Quitting Lab Help!

[Dudette123]

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Hey!

I've been working a lab for 3 months (since beginning of the semester) and I absolutely love it! The people are fantastic, the work is great and I get to do really interesting stuff even though I'm just some random undergrad who didn't know anything before. Since the past few weeks, I feel like I'm somewhat helpful since the training part is over and I'm basically able to follow the protocol and I also have a in-depth understanding of the research topics since my supervisor spent countless hours explaining me. The problem is that I simply do not have time anymore. I start classes at 9am, I study during lunch break, I have one more class, then I go to the lab get back around 7-8pm, I have dinner then study again until 12pm and this barely enough to keep me at 3.5 since I can only squeeze in 4-5 hours of study and I have a lot of classes (6 classes, more than 20 credits). I do about one all-righter every other week and I'm completely late on my readings. I I feel like if I dropped the lab, I would be able to gain about 3-4 hours a day which is pretty substantial. This is without considering the reading and studying associated with the lab work.
Also, I realize that I may not completely want to be pre-med. I decided this summer that I'd like to go to med school instead of grad school in my major as I had planned (not hard science) and now I think I may have changed my mind back and I just want to stick with my major. I feel like it would be jerky to leave the lab now that they just finished training me, but on the other hand, I'm just tired and I'd like to do better in my classes and just get a little break. What should I do? Would it be any better if I waited until the end of the semester? What should I say?

Thank you so much!

 

[Juxxtaposition]

I think it is important for you to remember that GPA is far more important for Medical Schools than research (although research is nice). So doing all you can to maximize your gpa would be more beneficial. Could it be possible to maybe take less credits next semester/year so that you can pick up your research in a bit. Do you think your PI would be cool with that?

 

[Dudette123]

If I were to go the pre-med road, I could probably not take less credits since I have to take all the pre-requisites and I haven't even started yet besides for English and some calc. But I guess the true reason I want to quit is that I probably don't want to go to med school anymore, hence, no reason for me to be in the lab besides that I like it a lot and liking it a lot probably does not justify a 3 hours daily commitment 4 days/a week.

 

[Ismet]

If you are planning to go to grad school and your lab work has nothing to do with your major or what you want to go to grad school for, I'd say that you would be better off dropping that lab. It sounds like you're spreading yourself way too thin.

 

[Dudette123]

Maybe cutting the hours is the way to go until I just quit at the end of the semester. My main concern in that "probably". I am a bit of a mind switcher. I may decide in 2 months that I want to go to med school/biology grad school or whatever that is related to lab work. It also very strongly looks like if I were to stay until the end of the Spring semester 2012 I could be a co-author of the paper they are putting together and even present my own lab meeting. They are really spoiling me and being very nice and if feels like a once in a lifetime opportunity, but then of course time is precious and I don't want to waste mine.

 

[Porfirio]

Maybe cutting the hours is the way to go until I just quit at the end of the semester. My main concern in that "probably". I am a bit of a mind switcher. I may decide in 2 months that I want to go to med school/biology grad school or whatever that is related to lab work. It also very strongly looks like if I were to stay until the end of the Spring semester 2012 I could be a co-author of the paper they are putting together and even present my own lab meeting. They are really spoiling me and being very nice and if feels like a once in a lifetime opportunity, but then of course time is precious and I don't want to waste mine.

Why are you taking so many classes? Next semester can you ligthen the load? How many more years in school do you have left?

For my situation, I had the MCAT score, the GPA, and the volunteer hours, but what really got me accepted to medical school was my research (first author paper, presentations, posters, letters of rec, and lab skills). I would not burn this bridge. I would stick it out and suck it up.

Adcoms really like to hear how you can manage your time.

 

[Barcu]

Is your lab work related to your major? If you aren't sure on med school and may just stick to your major, drop the lab today. If labwork is just to look good for med schools, it's always a mistake.

Also, take fewer classes. Some of you guys are crazy.

 

[ncrassa]

How many hours a week do you spend in lab currently, and were you to cut down these hours, would you get enough time to do anything substantial? A lot of people swing through laboratories wanting to work "a few hours" (say five or so) a week, and honestly, there is precious little you could get done in those hours. It really depends on the nature of the work in your lab though.

I think juxtaposition gave the best advice. You are taking WAY too many classes this term. Talk to your PI and ask if he/she would be OK if you took a break to just focus on your studies this term and then return next term to the lab when you'd presumably have fewer classes and more time and energy to invest in research. People have done that in my lab and my PI was entirely understanding. In the meantime, you should try to continue attending lab meetings to keep abreast of the work in the lab and keep in touch with the people.

 

[tiedyeddog]

Why did you take a ridiculous course load and decide to work in a lab? The PI probably took you in, and spent all that time with you, assuming you'd be there for a year or more.

Maybe you should have stated to the PI before you joined the lab that "Oh, I change my mind a lot, I can't stick through projects because I am indecisive" (mind-switching? That's just indecisive.)

Take less classes.

 

[RookTookIt]

I wouldn't quit. I would just have an honest talk with the PI about reducing the amount that you work for the rest of the semester. The semester is only one more month and then maybe you can plan your schedule a little better next semester. Not only is it "jerky" to leave now, but it sounds like this is an awesome lab to work in and will probably turn out to be a great experience and LOR.

 

[Coffee Machine]

I wouldn't quit. I would just have an honest talk with the PI about reducing the amount that you work for the rest of the semester. The semester is only one more month and then maybe you can plan your schedule a little better next semester. Not only is it "jerky" to leave now, but it sounds like this is an awesome lab to work in and will probably turn out to be a great experience and LOR.

Agreed. Most PIs (the good ones anyway) understand that your coursework has to be your priority. Just let him know that you're swamped at the moment and need some time off but will return later (whenever that may be). I work in a large, highly-funded lab but my PI has told me on numerous occasions not to sacrifice my grades for lab work.

 

[Danlee07]

This is probably your best chance to realize your time management potential. Just plan experiments and review them to efficiently knock them out. Know what time to set it up and leave. There really is no specific technique that requires you to constantly do things for several hours at a time.

Just accomplish what you plan out to do and let that be known to your supervisor. The worst is to just either not show up or plan to do experiments that you don't finish.

 

[Dudette123]

Cool thanks guys. I usually finish whatever procedure I'm doing, except when there is a 8h+ incubation time and I'm in class when it's time to go through the next step of the protocol. Wow I would never ever just not show up. I guess I'll just stick with it and try to manage my time better, maybe get more work done on weekends or early before class. What are the possible advantages of having done research and being published outside of med school/biology PhD admissions?

 

[deleted393595]

This is probably your best chance to realize your time management potential. Just plan experiments and review them to efficiently knock them out. Know what time to set it up and leave. There really is no specific technique that requires you to constantly do things for several hours at a time.

This.

Can you work on your homework while waiting for your experiments to run?

 

[Dudette123]

Yeah that sounds good too. I guess what I thought I was supposed to do while waiting was to read scientific papers/ask questions around/prepare solutions/observe others to learn more techniques. Sounds like I should chill about it a little. Maybe do less hours and review some notes while I'm waiting.
Thanks

 

[Danlee07]

Yeah that sounds good too. I guess what I thought I was supposed to do while waiting was to read scientific papers/ask questions around/prepare solutions/observe others to learn more techniques. Sounds like I should chill about it a little. Maybe do less hours and review some notes while I'm waiting.
Thanks

An undergraduate student is one with not nearly enough knowledge to know what papers to look for to read that are pertinent to the topic. A better use of your time would be to fully understand why/what you're doing. For example, say you ran a digest and PCR. Think of why you're using a certain PCR temperature/time cycle instead of a different one and what result you should expect.

The time issue is not necessarily neither chilling or working harder. The issue is learning to focus and use the best of what time you can maximize to complete a certain task. If you have time leftover, then I would say pick up a review journal related to your project to see what's going on; as of now, you seem swamped to be doing this.

side note: Normally, there's a minimum wage lab rat to do the dish washing & solution making... it really shouldn't be your responsibility to do that unless you were hired with that objective and research is just a plus.

 

[deleted393595]

Yeah that sounds good too. I guess what I thought I was supposed to do while waiting was to read scientific papers/ask questions around/prepare solutions/observe others to learn more techniques. Sounds like I should chill about it a little. Maybe do less hours and review some notes while I'm waiting.
Thanks

Yes. Split your time up wisely. For example, it takes me somewhere between 5-7 hours to run an experiment. The first few of those hours are set-up time where I'm actively working on it. For the remainder I get to kick back, relax and monitor it as it runs. I typically use the first half of this time to knock out any homework or reading I may have and then use the remainder to read review papers.

An undergraduate student is one with not nearly enough knowledge to know what papers to look for to read that are pertinent to the topic. A better use of your time would be to fully understand why/what you're doing. For example, say you ran a digest and PCR. Think of why you're using a certain PCR temperature/time cycle instead of a different one and what result you should expect.

I disagree. While an undergrad may not have the relevant experience necessary to jump into reading papers, he or she can instead read review papers on the topic to get a better idea, but idk how effective this may be for different fields. It works for what I'm doing, but I don't know how effective it may be for things outside of biology.

But I do agree with you that new undergrads should focus on techniques first before learning the background material. Otherwise, you'll end up going nowhere.

The time issue is not necessarily neither chilling or working harder. The issue is learning to focus and use the best of what time you can maximize to complete a certain task. If you have time leftover, then I would say pick up a review journal related to your project to see what's going on; as of now, you seem swamped to be doing this.

Agreed. Focus on schoolwork, then techniques and then review papers.

side note: Normally, there's a minimum wage lab rat to do the dish washing & solution making... it really shouldn't be your responsibility to do that unless you were hired with that objective and research is just a plus.

I wish our lab had a minimum wage lab rat to clean up after us 🙁

 

[lucitrea]

if i were you, id talk it over and try to get less hours per week. maybe they can take more students onboard, im sure the students will love to pad their CVs. id still do labwork until i was 100% sure i never want to go to med school ever again, even if it was just 5 or so hours a week. cause if you leave and decide you want to do med school, that research will be valuable but theyll have you replaced already (and no one likes to take back a quitter).

take some time off for finals