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what's the best way to ask to take a break from the lab in this situation?
- Thread starter bayer
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You want to 'take a break' from working? That's not how jobs work. Your PI has already given you a strong signal that he won't respect you if you ask for that much time off. It would be complete justification for letting you go entirely. It might be more reasonable to ask for a part-time schedule.
You need to stop thinking like a student and start thinking like an employee if you want to maintain a good relationship with your PI.
And for what it's worth, I studied for the MCAT while working full time and taking my last prereq. My PI respected teh amount of work I was doing but he needed a reliable employee, and that overuled everything else. If you're working for a successful PI, they're going to have high standards and look poorly on excessive accommodation. It's an attitude you're going to encounter a lot in medicine.
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I'm going to agree with SN12357. Jobs don't work that way, like extracurriculars or other volunteering gigs do. Maybe you can ask for part time, but I don't think you should ask to quit. If you do, you probably can kiss your potential LOR goodbye.
You're going to have to take it upon yourself to make the time to study. I was working full time in a lab while studying for my MCAT. I made it work by waking up at 6am, studying for three hours, getting to the lab at 10am, then start studying again for a few hours when I got home. It sucked, but I allowed myself a longer amount of time in months to study to make up for it and I made the time I studied as valuable as possible. Weekends were marathon study days.
Hopefully you can make your schedule work for everyone! Good luck!
You're going to have to take it upon yourself to make the time to study. I was working full time in a lab while studying for my MCAT. I made it work by waking up at 6am, studying for three hours, getting to the lab at 10am, then start studying again for a few hours when I got home. It sucked, but I allowed myself a longer amount of time in months to study to make up for it and I made the time I studied as valuable as possible. Weekends were marathon study days.
Hopefully you can make your schedule work for everyone! Good luck!
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Why don't you study less everyday and push back the MCAT?
September is the last date this year I think
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It's a little unclear to me if you've actually been hired to work in this lab or if you're voluntarily "working" in this lab. If you've actually been hired, then you can't just take a break, as others have said. However, if you're volunteering, and if there's no hope of this research progressing any further, it might make sense to jump ship while you can and study for the MCAT. In my opinion, MCAT > research in a lab that right now doesn't seem that successful. If you can't cut your hours back at all, then really utilize the weekends/evening for studying. You can also ask to leave work early on certain days, depending on what procedure you're doing or whatever.
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Last date for what?? OP isn't applying this cycle is he/she????
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Hey OP -- talk to your PI about coming up with a part-time schedule that works for you (~4 hours/day). It'll give you a break from studying each day and provide continuity to your research work, which is helpful. Also, if this would work, you can try and work odd hours (late afternoon-early evening) -- in some crowded labs, this can lead to more work getting done overall, which your PI would definitely be in favor of!
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September is the last date to take the MCAT this year. MCAT test dates don't go all year... OP probably doesn't want to study all summer, have to take a break from studying for classes during the regular semester, and then try to cram for a January test.
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Oh okay. I thought they did go year-round.
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That is very good to know...
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MCAT >>>>> research without publication. You should always prioritize GPA/MCAT over EC since schools care more about scores until you reach a certain acceptance range at first. Since you haven't taken the mcat yet, you should dedicate as much time as possible into this.
If you're volunteering or even hired, I would suggest you put in your two weeks and help train a replacement UNLESS you think he'll write you a strong letter of recommendation. If you don't want to get one from him, then you're jeopardizing your future for two months of work. Sounds like you can get a LOR from your research supervisor, but since he's leaving you might not want to if he got fired.
Your PI can handle his job without you since that's HIS job to manage the lab. You need to make sure you're giving yourself the best possible opportunity to succeed in your application, and that means a strong MCAT score, even if it means a burned bridge or two.
If you're volunteering or even hired, I would suggest you put in your two weeks and help train a replacement UNLESS you think he'll write you a strong letter of recommendation. If you don't want to get one from him, then you're jeopardizing your future for two months of work. Sounds like you can get a LOR from your research supervisor, but since he's leaving you might not want to if he got fired.
Your PI can handle his job without you since that's HIS job to manage the lab. You need to make sure you're giving yourself the best possible opportunity to succeed in your application, and that means a strong MCAT score, even if it means a burned bridge or two.
So this is my experience, but I found that working full time in a lab while studying was incredibly helpful. The MCAT is all about being confident in your decision-making and spending 40+ hours flexing those skills, whether in reagent preparation, test development, sample processing or whatever, made me that much more competent when it came to test time. It also meant that I didn't have time for much distraction, which helped with the whole clear focus thing.
But I'm a self-abasing work-a-holic which you probably don't want to be. So, you know, the whole grain of salt thing.
But I'm a self-abasing work-a-holic which you probably don't want to be. So, you know, the whole grain of salt thing.
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Yeah I've found that if I have nothing to do the entire day except study, I'll do nothing. If i have more things on my plate, i can usually schedule better. Works for some of us who are better at balancing two or more things than balancing just one, but it doesn't work for everyone.
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OP--is this the kinda job where you could spend a little time at work MCAT studying? I was working part time and taking a class when I MCAT studied and was able to sneak in some studying when things weren't too crazy at work. If not, part-time is definitely a great option and just expecting you're gonna have to spend some weekends studying.
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8 hours a day?! Thats overwhelming to me. You should consider taking a course.
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I worked full time and was a full time student while I studied for my MCAT. That's how life is, you're going to be busier than you would like and won't have time for everything you want. Get used to it and make it work. I studied between classes and in my lunch break, and of course before school and after work. If you're willing to quit your job, I guess go for it, but you don't "take a break" from a job.
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If you're only a sophomore then definitely push it back until January or the following summer. Adcoms don't care when you take it, they only care about your score.
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Talk to your PI about it - let him know about your goals and aspirations of being a doctor and that means getting into medical school. Do to that, you need to score high on the mcat and plan to take it in September. Ask him what he thinks you should do, especially if he's advised you on other things. Ask if you can work part time for two months since you want to dedicate more time to studying for something this important for your future, but also say that you still want to be part of his lab and contribute as much as you can. If he says you can take a two month hiatus and then come back, I suggest you take that since it'll give you the most time to study and do well on the MCAT.
Of course, it's not impossible to work full time and still score great on the mcat as others have said on this forum. But it is way more challenging and difficult to do so depending on your self-disciple, prioritization skills, and daily energy level. After coming back from 8 hours of work, I am usually pretty exhausted so I chose not to work during this time. Don't handicap yourself by trying to balance everything since you can't give 100% to two things at the same time. You'll get burnt out.
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You have 24 hours in a day
Eating three meals - 1 hour
Sleeping - 7 hours
Research - 12 hours
Mcat prep - 6 hours (if you count two hours from research while experiments are simmering)
What's the problem bro?
Eating three meals - 1 hour
Sleeping - 7 hours
Research - 12 hours
Mcat prep - 6 hours (if you count two hours from research while experiments are simmering)
What's the problem bro?
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Take it in April or May....
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eating three meals in 1 hour wat
maybe if you're only eating instant noodles or something
and how can you study in those little breaks
it takes time to get in the mindset of studying
That leaves no room for a retake, and I will be very busy during the semester with 5 or 6 classes and lots of EC's.
Ideally I'd be able to do it, but I'm pretty exhausted after work. It's usually about 7 pm and I need to sleep by around 10.
My PI is a doctor, recent MD graduate and he is the one who told me that it is possible to balance MCAT with research (and that he did it himself). However, my supervisor right now is under fire and so work has gotten more intense since she is trying to run 10 experiments all at once (and I have to do most of the time-consuming scutwork).
I will be taking 6 classes this fall with a few leadership positions, and I will also be spending at least 12 hours/week volunteering at various places. I'm not that confident about my ability to keep up with MCAT prep.
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You can't be serious. Only a robot could follow this kind of schedule for more than a couple weeks.
The only reasonable option here is to quit the job as mentioned above, as ultimately the MCAT is much more important. Or, push the MCAT back. Personally, I would do the latter if in your situation.
The course I'm taking will be finished in about a month with all of the content review. According to that, I should be prepared -- right? If I have a month after content review to do practice exams?
Also, any idea on how to be a robot? That would be a damn useful skill to have.
