Shadowing research?

[estradiol9]

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Has anyone ever shadowed research? I hear people talking about doing research so I assume they had their own projects or at least assisted with other's projects but what about if you just observed? Would you list this in your amcas application?

I am a biology major but I have taken some psychology courses and was able to observe some psychology research going on at my campus. I also have the option of being one of the subjects in the studies as well. It is pretty interesting but I'm unsure if others have done something similar and whether or not it is something I should discuss/throw into my application.

I don't have any other research experiences yet otherwise I probably would have listed it under one activity with those.

 

[smarts1]

PIs who don't make you make solutions and autoclave stuff make you observe someone else doing research. In the long run, you should be able to get a project and if the grad student (or whoever you're observing) is nice enough, you'll be able to learn a couple techniques to do some parts of the project.

 

[pfaction]

The progression of research:

1) Acceptance into lab
2) Cleaning glassware
3) Reading topics
4) Shadowing students
5) Time
6) Helping students (-> your own project)
7) A paper

 

[kami333]

I am a biology major but I have taken some psychology courses and was able to observe some psychology research going on at my campus. I also have the option of being one of the subjects in the studies as well. It is pretty interesting but I'm unsure if others have done something similar and whether or not it is something I should discuss/throw into my application.

Spin it as a clinical research experience🙂

 

[911 Turbo]

The progression of research:

1) Acceptance into lab
2) Cleaning glassware
3) Reading topics
4) Shadowing students
5) Time
6) Helping students (-> your own project)
7) A paper

Lol, or

1) Acceptance into lab
2) Cleaning glassware
3) Reading topics
4) Shadowing students
5) Breaking glassware
6) Cleaning glassware

 

[kpcrew]

It depends on the PI though, I was started on a project on my first day and I only cleaned the glassware that I used.

 

[ponyo]

The progression of research:

1) Acceptance into lab
2) Cleaning glassware
3) Reading topics
4) Shadowing students
5) Time
6) Helping students (-> your own project)
7) A paper

Look for labs that don't clean their own glassware, like mine 😛

But seriously, I can't imagine shadowing research, especially bench research, would be worth it... I feel like the vast majority of the time I'm just reading papers and waiting for my rxns to finish/sequences to come back/scintillation samples to finish counting... And my PI just sits in his office and eats a lot.

 

[Soulstice]

Why shadow something where you can participate?

 

[gettheleadout]

To be honest I don't think participating as a subject in a psychology study is all that impressive/noteworthy (unless perhaps it was a special case study about you or something) but I wouldn't put that down if it were my case. At my university there are a crazy amount of opportunities to participate in psychology research and a lot of times people just do it to make a quick buck. Our intro to psych class actually requires students to participate in 4 studies to get a participation mark.

This.

 

[estradiol9]

To be honest I don't think participating as a subject in a psychology study is all that impressive/noteworthy (unless perhaps it was a special case study about you or something) but I wouldn't put that down if it were my case. At my university there are a crazy amount of opportunities to participate in psychology research and a lot of times people just do it to make a quick buck. Our intro to psych class actually requires students to participate in 4 studies to get a participation mark.

I wish my school paid us to participate 😡