Switching up undergrad laboratories

Started by yjkimnada
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yjkimnada

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As a freshman undergrad I've been working in a leukemia lab at memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer center for almost four years now. Even this summer I will be working there. I absolutely love the field and have been very fortunate publication wise. However, I was told that we need two research recommendation letters. For most people this is not hard because they usually try one lab freshman or sophomore year then pursue a different lab in the following years. Should I force myself to switch up labs or is changing a lab just to fulfill a letter requirement unwise? And if the latter, how would I go about finding another research recommendation letter? Thanks!


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As a freshman undergrad I've been working in a leukemia lab at memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer center for almost four years now. Even this summer I will be working there. I absolutely love the field and have been very fortunate publication wise. However, I was told that we need two research recommendation letters. For most people this is not hard because they usually try one lab freshman or sophomore year then pursue a different lab in the following years. Should I force myself to switch up labs or is changing a lab just to fulfill a letter requirement unwise? And if the latter, how would I go about finding another research recommendation letter? Thanks!


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i stayed in the same lab. My project was a collaboration with another lab, so my two letters were from my pi and the collaborator.
 
Who requires two research letters?
I can think of Pitt and UCSD off the top of my head. I'm sure there are others, but most of the schools I applied to only required one (or one from each PI that you worked with if you worked in more than one lab).