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[tiedyeddog]

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Hello all, I had to get a new password and break my SDN hiatus (summer classes.... SDN is addictive....) but I have a semi-urgent question. My college is on the quarter system and I am planning out the rest of my junior year until application.

I busted my ass and have the ability to take off two quarters and I think I am going to do this in the coming year (my junior year). I am taking classes this autumn and researching in the same place I have been researching for the past six months. This means I only have one more quarter of classes that will count towards my application GPA, woohoo! After autumn quarter I don't know what I am going to do, besides study for the MCAT but I am taking time off specifically to do more research.

My question is this: it seems most programs want/require at least two different PI LOR's. I have only worked under one PI so far and she said she will write me a LOR (I get the idea she will make it a good one..) but I don't work under any other tenure-track or tenure faculty. Should I just find a new lab and work there for the two quarters and the following summer in order to get another LOR?

I really like the lab I am in and I feel like the PI and the graduate students like me but I also feel like there might be other areas of research I want to look into before I apply to MD/PhD programs. After this autumn I will have been in the same lab for about 9 months and might get a 3rd person authorship in a low impact journal(neuroscience.) I sort of want to look into cancer biology research labs but I might be able to get another publication if I stay in my current lab...Any ideas?

Edit: Also, my PI suggested I take next summer (application summer) and go to another university and try to do a research internship, as if doing research at a different institution would help me? Any validity to this? I have a apartment lease here and my brother is starting college, I don't want to leave the city I am in now. 🙁

 

[Neuronix]

My question is this: it seems most programs want/require at least two different PI LOR's. I have only worked under one PI so far and she said she will write me a LOR (I get the idea she will make it a good one..) but I don't work under any other tenure-track or tenure faculty. Should I just find a new lab and work there for the two quarters and the following summer in order to get another LOR?

Nobody cares whether your PI is tenure-track or tenured faculty. The whole idea of tenure is going out the window anyways. Your future job as well as mine is very unlikely to have tenure as we knew it 10 years ago. Regardless, you're an undergrad and you take what you can get. Also, nobody cares if you only have 1 LOR if you've only ever worked in one lab for a long period of time. This kind of stuff is expected. I know that "2 LOR" thing is intimidating, but it gets waived all the time for people in your situation.

but I might be able to get another publication if I stay in my current lab...Any ideas?

It's entirely up to you. If you want to switch labs go ahead. If you don't, don't. Stop worrying about what looks best for your app because it's 6 eggs vs a half-dozen eggs.

Edit: Also, my PI suggested I take next summer (application summer) and go to another university and try to do a research internship, as if doing research at a different institution would help me? Any validity to this? I have a apartment lease here and my brother is starting college, I don't want to leave the city I am in now. 🙁

It's a fine suggestion, but if it's too much trouble for you, don't do it. There isn't some THIS IS THE BEST RESEARCH TO DO TO GET INTO AN MD/PhD PROGRAM plan out there. Keep doing research, whether that's in the same lab, another lab, whatever. It's time served that counts. What you get out of that counts a little bit (papers, abstracts, etc). This idea of different PIs, different institutions, sure, you can do it if you want and are interested, but it's not something that's going to significantly affect your application.