Having trouble getting research experience, how much is enough?

[persimmony]

I've already graduated and I have one semester of being a research intern during undergrad under my belt. I've been looking for positions in academic research labs, but haven't had such good luck. I have been working in a lab for the past 4 years, but it isn't research, and at this point I'm thinking I should just volunteer in the dept. I want to apply to (molecular bio) for about 10hrs a week until I apply next fall. Will that be enough experience to get accepted into grad school for a PhD?

[aberrant]

I don't think there is a finite value to define whether this amount of research experience is enough or not. The fundamental question regarding research experience and graduate school application is -- how to make yourself to be more competitive.

In my opinion, it is not much about the time by itself, but rather the effectiveness and self-discipline of oneself doing research in the lab environment. Not only able to excel in research, but also being able to communicate with anyone regarding your work, and possibly think outside of the box from time to time. An applicant who has less research experience could be a competitive candidate (e.g. if one can learn things quickly and work well with others), while an applicant with years of research experience may not be competitive (e.g. if that person is hard to work with).

I know that in my other posts I mentioned that usually competitive applicants have at least 2 or even 3 years of research experience (as a full-time undergrad) when they apply for grad schools, but that were a few assumptions that I made when I said that:

- Assume that all the applicants are normal (able to work with others)

- Assume that all the applicants have good/strong LOR / recommendation letters

- Assume that all the applicants who ultimately going to the top-tier programs have similar academic standing / GRE

- Assume that all the applicants have decent/good SOP

- Assume that all the applicants progress (as scientists) similarly when they conduct research as an undergrad

Then, and only then, the length of the research experience would make a different. Obviously, research experience weight a lot more than GPA / GRE in most applications (as long as you are above the minimum requirement for consideration), but I'd like to think that the quality of ones research means a lot more than the quantity of that.

I'm not sure what kind of lab you were working for the past 4 years, nor your duties in the lab. But if it was somewhat related to molecular biology then I'm sure it won't hurt for your application. If it was completely different than what you want to study in PhD, then you may want to consider volunteer in an academic research lab for a long period of time (again, based on the above assumption). I'm not sure if 10 hours a week would help much, considered the numbers of experiments that you can do (and learn) in 10 hours. Undergrads at my alma mater probably volunteer/work at least 15 hours a week (I know this because most professors that I know of refused to take someone who can only work for 10 hours a week. 15 is a common minimum.)

[Eigen]

I think Aberrant made some excellent points.

To add, there are two main outcomes of undergraduate research that grad schools are looking for- technique and "research experience". The former is pretty straightforward- the more techniques and instruments you can comfortably use, the faster you'll be able to start being a productive member of the lab- and I'd bet your 4 years of "non-research" lab work will help a lot with this. All of the book preparation in the world isn't that useful if it takes 6 mos before you can accurately and consistently pipette samples.

The latter is more ephemeral, but has a lot to do with the self-directedness of your research. Can you be given a problem, and then go do the background work and come up with a workable solution. A lot of it is just problem solving skills, combined with an understanding of the normal work-flow of research in your discipline.