Advice for second look lab "interviews"?

[squishablecat]

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I looked through some posts on here regarding this topic, but a lot of the threads I found were older / only had a few comments, so I thought I'd make a post just in case anyone has new insight to add.

I'm pretty much decided on one school at this point, so my main priority with the second look visit will be to scope out potential PIs that I can do my first rotation with this summer. With that in mind, I guess I'm just looking for some advice on how to get the most out of these visits and what I should expect...

I plan on browsing through some of their most recent papers, asking about what projects are currently going on in the lab, and figuring out what their mentoring style is like. Are there any other big things I should ask about? Do people generally let you walk through the lab space / talk to other people in the lab? Also, I often hear people say go with someone who is well-funded; is it considered okay to ask straight-up about what projects they have funded, or is that something that you should find out on your own by looking up their NIH grants and stuff?

 

[aliceofbattenberg]

On my second look visits so far, the PIs have usually been prepared to talk about the projects in their lab but I’ve researched a bit beforehand. (I didn’t read any papers but I’m sure it couldn’t hurt.) Most have taken me on lab tours which I loved, especially if there was some free time to meet their grad students for a few minutes! I wouldn’t necessarily ask funding questions, but you can usually get a sense of that from the lab, # of students and postdocs, and information online. Another question you could ask would be about what project you might work on if you did a rotation this summer.

 

[moggat]

My advice would be to go for the stuff that's not available online, and also don't feel shy about asking probing questions--you're already in!

1. Make sure their current research is actually the same as what the website says (they're often out of date and PIs do change focus sometimes). Ask them what types of projects they're thinking of for the future (since you wouldn't join the lab for 3 years at this point--can also give you an idea of relative funding and productivity of the lab as it's kind of rude to ask about funding outright)
2. Ask about previous MDPhD students they've had in their lab! Ask what kinds of projects they've done and if they had any difficulty meeting deadlines and getting back to med school in a timely manner. (a bad track record w/MDPhD students is a red flag)
3. Ask them about the program in general and the department in general. Do people collaborate? Do they share equipment? Do they have core facilities for things like genomics and biostatistics and imaging and how easy is it to access those resources?
4. If they don't offer to introduce you to their current grad students, etc, ask if you can have someone's email to get a student's perspective. Most PIs will LOVE that and if they don't, that's a little weird. Ask those students about what their actual day-to-day is like. You may LOVE that immunology lab's research in theory but if doing flow 40hrs a week fills you with dread then that's a good thing to find out beforehand.
5. If you end up meeting with someone you don't necessarily see working with, ask them about their colleagues--who else in the department is doing work they think is really interesting? Do they know anyone working on (your favorite topic)? Sometimes you'll end up meeting with faculty you don't want to work with, but that doesn't mean it's a wasted interview; you can learn a lot about the department and the general culture of a place too and that helps.

Good luck and have a good time! Revisit is supposed to be fun!