Is Being a Research Participant Worth Discussing?

[AttemptingScholar]

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I have been in a lab for a while, and expect it to be a large a part of my application. It is on fruit flies, not clinical at all. I have recently become a participant in a study on eyesight, and I was wondering if the good people of SDN thought it might be an interesting experience worth discussing--the other side of the curtain, as it were.

Of course, I wouldn't make it one of my extracurriculars, but maybe mentioning it on a research essay or even just bringing it up in interviews? Do you think it would make it sound like I've learned something valuable if I could discuss what I learned by being a participant rather than a researcher, or would it sound like I'm grasping for straws on what to talk about?

 

[Med Ed]

I have been in a lab for a while, and expect it to be a large a part of my application. It is on fruit flies, not clinical at all. I have recently become a participant in a study on eyesight, and I was wondering if the good people of SDN thought it might be an interesting experience worth discussing--the other side of the curtain, as it were.

Of course, I wouldn't make it one of my extracurriculars, but maybe mentioning it on a research essay or even just bringing it up in interviews? Do you think it would make it sound like I've learned something valuable if I could discuss what I learned by being a participant rather than a researcher, or would it sound like I'm grasping for straws on what to talk about?

Offhand it sounds like grasping at straws, but it would really depend on the nature of the research project. "A study on eyesight" doesn't sound very sexy, but try explaining your participation to a friend and see if he/she rapidly gets bored.

 

[878956]

No, do not mention it.

 

[Catalystik]

I have recently become a participant in a study on eyesight

I wouldn't make it one of my extracurriculars, but maybe mentioning it on a research essay or even just bringing it up in interviews?

No.

 

[Goro]

I have been in a lab for a while, and expect it to be a large a part of my application. It is on fruit flies, not clinical at all. I have recently become a participant in a study on eyesight, and I was wondering if the good people of SDN thought it might be an interesting experience worth discussing--the other side of the curtain, as it were.

Of course, I wouldn't make it one of my extracurriculars, but maybe mentioning it on a research essay or even just bringing it up in interviews? Do you think it would make it sound like I've learned something valuable if I could discuss what I learned by being a participant rather than a researcher, or would it sound like I'm grasping for straws on what to talk about?

No, just no.

 

[bball0718]

"No" seems like the popular answer here but I was a participant in an exercise study early in my college years where I was constantly tested/trained and the grad students/PhD candidates who ran the study were really awesome/informative and helped connect my passion for exercise/healthy living with science a lot better than I think anything else at the time could have. I didn't write about it as if I did anything special, but I did talk about it as something that was beneficial to my college experience and exposed me to research in a unique way. I don't know if it helped, but I think if you phrase it well, people won't be rolling their eyes at it

 

[getdown]

sounds a little desperate.

 

[Goro]

"No" seems like the popular answer here but I was a participant in an exercise study early in my college years where I was constantly tested/trained and the grad students/PhD candidates who ran the study were really awesome/informative and helped connect my passion for exercise/healthy living with science a lot better than I think anything else at the time could have. I didn't write about it as if I did anything special, but I did talk about it as something that was beneficial to my college experience and exposed me to research in a unique way. I don't know if it helped, but I think if you phrase it well, people won't be rolling their eyes at it

And you know this how?

 

[bball0718]

And you know this how?

Well that’s why I said “I think” lol, for all I know some ADCOM could have read it and immediately thrown my app into the trash. But again, I didn’t write it from the perspective of contributing anything to the project or how it was some impressive thing I did, just that it was something I really really enjoyed and something that caused me to look at research and nutrition from a different perspective. We were pretty involved as participants, I definitely spent around 120ish hours total over the course of a semester doing things related to the study. Fitness is a huge, huge passion of mine, I thought writing about my involvement in the study would be a cool way to get that across to whoever was interviewing my app. I hope they didn’t laugh at it! It was just something I thought might give an insight into what kind of person I am outside of my academics, which I think is important to get across.