Importance of relevant research experience as an undergrad?

[psych-maybe]

I'm currently assisting with a cogsci project, but am guessing that I am more interested in social psychology (though I'm not absolutely 100% sure yet, as I have yet to take a cogsci class). I was wondering how important it is that your undergraduate research is relevant to the work of professors whose labs you're applying to work in. I'm hoping to take no more than three years off to work as a RA before applying, and I'll hazard a guess that the experience I have as a college-graduated RA will be more important, but I was also curious about how grad schools consider your undergraduate work.

[HyacinthMacaw]

I'm currently assisting with a cogsci project, but am guessing that I am more interested in social psychology (though I'm not absolutely 100% sure yet, as I have yet to take a cogsci class). I was wondering how important it is that your undergraduate research is relevant to the work of professors whose labs you're applying to work in. I'm hoping to take no more than three years off to work as a RA before applying, and I'll hazard a guess that the experience I have as a college-graduated RA will be more important, but I was also curious about how grad schools consider your undergraduate work.

Hi! I would venture to guess that while any research beats no research at all, research that has little to no bearing on your POI's interests will garner you less respect than research experience within at least his or her subject area (e.g., intergroup relations, emotion, etc.). I worked for years as an undergrad in a clinical science lab before switching to social psychology as a master's student in two different programs. I was worried that I lacked a coherent narrative given the abrupt switch. Still, my most recent research experience informed my research interests as I expressed them in my statement. It was my most recent work, not my clinical science work, that suggested my degree of fit in social psychology programs.

Hope that helps. All the best!

[jynx]

Although it's ideal to have research experience that's relevant to your interests, I don't think it necessarily needs to be. I got into a clinical psych program with my only research experience being three quarters in a developmental psych lab that was not applicable to my interests at all (although I had good relevant clinical experience, and there are no clinical researchers at my school). So, try to get relevant experience if you can, and if you can't, make the most of what you can get and try to come up with ways to connect it to what you're interested in (if possible). Research skills apply across a variety of different settings, so any research in psychology is going to be helpful.

[Arcadian]

Any research experience (within psychology) will suffice. I have no experience in the particular area I'm going into, but the program basically said "that's fine, we'll train you." (Well, sort of - my undergrad research is in memory, but not memory neuroscience.) If you've demonstrated that you understand the methods of scientific psychology, then it shouldn't matter what particular topic you worked on as an undergrad.

Edited March 27, 2011 by Arcadian

[HyacinthMacaw]

Any research experience (within psychology) will suffice. I have no experience in the particular area I'm going into, but the program basically said "that's fine, we'll train you." (Well, sort of - my undergrad research is in memory, but not memory neuroscience.) If you've demonstrated that you understand the methods of scientific psychology, then it shouldn't matter what particular topic you worked on as an undergrad.

This (and jynx's comment above) makes a lot more sense than what I wrote. My apologies for the misguided misguidance.

[psychapplicant2011]

I would just like to reiterate what everyone else has already said:

1. Getting research experience of some kind is of the utmost importance.

2. Getting research experience that is broadly relative to your area is nice, but not nearly as important as simply making sure you have research experience.

Here is advice I was given by the chair of a social psychology program at an Ivy:

"Make sure you get at least some experience in a psychology research lab before applying out. It doesn't matter if you are working with rats in mazes."

There are some caveats to this advice:

1. The exact sorts of research experience your program, POI is looking for can vary from program to program and from POI to POI.

2 . The rats-in-a-maze advice was given to me with knowledge that I worked on a couple of independent projects that were broadly relevant to the work I wanted to do as a psychologist.

Some other related, relevant questions worth asking may be:

1. How much research is preferred? (Is one semester generally enough? Two years? etc.?)

2. What kinds of evidence of research quality is preferred? (Is a year in a lab with very positive letters from the POI enough? Conference presentations? Independent Projects?)

My rough sense to these questions is that the answer to 1 may depend on the answer to 2 (and visa-versa). My rough answer to this question will be based on my own experience: I think an independent research project can speak volumes to your ability to do work at the graduate level, but regardless, most admissions committees would like to see a year experience working with a group in a lab. (I had 2 independent empirical projects outside of psychology and only 1 semester working in a psychology lab.) Having at least one conference presentation at a well-regarded regional or national conference is nice, as it shows an ability to engage with the field beyond your lab/department/university (and to some degree acceptance of your work).

So,

1. Try to have one year lab experience under your belt at application time.

2. Try to have completed or be working on a substantial independent project (or perhaps a project in which you are the lead within the lab).

Ideas: Honor's thesis. Grant-funded summer research project for undergrads (most unis have these and they are awesome!)

3. Try to have at least one conference presentation under your belt at a well-regarded regional or national conference.

These are all things to shoot for. If you don't achieve all of them, don't think your life is over. People do get in to grad schools (sometimes good grad schools) without meeting these "minimum" suggestions. It is just that it may be a bit more difficult ...

Edited March 27, 2011 by psychapplicant2011