If taking credits for research meaningful for PhD application?

[Luptior]

My current college offers a 3-credit course for undergraduate research but we need to apply for it. I believe many other institutions have the similar policy and I want to ask if taking credit for undergraduate research makes a significant difference from not? Really worried about it since my lab mentor says she will not have that much time for mentoring a student taking credit, so I can continue to do my current project there but without credits.

In addition, since two-semester credited research is the prerequisites for honor thesis in the final semester, I may not be able to graduate with honor. Will honor has a significant role in PhD application?

[St Andrews Lynx]

As far as I'm aware, admission committees don't tally up the number of research credits you have when looking at PhD applications: instead they try to determine (through your letters of rec and any publications/awards) how much research experience you have and how good you were at it. Obviously you could have taken 5 research credits...but never showed up in lab. 

The comment you made about the lab mentor is a bit confusing. Are they a graduate student in the lab, or the professor? How much time would you be committing to this particular lab without taking research credits (vs. with)? If we're talking about a significant drop in time spent on research, you might want to consider switching mentor or lab to ensure you actually get some meaningful research done. If the mentor is just a grad student, you might want to consider talking to the professor in the lab to ask what they recommend you do. 

 

[Luptior]

On August 26, 2016 at 4:25 PM, St Andrews Lynx said:

As far as I'm aware, admission committees don't tally up the number of research credits you have when looking at PhD applications: instead they try to determine (through your letters of rec and any publications/awards) how much research experience you have and how good you were at it. Obviously you could have taken 5 research credits...but never showed up in lab. 

The comment you made about the lab mentor is a bit confusing. Are they a graduate student in the lab, or the professor? How much time would you be committing to this particular lab without taking research credits (vs. with)? If we're talking about a significant drop in time spent on research, you might want to consider switching mentor or lab to ensure you actually get some meaningful research done. If the mentor is just a grad student, you might want to consider talking to the professor in the lab to ask what they recommend you do. 

 

The mentor is a Ph.D. student assigned by the PI of the lab. Taking credit needs 20 hrs per week but I can still spend the same amount of time in the lab if not taking credit, which is not mandatory. The Ph.D. said she doesn't have time since taking credit for credit actually requires more time of her to mentoring me but if I don't take the credit the time schedule should be more casual.

Okay, now I understand taking credit is not that important for the application. The only thing I concern now is taking credit for research is a prerequisite for writing Chem Dept's honor thesis and graduate with honor. Is honor has an impact on the application?

[St Andrews Lynx]

I think it's a nice thing to have, but it's unlikely to make or break your grad school applications if everything else is strong. 

[Luptior]

On September 6, 2016 at 5:52 PM, St Andrews Lynx said:

I think it's a nice thing to have, but it's unlikely to make or break your grad school applications if everything else is strong. 

Thanks !!!