Undergrad Research vs. Self-Study

[legoac]

I am looking to apply to MS programs for Fall 2013 (Computer Science) and likely continue on to do a PhD. Thus far, I have no real research experience. I am debating whether to contact one of the professors at my local institution and ask about research opportunities, however neither of them is quite in my area of interest. The alternative would be to self-study in my particular area of interest- reading papers and so on- and then being able to write a knock-out SOP describing my research interests. Researching under a professor would give me some solid experience, but by application time I would only have a couple months under my belt, which I am not sure would really be enough to significantly boost my application.

What should I do?

[R Deckard]

Do research. Start now.

[MaxiJaz]

Research will also allow you to get to know a supervisor, who would be invaluable for all the reference letters you'll have to send. My undergrad research thesis wasn't in an area of my eventual master's interests, but gave me a new perspective in a different field, helped me build contacts and got me to do my own thesis, which made me believe I was cut out for a masters.

[TakeruK]

I have found that what I thought was my "area of interest" didn't really line up with what I found to be "interesting research" to actually do, especially before I had any research experience. In addition to what the others said above (especially for reference letters), any research experience is a good experience. There are some fundamental skills that you just cannot develop in the classroom, and this will be very valuable, even if only for a few months, on your application. For example, communicating with other scientists, getting used to/exposure to the world of research and so on.

An example from my field: in the classroom, all problems are neatly defined with a definite solution. We figure out the right relationship, use Calculus and Algebra and presto, we get a nice answer we can draw a box around. However, in research, the problems are much more hazy. Things are very undefined, especially with raw data (which corrections/filters to apply? should we average or take the median? etc.) and it's usually impossible to solve/calculate things with a pen and paper -- you have to write a computer program to do the work. Sometimes the general method to do something will fail for either scientific (the method makes an assumption you cannot use) or logistical (there are missing data points that are essential) reasons and as a researcher, you have to come up with a solution. Maybe you can only get an approximate answer now, or maybe you can only provide an upper or lower bound on the answer. The ability to "improvise" and apply the classroom knowledge to real research situations is very important.

I don't know what your field is, but I hope my example shows the difference in the kind of skills and abilities developed in classwork vs. research work. Especially when you are a starting researcher, these research skills are far more valuable to develop than actual understanding/progress in the field. So, even out-of-field research experience will help you!

Finally, I found that there are some topics I enjoy learning about and thought I was interested in until I started some research work in that area. So, remember that as students, we are still very new to our fields and there is no reason to limit ourselves from trying things we didn't consider before (to an extent). That is, even though I was an Astronomy major as an undergrad, interested in Solar System stuff, when I looked for research experience, I went for anything related to "Physics" -- from cosmology groups to medical physics to my actual field of planetary science!

[radiowires]

Do both if you can. Research experience is obviously important, but so is knowing how to teach yourself.

[TheFez]

I think there's another opportunity.

Tell one of the professors what you are interested in and see if they will serve as a formal mentor to you.

I found that many professors are very supportive when a motivated undergraduate wants to do research. If you approach them with a good research question that's reasonably well thought out you may find they are happy to let you work on it. Not every square peg always needs to find a square hole.