Last edited:
.
- Thread starter Thimble
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2007
- Messages
- 2,346
- Reaction score
- 4,337
Sustained biomedical research with your own project is probably preferable to jumping into another lab.
You could take an advanced math class during this gap year, but many engineering courses don't count for science GPA.
There are MD/PhD programs with BME, Imaging and/or Medical Physics PhDs.
You could take an advanced math class during this gap year, but many engineering courses don't count for science GPA.
There are MD/PhD programs with BME, Imaging and/or Medical Physics PhDs.
Fill the gap year with some research, but know that it'll only have impact on you once you get to an interview. Do lots of fun stuff - travel, etc!
Stick around because you enjoy the lab environment and that's what you want to work on when you wake up in the morning.
Do NOT stick around for the professor's sake and do NOT stick around because you want to see the results. If the professor was desperate for results on your project, it would have been given to a capable postdoc. They know undergrads' time and, to be honest, skills are limited. They're giving you sometime to get your feet wet, learn how to do science, and if you get results, added bonus. She/he will be thrilled if you work a bit longer, but wasn't truly planning on it since you're graduating. Every undergrad/gradstudent/postdoc leaves their PI in a bit of a lurch because they're the current expert on their project and the project is never finished.
Which leads me to, science takes way longer than you anticipate. Sure, you think you can get results in a gap year, and maybe you can. Awesome. You also can run into a myriad of problems and be just as far in the project a year from now as you are a month from now (as any grad student can attest). If the latter is the case, will you still be happy with your decision to spend a year there? If so, stay.
There will always be loose ends and you'll never get all the answers. You'll need in reality a decade to answer the questions that have peaked your curiosity now and then you'll have uncovered a whole host of new questions during that decade. You only really get to explore and answer questions satisfyingly as a PI over a LONG time frame and even then you're limited by grants that get funded.
Remember the goals of what you're doing: you're learning to be a scientist. If you think you can gain useful skills or knowledge (engineering bent or whatnot) elsewhere, go elsewhere. You can literally go anywhere in the country (or world if you have the $ to deal with international flights during interviews) to do research this year. Being exposed to different lab environments, management styles, research focus/methods will only make you more informed as you train to be a scientist. If you feel like you have a lot to learn from your current PI, stay.
Taking a gap year gives you a lot of flexibility and have experiences that are difficult to obtain during the MSTP train once you get on. I"m a big advocate of taking advantage of it! I always remember the story a postdoct told me after he finished his PhD many yrs ago. He decided to stay around lab for the whole summer before he went back to med school because there was this one loose end, he knew he could complete it and get another publication out of it. So, he spent the summer slaving away in lab. At the end of the summer, he had nothing to show for it. In retrospect, he really wishes he took at least a month or six weeks off to recharge before heading into the med school fray because he really had no responsibilities. And a close to a decade latter, the problem he was working on was SO irrelevant to his current research and he wished he was less burned out starting back in med school.
$400 a week a laughable wage, even for an entry level technician, which is what you are. It's about $10 an hour if you work a 40 hour week, and you're likely to work more. If you work 50 weeks a year (if they let you take vacation), that's $20K a year, which is barely livable in most cities. Do you get health insurance, vacation, or other benefits? I doubt it. I know it seems like a good deal, but a good PI would offer a respectable wage. $5K - $10K more a year would be a drop in the bucket for them.
Throughout your career, people are going to try to convince you that you are just an undergrad (or grad student or postdoc or fellow) and that you cannot bring any reasonable financial value to a lab. "You are compensated in training / experience!" That's an outright lie; unless you are doing something very low skilled like washing glassware (in which you probably would still get paid better and with insurance and other benefits), your PI is getting much more than his/her money's worth. I would not take that job unless you can negotiate up the salary. It's insulting, and no self-respecting entry level technician would accept it.
Throughout your career, people are going to try to convince you that you are just an undergrad (or grad student or postdoc or fellow) and that you cannot bring any reasonable financial value to a lab. "You are compensated in training / experience!" That's an outright lie; unless you are doing something very low skilled like washing glassware (in which you probably would still get paid better and with insurance and other benefits), your PI is getting much more than his/her money's worth. I would not take that job unless you can negotiate up the salary. It's insulting, and no self-respecting entry level technician would accept it.
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2011
- Messages
- 75
- Reaction score
- 0
I make $400 after taxes as a research tech II...
Agreed. I make just under 1500 a month. Good thing Pitt's the most livable city in the US.
OP, I'd say stay in the lab. Is it affiliated with a uni? Mine is and I can get tuition discounts if I ever want to take a class. Maybe you could too, and take some of the classes you're interested in in your spare time.
Glad to find someone in a similar boat here. I make ~$600 a month after tax as a staff researcher and this is in one of the most expensive cities in the US. Seems like post-bac techs like us are often underpaid.
Wow, I didn't realize that techs were so poorly paid elsewhere. At my institution, a tech ii gets paid $30K - $32K a year pre-tax with full health benefits, as well as other benefits provided by the university. Usually, they have to log their hours with HR, and overtime pay is either paid or they get time-and-a-half. If HR finds out that they are falsifying their timesheets, there is hell to pay with the PI. It's pretty standard salary, although it does vary between departments enough to make a difference for the tech (e.g. two people doing the same job may make $4000 difference if one is in neuroscience and the other is in neurology). I cannot imagine making just $600 a month after tax. That's not enough to afford rent even in an insanely cheap city, let alone paying for food.
Seems like at this very early stage of training, we already have to learn to scrape up money from different sources and to live on a tight money source just in order to pursue research 🙄
I'm at the NIH IRTA program now, and, to be honest, it could be a hit or miss. Some friends have a great time here: independent projects, first authoring papers, active participation in the actual research. Then there are some who have been relegated to mere tech jobs: running gels for other lab members, running experiments for other lab members, cloning, etc. It all depends on your PI/mentor, and that's hard to tell by just a phone interview or even an hour long in person interview. It's also quite competitive to get into (10% acceptance rate), so most likely you will not be able to be picky.
However, the NIH postbac IRTA program looks good on the resume...
However, the NIH postbac IRTA program looks good on the resume...
Also, the NIH opens tons of doors regarding exposure to different types of research. Multiple times a week there are famous researchers presenting their work. Also, you can shadow any of the docs in the clinical center. Huge resources are available here that you wouldn't get in a university setting. Even if you get a miserable IRTA slot, you'd really have an overall great time here.
you could definitely get into the NIH postbac irta program. if you have research and a nice gpa, you just need to find labs that interest you and contact them directly after turning in an application. I finished my app in late March, was accepted within a week, and started in June. Your university might have a lot of research presentations, but, not to sound snobby, the NIH attracts the cream of the crop from the nation to give talks. Example: 2011 Science Breakthrough of the Year was awarded to Dr. Myron Cohen research proving "treatment as prevention" in regards to using antiretrovirals to reduce the risk of HIV transmission. In 2012 he gave a talk at the NIH about the decade of work that led to this discovery. I'm not sure where else you would be able to attend a talk by him, except perhaps at a large HIV research conference or his home university UNC.
You'll need letters from your research mentors to apply, so you'll need to let him know prior to applying. Which means you're kind of going all in for the NIH job, as it will make your professor's offer sound like a backup, which could be kind of awkward.