I am a sophomore in college planning to start working in one of my professor's labs this semester if all goes well. She talked a bit about taking a leave for a while last year, but nothing was set in stone. If this happens, what would be the best thing for me to do? I'm also planning to not take a gap year after undergrad so I won't even be able to compile a lot of hours and experience if she decides to leave next semester or my junior year. Is there anything I can do? I was thinking about starting at another professor's lab but it would just be unfair to my current professor whom I've talked to a lot about starting in her lab and other labs would most likely be full of students already or wouldn't even interest me much. I'm just trying to plan ahead if she does take a leave of absence so I can consider my options.
What if my PI takes leave of absence for a semester or 2?
- Thread starter doxlol
- Start date
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2018
- Messages
- 862
- Reaction score
- 1,823
I think your options are either a) find another professor to work under. Your current one will understand since she's going to be leaving for awhile. Or b) you find some sort of independent project you can work on in her absence with minimal guidance from a PhD student or another PI (ex. when I was in undergrad I had a friend in a social psych lab, her PI was out for extended maternity leave so since she couldn't conduct experiments, she did a study examining newspaper articles in the context of social psychology).
Be an advocate for yourself. No professional is going to get their feelings hurt if you decide to do what's in your own best interest.
Be an advocate for yourself. No professional is going to get their feelings hurt if you decide to do what's in your own best interest.
Similar threads
