How much research exp. did you have leaving Bachelors?

[youdontknowme1215]

Hey Guys, 

Im just curious as to what kind of research experience, most of you have leaving your bachelors degree. What kind of techniques did you obtain, how involved were you in the projects you participated in, what kind of papers/pubs did you put out (if any) ect. 

Its weird bc I hear a lot of mixed signals. Sometimes Ive heard that students just finish undergrad are lucky if they know how to use a pipet; other times I hear that they were running their own project. I'm just curious to see how much research exposure everyone has/techniques they've learned, papers ect. 

I know for myself I've spent three years in the same lab. Two during UG and one post-bachelors functioning as a lab manager. I've worked on two rather large projects; in the midst of finishing one up now. I have also worked on two collaborations projects with outside facilities; one is in review, one is in still in the pipeline. 

First year was primary spending learning techniques/shadowing. Second year I was pretty much told which experiments to run and when.  Currently, running my own project, from project layout, to experimental design. 

Skills: Western blotting, PCR, Genotyping, Immunohistochemistry, Immunocytochemistry, vibratome, cell culture, DNA isolation/purification, polysome fractionation, breeding/timed pregnancies of mice, dissections, confocal microscopy, maxi prep, and i have worked with neurolucidia. 

 

[Dedi]

I've worked primarily with three professors over the course of 2-2 1/2 years, not because I was switching labs but because I didn't need to commit to a lab (i.e., we don't have many at my undergrad institution and the two profs I worked with at the institution didn't have a lab). I did independent projects almost exclusively--there are no graduate students to shadow at my undergrad. However, my independent projects were small because I was the one running the data collection and analysis.

The summer of third year I did a research internship at my top choice school, so that was when I got involved in a certain lab and helped out a grad student. I did have a chance to lead a very small independent project at that lab. Nothing really came out it--but I appreciated that the supervisor trusted me enough to run it.

Skills: PCR, DNA extraction, gel electrophoresis, immunohistofluorescence, microtome, brain dissections of zebrafish, breeding/timed pregnancies of rats, chronic variable stress paradigm, elevated plus maze, open field test, light-dark box, maternal care coding, coding lemur behaviour, making networks, operant chamber work (shaping, probability learning, omission contingencies)...

Mostly behavioural, but that was the nature of my work

[Crucial BBQ]

I have a total of two years; three different labs and three different disciplines.  One was in non-organic chemistry, another in "straight" biology, and the last in ecology.  In addition I also have a total of five years combined experience volunteering with chemical oceanography and with invasive species.  

[shadowclaw]

I went to a tiny college that had the sciences and math lumped into one department.  There weren't any labs, really. Instead, several (but certainly not all) professors worked on projects and occasionally invited students to work with them. I got about a year and a half of experience all together working on 3 projects (although the average student in my department got about 9 months experience working on their senior project). For two of the projects, I basically did data collection, but learned some rather useful skills. One of the projects was also done in connection with a state agency. The third project (my senior project) was designed and run by myself with input from my advisor and I presented the results in a few places (and I have a paper in review). All three projects were in ecology, although my senior project was also in chemistry.

I apparently also got decent training in statistics. When I got to grad school, the first year students really had no clue. As a result, I had to sit through a graduate statistics course that was an almost exact duplicate of an undergrad course I took. It was so boring.

Skills learned: bird banding, mist netting, aging & sexing birds, water chemistry techniques (sonde, titration), electrofishing (backpack), fluorescence spectrophotometry, HPLC.