Finding Undergraduate Research Experience

[Shirafune]

So I'm having a hard time find a new lab and wanted to know if people do anything different from what I do. Just a little background so far:

-just finished 2nd year
-1 year of experience(15 - 20 hrs/week)
-1 presentation
-3rd author on manuscript
-large public university with strong undergraduate research experience

In my email, I just mention my future career plans, what I hope to get out of my experience in his/her lab, and 1-2 specific reasons I am interested in working with him/her or whatever line of research they conduct. I attach my transcript and resume as well.

I'm lucky to even get responses (try like 1 out of 10 over an 8 week time span). And most of time, the PI cannot offer me a position for whatever unspecified reason.

Also, what is your take on how well developed an undergrad's research interests should be? I don't know about you, but when I have to write so many emails just to get one response and basically skim through a few papers for each lab, I really don't have a great reason to say "Oh I'm really interested in protein X in this blah blah signaling pathway because of blah blah blah shown in this paper." I'm still an undergraduate trying to figure all this out and just want a place that's willing to teach me and let me work hard to be productive.

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[DielsAlder]

Do the same thing to get your first lab position?

Be sure to highlight your experience in your first lab, as it might be a turn off for a prospective PI to train you from square one.

 

[Catalystik]

Some PIs seem to discriminate against premeds. Consider being more vague about your "future career plans" if they mention medical school.

 

[Kochanie]

Some PIs seem to discriminate against premeds. Consider being more vague about your "future career plans" if they mention medical school.

True, my lab doesn't like premeds so they don't think I'm interested in just medical school.

 

[Aerus]

Your biggest mistake was mentioning future career plans. I'm assuming you mentioned medical school. That's a big nono if you want to get more than 50% response rates from PI's.


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[Shirafune]

I did mention my previous experience, but for future plans, I told them that I was interested in pursuing an MD/PhD. I will definitely not add this bit in the next few emails I send; if they ask, I will let them know. Thanks for the insight though. Didn't even realize some PIs discriminated against premeds. I certainly did not get this feeling talking to many of my professors.

 

[karayaa]

does your former PI have any advice? Could she give you feedback on the emails you're sending out?

 

[hoihaie]

Find the PI's executive assistant or secretaries and CC them on emails. Often times those are the people that will take the time to respond to you and bring you up to the PIs. Sometimes they are even the ones that writes the emails for the PIs in their behalf.

 

[Aerus]

Very few professors (in my experience) actually conciously hate premeds. But there is a bias on some (perhaps subconcious) level. There are a few reasons why many premeds have so much trouble with professor response rates. One of them is the need to flash their "premed" title, believing that considering medicine as a career automatically puts them on a pedestal.


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[hoihaie]

Very few professors (in my experience) actually conciously hate premeds. But there is a bias on some (perhaps subconcious) level. There are a few reasons why many premeds have so much trouble with professor response rates. One of them is the need to flash their "premed" title, believing that considering medicine as a career automatically puts them on a pedestal.


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for me it has to do with how they view research as a box to check off and don't actually put their energy in to the lab, just being lazy and pretending they "love" being in lab

 

[Aerus]

for me it has to do with how they view research as a box to check off and don't actually put their energy in to the lab, just being lazy and pretending they "love" being in lab

Yes, I should clarify what I mean. The reason why many premeds experience less success with applying to labs is because they feel the need to mention that they are premed. The reason why mentioning that you're premed will diminish success is largely due to the reasons you stated, not that PI's inherently are annoyed by the title "premed".


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[Friendly9]

If you have a med school nearby, go there and ask any PI (lab boss) if you can help him/her as a volunteer / research intern. A lot of principle investigators will be glad to have free work force. Help them with their research and they will put your name on their papers. Even though you'll work there mostly for free, you will learn a lot. Good luck! That's what I did, and it worked for me. Starting school in 2 weeks.

 

[DielsAlder]

Actually, I never had a problem mentioning I was premed to prospective PI's. I would always mention I was planning to apply to medical school, although I found the research aspect of medicine fascinating.

 

[NTheo91]

A lot of researchers at my undergrad really disliked it when student's mentioned they wanted to be premed. I never participated in any real research myself (just some volunteer for a month thats not even worth mentioning) but I did work on helping undergrads secure research positions with my undergrad and its affiliates. Many researchers told me that they (and many of their colleagues) won't reply to you unless you send at least 2 emails (to show you are really dedicated). This doesn't give you the excuse to email them every day. Use common sense.

Having a well organized resume is a huge plus as well (that goes without saying - but you would be surprised how many people can't master the simple resume).