What should I do about research position conflicting with classes

[purplecricket]

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Hi everyone!

So right now I'm trying to boost my GPA, so I've been taking a couple summer classes. Unfortunately because of that my availability to the lab I'm currently *sort of* working with has been limited to one day a week and weekends.

I say sort of because I've held a kind of "trainee" status since March. What I would do is come in and get trained on different lab equipment and protocols that are being used in the project. I would do this when they contacted me that there was time. I haven't yet played a serious part in the actual "research" part of the project.

I have met with my group leader, who is a grad student the PI has appointed, once this entire summer so far. I haven't received any info. about dates or times for trainings or anything. I'm wondering if my reduced availability has caused me to be left out of the activities going on in the lab.

Since I have summer classes 5 days a week, would be a good idea to contact them to see if there was any way I could rejoin the lab when my class ends? Since it seems like a burden on them to accommodate my summer schedule. I'm worried though that I'd lose whatever place I have in this lab. And who should I contact, the PI or the group leader? What would you do in this situation?

 

[NickNaylor]

Everyone has their own philosophy about things, but for me classes come before any other EC-type activities (including research). Say you're too busy with summer classes and you'll be more involved in the fall. Hopefully they'll understand; maybe they won't.

 

[purplecricket]

thanks, I'm thinking this is what I'm going to have to do since they haven't even told me what they want yet this summer and it's been a month. 😕

 

[Ischemic]

You can get into medical school without doing research or at least being minimally involved in it. You can't, however, get into medical school without a good GPA. I think you can figure out my stance on the issue.

 

[texasholdems]

many people have this type of conflict, whether it is their volunteering they want to keep up, or research if they want to end up publishing something.

you have the choice of making the decision
but the right move is to prioritize your situation. If you need to boost GPA, and that seems more important than your research, you should focus on classes.

after all, it is the GPA that matters more than research EC.