What can I Expect from Lab Work?

[AttemptingScholar]

I just got a position at a lab at my school. It's developmental biology, and I'm really excited about it. I spent a lot of time working to make sure I understood the lab and it's goals (the process to get accepted took me about three months) so I'm not just running gels with no understanding of what's going on. Now that I have this position, what are my goals going forward?

How are UG students getting pubs, especially first author pubs? What is the path to leading my own project? Is that even a reasonable goal at this level? Would I only start looking for funding once I'm working on my own project?

I like the subject and the people, so I intend to make a large time commitment to this lab. I don't want to work for a year and only have the number of hours on my application when other posters suggest I could get more.

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[Spectar]

These are all good questions for the faculty that actually work at the lab.

It really mostly depends on how your lab works. I worked in a clinical lab where we worked mostly together on projects with parallel individual projects that may or may not pan out. Yours could be different, but some advice; I wouldn't worry be too stressed about getting pubs etc. just yet. Work for a bit and bring these questions up to your PI.

The whole point of research is so you get a better understanding of the scientific process and gain different perspectives on understanding the world and phenomena. Publishing, although definitely looks good on apps, shouldn't be a end goal or the main reason behind research. Adcoms like seeing research regardless so you wouldn't be wasting time even if you didn't end up getting any pubs. I didn't get any true publications and I'm doing just fine this cycle (although I do have a few abstracts at a few conferences).

 

[Goro]

I just got a position at a lab at my school. It's developmental biology, and I'm really excited about it. I spent a lot of time working to make sure I understood the lab and it's goals (the process to get accepted took me about three months) so I'm not just running gels with no understanding of what's going on. Now that I have this position, what are my goals going forward?

How are UG students getting pubs, especially first author pubs? What is the path to leading my own project? Is that even a reasonable goal at this level? Would I only start looking for funding once I'm working on my own project?

I like the subject and the people, so I intend to make a large time commitment to this lab. I don't want to work for a year and only have the number of hours on my application when other posters suggest I could get more.

Your goal is to make a contribution to human knowledge, and if you can do this while having independent field command (ie, work without hand holding), then in my book, you would deserve your name on a paper if you get something publishable done.

If I have to treat you like a technician, then you get a nice acknowledgement.