Different Places To Do Research

[CKAW]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hi Guys,

I'm doing research at a university now, and I'll be looking for paid or unpaid work elsewhere after the Spring to bolster my resume before applying to clinical phd programs. What are the basic options? All I can gather from the forums are 1.) working directly under a professor at a university research lab, and 2.) working in a research hospital. I'm assuming there are many more settings in which you can get the universally required "research experience." So what's out there?

 

[CKAW]

Any ideas? Beuller? Can't seem to find an answer elsewhere.

 

[bcliff]

Any ideas? Beuller? Can't seem to find an answer elsewhere.

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking. Most research assistant positions that are open to post-bacc's are going to be in academic institutions. There are fellowships and other types of positions available to post-bacc's in government agencies (i.e. NIMH; NIH; NIDA; etc.), and there are probably positions available to post-bacc's in research hospitals. It'll all vary on location, and you're best bet will be to contact PI's directly and ask if they are aware of any upcoming employment opportunities in their labs.

If you're looking to take a few years off, I suggest you apply for a research fellowship. These are often highly competitive, but will allow you to get great hands on experience while making enough money to support yourself. I recently saw a fellowship that requires a three year commitment but allows fellows to simultaneously work on their MPH (for free) while earning $40k+/year. I'm going to be applying to several programs like these when I apply to clinical PhD programs as back ups.

 

[woodstock219]

Hi Guys,

I'm doing research at a university now, and I'll be looking for paid or unpaid work elsewhere after the Spring to bolster my resume before applying to clinical phd programs. What are the basic options? All I can gather from the forums are 1.) working directly under a professor at a university research lab, and 2.) working in a research hospital. I'm assuming there are many more settings in which you can get the universally required "research experience." So what's out there?

One thing which I did to bolster my resume this year was to reach out to professors in my region and offer to volunteer in their labs. Several never responded back at all, but I did have a few responses (each making sure to make clear there was no paid work, so it'd definitely be purely volunteer). Out of those, I ended up finding a professor doing a research project fairly close to my area of interest and I spent about six months working in his lab. As a result, I got something small I could add to my resume on top of getting some valuable time in at an active lab. I understand it's not always a perfect solution, but if you need the experience and can't find a paid option, it's definitely better than nothing.

 

[CKAW]

Might have been unclear. Briarcliff, I guess I'm more curious about where to go for unpaid research experience that would help out come application time.

Woodstock -- yep, that's pretty much what I'm doing too. Is it unusual to volunteer under multiple professors at once, though? I've gotten the impression that it is.

Basically, once school gets out in May, I'll be in the position of having no financial needs and total freedom to relocate anywhere. And until then, I've got three days a week off to do whatever with. Just trying to avoid wasting this time and trying to get as much experience as possible, considering I don't have any undergrad professors to get letters of rec from.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Might have been unclear. Briarcliff, I guess I'm more curious about where to go for unpaid research experience that would help out come application time.

Woodstock -- yep, that's pretty much what I'm doing too. Is it unusual to volunteer under multiple professors at once, though? I've gotten the impression that it is.

Basically, once school gets out in May, I'll be in the position of having no financial needs and total freedom to relocate anywhere. And until then, I've got three days a week off to do whatever with. Just trying to avoid wasting this time and trying to get as much experience as possible, considering I don't have any undergrad professors to get letters of rec from.

I volunteered for two different professors' labs, although they'd been working together on a project, so it was easy to do so.

If you can find two folks whose research you're interested in (and/or if just one lab isn't going to give you quite as many hours as you'd like), go for it.

 

[JustNoticing]

I've had my hands in multiple labs at once, a combination of paid and unpaid gigs. I sent letters to a ton of psych faculty at local schools with my resume and offers to be of service, and that strategy worked alright for me.

 

[CKAW]

Okay, that's really good to hear. Just to clarify, what I'm getting is that the best bet for volunteer experience is to reach out to PIs in academic settings and consider longer-term fellowships if you've got the time?