Pivotal Research Experience?

[Queen of Kale]

Many of you are still waiting for word from programs and I would wager that many more like me are following your wins with our fingers crossed, imagining ourselves in your shoes in the next year or two. For those that come behind you, I was wondering if you might weigh in on what research (or non research experience even) was pivotal towards putting you on your path today. The earth sciences can be dauntingly broad and graduate programs inherently focused - so how did you decide which corner of the geosciences to call your own?

I'll start by saying undergraduate research at my school is extremely limited but that participating in an REU completely changed my life.

I know there are a myriad of other programs, including the Naval Research Lab's NREIP, NASA's Develop, and the Department of Energy's SULI program. Were any of the programs fundemental to your specialization and if not, what was?

A little longwinded but I wanted to be clear I wasn't looking to stay another "list all the internships that exist" thread.

[NoNO]

I had two. The first was working with my advisor at my ugrad on icy satellite tectonics . The second was an internship at LDEO in physical oceanography and volcanology. Since I liked both... I realized i needed to do both fluid mechanics and solid rock physics.... just finding programs was a little difficult.

[sansao]

The NASA Space Grant internship was really important to me. It took me into a research setting in my second year at the university, and helped me to understand how focused geoscience research can really be. Also, I took two semesters of undergrad research (for credit) in biogeochemistry. This was really pivotal, because it taught me how to be a good researcher, what to expect and not to expect, and what to do when things go horribly wrong (as they invariably will at some point).