summer undergraduate research fellowship research questions

[DoctorB]

So I was accepted into a summer undergrad research fellowship this summer and leave for it in a few days. As a typical pre-med student I need to know everything that I can before I get there because us pre-meds are anal about a lot of **** (no pun intended). So here are some of my questions...

-What should I wear to the orientation: Dress clothes... nice casual clothes??
-What should I wear in the lab: I know it is probably different for each lab but what do you suggest for the first day?
-Are these programs just work work work or are they actually fun?

If you have participated in any of these programs I would appreciate any advice or some stories about your experience.

Thanks in advance!

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[zimmie256]

So I was accepted into a summer undergrad research fellowship this summer and leave for it in a few days. As a typical pre-med student I need to know everything that I can before I get there because us pre-meds are anal about a lot of **** (no pun intended). So here are some of my questions...

-What should I wear to the orientation: Dress clothes... nice casual clothes??
-What should I wear in the lab: I know it is probably different for each lab but what do you suggest for the first day?
-Are these programs just work work work or are they actually fun?

If you have participated in any of these programs I would appreciate any advice or some stories about your experience.

Thanks in advance!

I haven't done one of those programs, but I done research in a lot of labs. As for clothes to wear to the orientation, I would think nice casual clothes would be fine but look at the correspondence you've had with people there. Might give you some more clues.

As for what to wear to the lab, safety and comfort really are the biggest things. A lot of labs require you to wear long pants and no open-toed shoes, so I'd recommend that at least for the first day. If you have long hair make sure it's pulled back.

As for whether or not it'll be fun, probably depends a lot on the type of people you're working with. But lab work inherently has some down time, no matter how much you multi-task, so you'll probably have some time to relax and hang out with people.

Good luck and have fun with your summer!

 

[karirunner]

Lab-definitely jeans and closed toe shoes. No shirts you'd cry about spilling chemicals on. (Where I work you can tell the difference between the med students and grad students- med students wear cute clothes and sandals
while the grad students wear comfy tee-shirts and tennis shoes.)

Most programs are a mix of fun and research- the one my husband did had scheduled outings to ballgames, barbeques, parties etc. They housed all the SURF students in his program in a dorm on their "wet" (alcohol allowed) campus and he really enjoyed meeting other slightly nerdy people. However, I did one where housing wasn't provided so pretty much the only people you got to know were those staying in the university suggested apts.

 

[riff raff]

So I was accepted into a summer undergrad research fellowship this summer and leave for it in a few days. As a typical pre-med student I need to know everything that I can before I get there because us pre-meds are anal about a lot of **** (no pun intended). So here are some of my questions...

-What should I wear to the orientation: Dress clothes... nice casual clothes??
-What should I wear in the lab: I know it is probably different for each lab but what do you suggest for the first day?
-Are these programs just work work work or are they actually fun?

If you have participated in any of these programs I would appreciate any advice or some stories about your experience.

Thanks in advance!

you're not coming to michigan state are you? We're getting some peeps in a couple of days from other schools to participate in research, and we're basically going to make them do our bitch work (Not really, but, it's fun to say so)

 

[pokeytu]

I am a student at a school with a REU and BBSI program and we usually have students in the summers. The programs usually have activities on the weekends that are fun, but as far as time in the lab it will completely depend on your advisor and other people in the lab. As for what to wear, the best investment I made was a large pair of scrubs. Its to hot down here to wear jeans all summer so you keep a pair of scrubs in the lab and just put them on when you get to school. other than that you can be casual all the time.

 

[Thundrstorm]

I did a summer research program a couple of years ago. I tried to look semi-nice for the orientation (I think I wore black pants instead of jeans), but there was a range from full suit (overdressed) to wrinkled, stained t-shirt (underdressed). Just look presentable; business casual is always safe.

As for what you wear to lab on a day-to-day basis, don't stress about it. Lab culture is very casual. Most of my research over the past 4 years has been done while wearing jeans. I only make an effort if I feel like it, or if I'm presenting. If it's a lab where you're not using dangerous chemicals, even shorts and sandals are fine, but I would hold off with that at first and observe the other people around you (or just ask your PI).

As for fun, that will depend entirely on you. The summer I did a research program was tons of fun for me. I love research, I was working on a dream project (malaria), and I loved the city I was in (Boston) and made good use of my free time. Other people in my program hated research and complained about the city, so they spent 3 hours/day doing the bare minimum in lab, and then sat in their rooms whining. Alot of it will depend on who is in your lab and who the other interns are. My philosophy is that you'll generally have fun if you want to.