My research experience mess--help!

[Kinocilium]

Okay, so here's my list of experiences:
Jan-May 07: Five credits (15 hrs/week) of Directed Research in a Learning Psychology lab. I basically only entered data

May-Dec 07: Seven credits (4 in the summer, 3 in the Fall semester; 3 hrs/week per credit) in a psychopathy lab. I was trained in how to diagnose Psychopaths and administer an EEG. While I stayed in this lab for 8 months, the PI wouldn't recognize me if I came to his office (This is also when I switched from Psych to Neuroscience)

Jan-May 08: Six hours/week volunteering in a pain and itch lab, and 2 credits (6 hrs/week) in a pain and depression lab. These were very similar experiences; I learned how to cut mouse brain tissue and do some other laboratory tasks, but never got an opportunity to start my own project (despite the promise by one of them that I would).

June 08-present: I decided I wanted to do research on Spinal Cord Injury and tracked down a researcher who was interested. He offered me first author position on an incredibly interesting study using stem cells to treat SCI in rats, and I thought I'd hit the jackpot. Thing is, bureaucracy has slowed me down and 6 months later we're still waiting for approval to use the animals. We're expecting them to ask us to change some things on the protocol and resubmit it, causing further delay.

So basically, I have a fantastic project lined up but I probably won't even have preliminary data by the time I apply. None of my previous experiences are much to speak of because I was never given much responsibility. What do you guys think, does this look like I have a chance?

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[GliaGirl]

So that's about two years of research experience so far. That's not bad, but it's not ideal that you haven't had much responsibility (not because of a lack of effort, so don't feel too bad). You need to sit down with your PI and have an honest conversation about this project. Will it get going before the summer? If you can spend the summer doing the project, you should be fine, but if you're waiting around doing nothing, then you're doing a disservice to yourself. Is there a grad student or postdoc in the lab that you can work under until your project gets off the ground? Not being in charge of a project isn't the end of the world, but sitting around doing nothing will only lead to a poor recommendation letter from your PI.

The application process is all about how you can spin things. You have a lot of experience going for you. Talk about what you learned from each experience. You should be fine, but don't continue to waste time. My current self-run project was definitely the big talking point in all of my interviews this season, but people also were interested in hearing about some of my previous failures as well, and what I learned from them. Don't lose hope, but don't sit passively by. Take control of your future. BE THE BEST YOU POSSIBLE!!! Ok, you get the point.

 

[JHopRevisit]

There's a huge period of time between when you apply and and when you interview. Personally, I was just coming into my own as an undergraduate researcher the spring and summer of my application, and although I had 2 years of moderate responsibility work before that (always under a graduate student), I finally achieved some degree of independence after AMCAS was submitted. As the poster above said, there's a lot of spin in application research essays, don't grossly overstate your responsibility but feel free to show off your knowledge and passion even if you didn't get to explore everything you wanted. Furthermore, it's perfectly OK (IMHO) to describe what you plan on doing for a project in which you will have more personal responsibility (make sure your plans are realistic so that you don't look silly later). By the time you get to interviews, you should have something to talk about. Beware, of course, that its much tougher to "spin" at interviews, you will have to know your stuff, and someone with limited personal responsibility on their application will have to show a command of and passion for the field that goes beyond what they actually did in lab.

In your situation, I'd be much more worried about letters of recommendation than the project itself. Will you have 2 strong research-oriented letters of recc by the time you send out secondaries in the fall? Though my experience was limited at the time, my faculty letter writers had known me for a while from classes and my previous (more limited) research, and spring/summer of my application was enough to put me over the top by the time they wrote my letters in the fall. That, to me, is the sticking point, and is worth waiting a year to develop.