What was your undergraduate reserach like?

[unleash500]

The graduate student I was under pretty much told me, " propose something, and ill let you know if you can do it"

After that I was pretty much on my own throughout my whole research career.(2+ years)
Planned hypothesis/ all experiments/ all reagents/ budgeted resources.
No publication but presentation at conference

Being in charge was great, but I would have loved more guidance as I think it would have improved my chances of getting published.


A friend of mine told me that his PI/grad student planned everything for him, and he was able to get a presentation/ poster/ publication.

What was your experience?

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[cfx]

The graduate student I was under pretty much told me, " propose something, and ill let you know if you can do it"

After that I was pretty much on my own throughout my whole research career.(2+ years)
Planned hypothesis/ all experiments/ all reagents/ budgeted resources.
No publication but presentation at conference

Being in charge was great, but I would have loved more guidance as I think it would have improved my chances of getting published.


A friend of mine told me that his PI/grad student planned everything for him, and he was able to get a presentation/ poster/ publication.

What was your experience?

I would have hated that. A little too much freedom for a beginner.

In all of my research experiences, I was brought in to be put on a specific project, so the general purpose and means were already known. Did some brief training, then was basically on my own: try something--->doesn't work--->collaborate with PI to come up with a new direction--->try it--->doesn't work--->repeat

I think it was a nice mix of "constrained freedom". I was able to plan my experiments and modify them, but I was lucky to have some direction and a PI and a grad student who were there to help along the way.

 

[unleash500]

yeah I was surprised I was given so much freedom. I did have some training in using a lot equipment there(prior to beginning my research project).
The graduate student told the PI i was very capable and had a lot of "promise".

 

[cheesier]

How about research where there's not much creativity involved? What if you are just following protocols that are given to you and recording the results? Do you actually have to design some aspect of your project?

 

[jm192]

Mine was alot mor gudied. Really repetitive. We didn't have an exact protocol or procedure, but

The professor walked us through the routine once, then we repeated it I don't know how many times, just altering concentration or volumes as it seemed appropriate---alot of guessing and being wrong in the beginning.

I got to spend 6 hours using an SEM one day though. It wasn't exactly playing the 360, but it was cool to get use it.

 

[cheesier]

Mine was alot mor gudied. Really repetitive. We didn't have an exact protocol or procedure, but

The professor walked us through the routine once, then we repeated it I don't know how many times, just altering concentration or volumes as it seemed appropriate---alot of guessing and being wrong in the beginning.

I got to spend 6 hours using an SEM one day though. It wasn't exactly playing the 360, but it was cool to get use it.

So this is considered legitimate research experience? You don't actually have to devise new experiments or come up with your own protocols?

 

[jm192]

So this is considered legitimate research experience? You don't actually have to devise new experiments or come up with your own protocols?

It's considered research EXPERIENCE. It might not be considered your own research, and it certainly doesn't look as good as devising your own experiments.

 

[kirtar]

While this was actually in HS, I had my topic given to me, but even the professor didn't know what the outcome would be (testing RNAi in S. moellendorffii). At first it was mostly learning the procedures that I'd need. It was fairly guided, but I was a HS student, so that's not too unexpected.

There was an undergraduate from another university working in the lab over the summer as well. It appeared that she was mostly following the graduate student's project.

I imagine that you'll see anything between "here's what you're doing" and "just run it by me"