- Joined
- May 17, 2015
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Was directed here from *~*~*~*Official AMCAS "Work/Activities" Tips Thread 2015-2016*~*~*~* by @Neuronix and @Catalystik.
I've worked in four labs, for significant periods of time. The first one was back in high school and first year of college so well over 10 years ago for 2-3 years... but I've lost contact with the people there, and the field is entirely different from what I'm in now.
The second one, I worked at the for a year and half and did reasonably good/interesting work-- super interesting work actually, I could talk about it for hours. However, I was unable to get any publication out of it (to be fair, anyone rarely published there) and my relationship with the PI went south after a bunch of things, including unwillingness to write a letter of reference for whatever reason. After that and for other reasons, I decided to leave that field entirely.
In the third and fourth labs in a different field (around 3.5 years so far), I have done excellent work, have publications to show for it, excellent LORs and overall a brilliant experience. The work in the fourth lab-- my graduate work-- is what I'd like to continue on in my PhD.
My question is two-fold:
(1) Should I mention the first/second labs in my essays, work profile etc. I feel I did interesting work in both, and although my direction is entirely different now, I carry those experiences with me. At the same time, the work is so different from my current work that I don't want to seem like I have no idea what I'm doing.
(2) How big of an issue is the lack of LORs from the first two labs, I don't want to raise any red flags.
I've worked in four labs, for significant periods of time. The first one was back in high school and first year of college so well over 10 years ago for 2-3 years... but I've lost contact with the people there, and the field is entirely different from what I'm in now.
The second one, I worked at the for a year and half and did reasonably good/interesting work-- super interesting work actually, I could talk about it for hours. However, I was unable to get any publication out of it (to be fair, anyone rarely published there) and my relationship with the PI went south after a bunch of things, including unwillingness to write a letter of reference for whatever reason. After that and for other reasons, I decided to leave that field entirely.
In the third and fourth labs in a different field (around 3.5 years so far), I have done excellent work, have publications to show for it, excellent LORs and overall a brilliant experience. The work in the fourth lab-- my graduate work-- is what I'd like to continue on in my PhD.
My question is two-fold:
(1) Should I mention the first/second labs in my essays, work profile etc. I feel I did interesting work in both, and although my direction is entirely different now, I carry those experiences with me. At the same time, the work is so different from my current work that I don't want to seem like I have no idea what I'm doing.
(2) How big of an issue is the lack of LORs from the first two labs, I don't want to raise any red flags.