How can you differentiate between a poor and great research lab for an undergraduate?
Working in a research lab is a great way to learn more about the field you’re interested in while also building a strong medical school application. However, premed students often prematurely accept a research position without considering some important factors. Some labs may not have environments that are best suited for undergraduates. For example, your mentor can put pressure on you to complete experiments leading to unnecessary stress or they could be completely absent from the lab leaving you to work completely on your own. Both of these cases are not ideal situations for premed students and you might want to think about switching labs.
When looking for research positions, you should consider a few factors:
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Do undergraduate students get published? Are undergraduate students authors on publications?
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Is the lab environment collaborative or more individualistic? Which one would you prefer?
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What is the h-index1 of the Principal Investigator (PI)? How many times does the PI publish per two years? Are the PI’s papers cited often? These are important questions to consider because you want to join a lab that also does meaningful research. Keep in mind that for different fields, citing and impact factor can vary. For instance, an impact factor2 of 1 is considered great in neurosurgery, but terrible in cell biology.
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Are there other undergrads in the lab as well? What are their opinions about working in this lab?
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Are you given a graduate or postdoc mentor? Graduate students and postdocs are often the ones who teach you experimental techniques and how to interpret the scientific data.
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Does the lab adequately train you on experimental techniques?
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Is the lab paying you? Most labs will not pay undergraduate students but there are a handful of labs at the Zuckerman Institute that pay undergraduate students.
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Does the PI recognize your work? This is the most important question; you should not be invisible at the lab.
H-Index and impact factor should be less significant to your choice as these things are not a very good indicator of how successful your PI is or how willing they are to accept undergrads. The most important question to consider is #8. The work that you are doing should be acknowledged by your mentor. Overall, research is a great way to improve your scientific reasoning skills and looks fantastic on medical school applications, but you may want to consider these questions before you accept a position.