Research abroad vs. the States

[Cognition]

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Is doing research in another country looked down upon? a waste of time? etc.?

I have an opportunity to work at Trinity College in Ireland doing fMRI research. I really want to do this because it would be a great life experience and it would be doing research on what I want, but I'm affraid that MSTPs will not consider this research as valuable or legitimate as research in the U.S. Would I just be better off staying in the U.S. and working in some other (and more accepted) lab?

 

[Newquagmire]

Originally posted by Cognition
Is doing research in another country looked down upon? a waste of time? etc.?

I have an opportunity to work at Trinity College in Ireland doing fMRI research. I really want to do this because it would be a great life experience and it would be doing research on what I want, but I'm affraid that MSTPs will not consider this research as valuable or legitimate as research in the U.S. Would I just be better off staying in the U.S. and working in some other (and more accepted) lab?

No. Trinity is one of the best genetics centers outside the US. Dunno about Ireland though, the winters there suck.

 

[PhysicsDoc]

MSTP's care far more about WHAT you do and how well you understand what's been discovered than WHERE you do it. As long as you don't spend too much time enjoying the... amenities... of Irish culture, doing research abroad certainly won't be looked down upon versus research in the states.

 

[astrisize]

I spent the last year studying abroad in Switzerland. While I was there I spent an enormous amount of time in a lab doing developmental biology research. If anything, this work was looked favorably upon but most often, they just wanted to know what I had done, learned, understood, and discovered. I say, by all means, go!

 

[coldchemist]

Originally posted by frick
As long as you don't spend too much time enjoying the... amenities... of Irish culture

Well stated.