Research Opportunity with large courseload?

[deleted244469]

Hey everyone, I need some advice. I have been offered a nice research position in our psychology department. I would like to accept, but I have been second guessing myself as I currently have 20 credit hours. I switched majors (this is my "junior" year), so this semester, a decent amount of the classes are intro classes. I have talked to the professor about the commitment and he informed me that he will need me approx. 6 hrs./week. I think it is doable, but I don't want to stress myself out. That being said, this is also a huge opportunity and something to put on my list of EC's (I also find it extremely interesting), and I don't want to miss out.

Thanks!

Class list:
Intro to computers (3 credit hours)
(3) Major Classes (Child Development)=9 credit hours
Pre-Calc (5 credit hours)
Elementary Statistics (3 credit hours)

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[Frazier]

Hey everyone, I need some advice. I have been offered a nice research position in our psychology department. I would like to accept, but I have been second guessing myself as I currently have 20 credit hours. I switched majors (this is my "junior" year), so this semester, a decent amount of the classes are intro classes. I have talked to the professor about the commitment and he informed me that he will need me approx. 6 hrs./week. I think it is doable, but I don't want to stress myself out. That being said, this is also a huge opportunity and something to put on my list of EC's (I also find it extremely interesting), and I don't want to miss out.

Thanks!

Class list:
Intro to computers (3 credit hours)
(3) Major Classes (Child Development)=9 credit hours
Pre-Calc (5 credit hours)
Elementary Statistics (3 credit hours)

No one can answer this for you definitively. Simple way to [try] to answer is: "if you can keep the GPA high, jump in the research. If you can't keep it high, skip the research." ...Didn't help much, eh?

With that being said, what is so "huge" about this opportunity? Are you getting paid, working for a prestigious PI, or?

 

[deleted244469]

No one can answer this for you definitively. Simple way to [try] to answer is: "if you can keep the GPA high, jump in the research. If you can't keep it high, skip the research." ...Didn't help much, eh?

With that being said, what is so "huge" about this opportunity? Are you getting paid, working for a prestigious PI, or?

Thanks. I believe I can do it, but it just makes me second guess myself for some reason. As for this being a "huge" opportunity, I feel like it is for me. I've never been offered something like this before. Also, isn't having research a huge part of your application? I'm afraid something like this may not come around again.

 

[Frazier]

Thanks. I believe I can do it, but it just makes me second guess myself for some reason. As for this being a "huge" opportunity, I feel like it is for me. I've never been offered something like this before. Also, isn't having research a huge part of your application? I'm afraid something like this may not come around again.

Research positions are not hard to obtain from my experience [as long as you have an open mind to different interests and are willing to do the work for the sake of doing the work (i.e. for free)].

Out of 4 cold calls, I obtained 2 positions. I worked for free, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing... I got ~4 pubs and ~3 presentations from those cold calls.

EDIT::: To answer your trailing question, the importance of research is dependent upon the school in consideration.