Getting involved with research?

[jmk]

-Should I contact professors now, before summer, or wait until Fall semester starts?

-What are your experiences with getting involved (or purposely choosing other things to do) with research?

-what was the time commitment for you?

-what was expected from you?

-why did you choose to get involved?

Feel free to answer any of the above or just give your own input!

My CD advisor recommended that I contact a few professors whose research interested me, but I am a bit at a loss of what foundational skills I need to be successful (programming/coding? Strong science backround? Upper division statistics courses?)

[lisa19]

Research is a great way to learn outside of the classroom, meet other students, and build a relationship with a professor. My own time commitment was maybe 1-2 hours a week but it was unpaid and not for credit so it was basically when I wanted. This can vary per research lab. I originally got involved to boost my resume for grad school, but I stuck around because I really did enjoy what I was doing and I saw the benefit of building relationships throughout my department.

 

My advice to contacting professors is to say you're interested in their research and would like to visit a lab meeting to see what goes on. Contact them whenever you're interested in getting started. This way you can learn more and find what you like without making any commitments. I don't think you need any specific foundational skills to be successful, but again this will be dependent on the lab. But if you haven't taken stats yet, they probably won't expect you to do any statistical analysis.

[SLPosteriorCricoarytenoid]

I did quite a bit of research in undergraduate, as I was a psychology major. Most of the research I did was behavioral pharm type stuff, but it was still very beneficial and relevant. I would definitely contact professors that you're interested in working with now. At least at my school, professors lined up research assistants for the fall semester during the spring semester. This was mainly done because RAs got credit for participating in research, so they would sign up for it when they registered for classes. 

 

Also, you may have to check with your school on whether they have any prerequisites for doing research. My school required that either a stats or research methods course be taken before students could do research. You will want to have that anyway, as it really helps you understand experimental design, data analysis, and all that good stuff that goes into research. If you want to be able to present the research at any conferences or research days, you will need to know data analysis so you can make a research poster. My school also required that students be junior or senior level standing as well.

 

I did 3 credits worth of research each semester during my junior and senior years. This amounts to about ~9 hours of work doing research a week. However, I do not feel like I put in anywhere near that amount of work. Depending on the week, sometimes I would just run three participants for the study (1 hour each) and meet with my advisor and that would be about it. Professors will also encourage students to analyze the data to make a research poster (again, where stats/research methodology is needed) so they can present the research at conventions or research presentations days.  I did this and it was a great resume builder. 

 

What was expected of me: I worked on two different research projects with two different professors, so I had different expectations from each. For my first one, I was mainly responsible for running participants for our study, which would take about an hour each. My goal was to do three a week. I also was responsible for assembling placebo pills, stocking the fridge with caffeine and non caffeine supplements, and entering data into the computer. I also helped edit our research proposal before it was submitted to the IRB for approval. Like I mentioned above, I also analyzed the data using statistical software so I was able to present it at undergraduate research day.

 

In my other research experience, I was mainly working behind the scenes doing data analysis, literature reviews, checking data for accuracy, and helping write the manuscript that would be later submitted for publication. For this one, I took 3 credits worth of it and was expected to do 9 hours a week; however, I don't think I ever actually spent 9 hours a week on it. I met with my research advisor once a week for 1.5 hours, and she would look at what I did from the previous week and then assign what she wanted me to get done for the next week. 

 

I would definitely suggest doing research, it is really important to have the experience, especially if you plan on doing a master's thesis! I mainly did research because I knew I would need the experience in graduate school. I also did it because I wanted to build good professional relationships with my professors. Also, by getting to know my professors well I was able to get multiple teaching assistantships since they knew I was a hard worker.

 

That was my experience anyway!

[hopefulspeechie16]

Has anyone taken research for credit? Is it valued by grad programs? 

[pmarie]

Research for credit is absolutely valued by graduate programs--mostly not because it's "for credit", but because the time commitment allows you to get more involved and understand what you're doing a bit better. It strengthens your letters of recommendation, adds breadth to your resume, and at shows up on your transcript! Especially if you're considering applying to higher-ranked schools, they'll like that you've have that experience. Schools that are higher-ranked are research-driven schools, so of course they'll value research. I would go so far as to say that any school would probably value research experience, though. It shows that you're willing to think flexibly and critically about problems, which is what good clinicians have to do

[alexagrace]

Hi! I will be working as an RA this coming Fall with the same professor in my undergrad. Based on my interactions with him, I would definitely ask a professor that you are interested in working with as soon as possible. Sometimes they have openings soon, other times it may be up to a year before they are willing to take another student.

The two labs that I've been in during undergrad gave me two wildly different experiences, but both of them required a formal application with a resume, transcripts, etc. However, if the labs you're looking at don't explicitly state that they want these materials, do not send them a resume/transcript in your first email because it could come off as presumptuous. Just tell them why you're interested and ask if they would like to see any credentials!

For my first year, I was signed up for 2 credits (6 hours a week) in one lab and 3 units (9 hours per week) in another. The time commitment varied, sometimes I would work a little bit less than 6 or 9 hours, and other times I would work more. It mostly depended on the participant load and how many projects you're on. Currently, I'm signed up for an Honors thesis in a lab for 3 units and I work 15 hours in the lab OUTSIDE of thesis work--so it's a heck of a lot to juggle!

 

I was expected to be able to run and troubleshoot experiments on my own all the way from participant recruitment, follow-ups, data collection, and analysis. Don't worry if you don't have experience in these things--they will teach you! I would be taught how to do a task maybe once or twice, but then I was expected to be able to go from there. My current lab has me on two projects outside of my thesis: I recruit stroke patients within 72 hours of onset and run a longitudinal fMRI study with controls. My previous lab had me run a listening and production study then extract the results. Mostly a lot of waveform clipping and then copy and pasting numbers onto a spreadsheet. Both have been awesome experiences though!

 

The one thing that I did not have to do was interpret the implications of the results myself since I obviously am less familiar with the literature than my professor. Phew! Most labs do not require you to have coding skills until you are in graduate school, and even then maybe only at the PhD level.

 

What you do need to have is a genuine interest in the research you are doing and a desire to learn! My least favorite thing has been working with people who say that they only joined a research lab to put on their resume or to get on a professor's good side. I've met fabulous and bright people who are academically successful, but just did not care about their work and it really showed. Conversely, there have been people who are not great at school but they worked hard in lab and have been some of the best research assistants! 

 

I joined research mostly just because I'm floored about how much we still don't know in this world and I wanted to help us learn more! I did select only the labs that were researching things I was interested in, though.

I'd definitely suggest going into a research lab if you're interested. My advice would be: Never be afraid to ask questions when in your lab--if people didn't ask questions, we wouldn't have research in the first place!

Best of luck!

[CBG321]

-Should I contact professors now, before summer, or wait until Fall semester starts?

-What are your experiences with getting involved (or purposely choosing other things to do) with research?

-what was the time commitment for you?

-what was expected from you?

-why did you choose to get involved?

Feel free to answer any of the above or just give your own input!

My CD advisor recommended that I contact a few professors whose research interested me, but I am a bit at a loss of what foundational skills I need to be successful (programming/coding? Strong science backround? Upper division statistics courses?)

 

1. I'd contact them now because maybe they'll have something going on in the summer and you can get your foot in the door before other students even if it isn't until Fall.
2. It was fantastic!  I learned a lot, even though I had no foundation at the time because it was before I entered the program.  Now if I return I'd learn so much more and it would be even more interesting.  We transcribed in plain English idk how to say it wasn't phonetic?  And later coded it for morphemes the Professor was interested in as possible early markers of language disorders in pre-school age children.  
3. Time commitment was...twice a week for a few hours.  One semester I only did one day a week.  It all depends on the Professor's needs and how many other people are working in the lab.
4. It was at times stressful (probably moreso having no background knowledge) just because their were deadlines and it is a learning process listening to preschoolers with articulation errors and grammar errors and listening to 20 minutes of it take a long time to transcribe!  But attending lab meetings and doing the lab work (transcribing) was all we had to do.
5. I am a returning student and went to my undergrad college as a way to get some first hand experience in the major so I could see if I wanted to make the commitment to take this journey of getting a post-bacc and applying to Grad school.

I'd say contact anyone that sounds interesting and i'm sure they would let you know up front if you needed any special knowledge.  I went through a little mini-training as did the rest of the lab.  I feel like that should be pretty typical and teach you anything you need to know.

 

Good luck!