thought.

Also this particular lab could have just signed up for an internship without realizing how large a position it really is. perhaps there's some sort of bonus for the lab, and that's the only reason they signed up for having an internship.

 

[krisrox]

Like Cara, I have no advice to give, but I do sympathize with your situation. I'm sure now that you've had a few days to cool off and some good advice from others you're feeling a little better. Good luck with everything.

 

[amphigory]

Just another vote for don't write a letter, and put it on your CV but don't highlight it. My experience has been that if a PI has kept a jerk running their lab for a while it means that the jerk is of value to them in some way and what an intern says will not matter. Sometimes people who run labs for a long time with students coming in, doing their thing, and going off to PhD programs become VERY WEIRD. Even if they don't have their own aspirations, they spend their time watching a stream of people come and go who are going to do better than they are (and are likely very comfy in their minimal amount of effort applied). I have been burned like this -- just be glad it was just an internship and not a real job. Get your revenge by succeeding elsewhere!

 

[knowing]

I would put it on my CV and I wouldn't write the letter. I remember you being excited too and I'm sorry it didn't turn out for the best. They just didn't realize what a great asset you really were...Shame on them!!!!

 

[glasscandie]

Well, I feel a little more self confident today after this whole fiasco - my supervisor at hopkins emailed me today asking that I come back in the fall. At least I did something right at that internship! Lol

 

[glasscandie]

Just thought I would resurrect this in case anyone was interested (probably not, but none of my friends understand what a big deal what I'm going to type about is to me and I wanted to share with people who understood lol). So I met with my supervisor yesterday, and she told me that she primarily wanted me to come back in the fall thru early spring so I could work on my thesis! She said she had been reviewing it with her supervisor (an Important Person in the lab, she's like a guru of all things behavioral pharmacology related), and they wanted to turn it into a bigger project! We're going to submit to a grant for my idea, $50,000, and make it less focused on the one particular drug and more focused as a meta-memory test in general, so we can use it on the various baboons that are in the lab. My memory thesis offers sort of a rounding out to all the data that we've already accumulated in one study, and they want to take it and run! She said she'd list me on the grant as a co-PI and I'd get to write whatever papers come out of it. Very exciting stuff to me! And, the best part is, since she doesn't want me to work on anything but this thesis, I only have to be there 2-3 hours/day, 3 days/week, which is awesome b/c I have a ridiculous semester coming up (I'm graduating in May 2010, so two semesters to go - and 33 credits to finish lol).

Anyway, I start again at the end of September, and just wanted to share b/c I appreciated the support everyone gave me for this situation. I'm hoping this upcoming project will put in the shadows what happened over the summer.

 

[futureapppsy2]

Cool! Sounds like an excellent opportunity (and makes me glad we're not applying to the same programs ). Congrats! What type of grant are you submitting for, if you don't mind me asking?

Friends/family not understanding research-related, well, anything, is the story of my life.

 

[cara susanna]

Congrats! Wow, you are going to be a very competitive applicant, I think.