Continue doing research or not?

[witchbreath]

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So I'm doing research in a biology lab right now, bench work -- pipetting, gels, and ****. I can't say I particularly like my mentor, my lab mates, or doing the work. It all seems f*cking pointless. But I'm willing to keep my head low and just do the dirty work if it'll be useful at all down the road, for med school apps [demonstrated commitment?] or if these skills will come in handy in the future. What do you guys think?

 

[Oso]

How long have you been working in the lab?

Factors to consider:
-you don't have to love your PI/lab mates, but are you fine with hanging with them? Or can you not stand them?
-are you going to just be running gels forever? Or will you earn more responsibilities as time goes on? Will you actually help plan/set up/interpret experiments eventually? Maybe have a chance at your own project? A good way to determine this is to talk to other undergrads who are working/have worked in the lab.. also talk to your PI

 

[frodo25]

If you really don't like it, then don't do research anymore. However, if you decide to stay in the lab for application purposes, consider the factors as Oso pointed out before. If you will not be working on your own project in the future, med schools will not be as interested in your research work. If you are only worried about the research showing commitment, there are a variety of other ways to show that on your application such as a job, long term volunteering, TA'ing for classes..etc