Research in first year of undergrad?

[lucien]

Hi! I have a question for you all. 

I will be starting my undergraduate degree next year and I wanted to know if it's realistically possible for me to volunteer in a research lab during my first year of undergrad? I expect to be doing extremely simple tasks like sorting documents, photocopying, and so on, but I would still like to get my feet wet. I just have no idea how to start and was hoping that some of you would be able to lend me some advice. I don't know if I should email graduate students or professors, apply to job postings, etc. 

From the research I've done so far on becoming a competitive applicant for graduate programs in psychology, research experience is coveted, so I am hoping to get as much experience as possible.

I guess I should add that I am Canadian since a good chunk of people on this forum seem to be American, so mileage may vary.

Thanks in advance. 

 

Edited June 26, 2017 by lucien

[Oshawott]

I know a few RA's at my undergrad institution (in Toronto, so maybe that's where you are) who got positions in their first year, with one of them being hired as a work-study student over upper year students. Of course, they had very good resumes coming in with a lot of extracurriculars in high school (or were more mature students) so the lab managers were more willing to give them a chance because the primary concern they had was whether a first-year student would be able to handle adjusting to a university workload while working/volunteering for the lab.

If you don't have amazing extracurriculars but want to help out, I think another thing that would help is to read the publications of the professors you want to work with, and in your application, reference these publications in your reasons why you want to work with them specifically. Most profs have their publications posted on their websites as PDF's so it shouldn't be that bad, and if you limit yourself to reading things within the next 5 years it should be more accessible (older articles had this tendency to...use obfuscating language).

You should look at the professor's websites and see their instructions for applying for RA's, and set your sight towards volunteering rather than getting a paid position in your first year, since the first-year work-study student I knew was just exceptional in their credentials. Your best bet for a position is a social psychology lab as a lot of the research involves human subjects; the work itself is simple, but requires a lot of people working on them simply to run participants. I would recommend applying this early as it puts you in a good position to get paid positions if they become available, or to be accepted for independent projects for credit (which are honestly GPA boosters for the most part as long as you do work).

Edited June 26, 2017 by Oshawott

[8BitJourney]

American here.

I know that in my Uni a lot of professors expected you to take their class before you could even volunteer in their lab much less work so generally most people didn't start in labs until the second half of their freshman year at the earliest. The only exceptions were those who had existing research relationships from high school. I'm also pro 'wait-till-second year-then-take-a-year-off-after-graduating-if-you-don't-have-enough-experience' rather than have to deal with the adjustment to undergrad on top of a lab as I feel like your first year can give you some of the easiest throwaway classes you'll have. Many American grad programs (at least the more research heavy ones that I applied to) are now expecting 1 or two years post-bac experience from applicants so another thing to consider rather than volunteering your first year. But you have a better idea of what you can handle so go with what you feel is right.

[Oshawott]

3 hours ago, 8BitJourney said:

Many American grad programs (at least the more research heavy ones that I applied to) are now expecting 1 or two years post-bac experience from applicants so another thing to consider rather than volunteering your first year. But you have a better idea of what you can handle so go with what you feel is right.

I had asked my American supervisor about this after my interviews, because when I interviewed in the U.S., I noticed a lot of people seemed to have post-bac RA experience. His assessment of the situation was that a good number of schools didn't really offer any sort of substantive research experience outside of a thesis. Assuming the OP is in Toronto, at least 2 of the 3 universities there have strong research programs and one of those schools have a ridiculous research culture.

With that said, Canadian grad schools don't necessarily need post-bac experience (though doing a thesis for one year won't necessarily cut it), and aside from lab manager positions, there aren't any common post-bac options in Canada (unless you just continue to volunteer for a year but at that point you won't necessarily be getting more hours/responsibility), and the vast majority of post-bac options in the United States are out of reach because of visa/immigration restrictions. I've seen Canadians do it, but they'd have to be better than any of the American applicants for PI's to even bother with the hassle.

@lucien if you can juggle research experience early on, do it. The earlier you do it, the earlier you can start asking to be given more substantive tasks (i.e., beyond running participants) or at least be able to get positions at labs with more involved RA's. Also the benefit of doing it this early, all the big Canadian programs (and some American ones) only looks at your last two years so you learn to adjust doing school work with research responsibilities during years where your GPA will count little for your applications. That isn't to say you shouldn't aim high for grades in your early years because that affects your ability to get into some programs but it's to put into context if your grades aren't "as high" as another person who didn't volunteer.

Edited June 26, 2017 by Oshawott

[lucien]

On 6/26/2017 at 0:52 AM, Oshawott said:

I know a few RA's at my undergrad institution (in Toronto, so maybe that's where you are) who got positions in their first year, with one of them being hired as a work-study student over upper year students. Of course, they had very good resumes coming in with a lot of extracurriculars in high school (or were more mature students) so the lab managers were more willing to give them a chance because the primary concern they had was whether a first-year student would be able to handle adjusting to a university workload while working/volunteering for the lab.

If you don't have amazing extracurriculars but want to help out, I think another thing that would help is to read the publications of the professors you want to work with, and in your application, reference these publications in your reasons why you want to work with them specifically. Most profs have their publications posted on their websites as PDF's so it shouldn't be that bad, and if you limit yourself to reading things within the next 5 years it should be more accessible (older articles had this tendency to...use obfuscating language).

You should look at the professor's websites and see their instructions for applying for RA's, and set your sight towards volunteering rather than getting a paid position in your first year, since the first-year work-study student I knew was just exceptional in their credentials. Your best bet for a position is a social psychology lab as a lot of the research involves human subjects; the work itself is simple, but requires a lot of people working on them simply to run participants. I would recommend applying this early as it puts you in a good position to get paid positions if they become available, or to be accepted for independent projects for credit (which are honestly GPA boosters for the most part as long as you do work).

 

On 6/26/2017 at 10:22 AM, 8BitJourney said:

American here.

I know that in my Uni a lot of professors expected you to take their class before you could even volunteer in their lab much less work so generally most people didn't start in labs until the second half of their freshman year at the earliest. The only exceptions were those who had existing research relationships from high school. I'm also pro 'wait-till-second year-then-take-a-year-off-after-graduating-if-you-don't-have-enough-experience' rather than have to deal with the adjustment to undergrad on top of a lab as I feel like your first year can give you some of the easiest throwaway classes you'll have. Many American grad programs (at least the more research heavy ones that I applied to) are now expecting 1 or two years post-bac experience from applicants so another thing to consider rather than volunteering your first year. But you have a better idea of what you can handle so go with what you feel is right.

 

On 6/26/2017 at 1:14 PM, Oshawott said:

I had asked my American supervisor about this after my interviews, because when I interviewed in the U.S., I noticed a lot of people seemed to have post-bac RA experience. His assessment of the situation was that a good number of schools didn't really offer any sort of substantive research experience outside of a thesis. Assuming the OP is in Toronto, at least 2 of the 3 universities there have strong research programs and one of those schools have a ridiculous research culture.

With that said, Canadian grad schools don't necessarily need post-bac experience (though doing a thesis for one year won't necessarily cut it), and aside from lab manager positions, there aren't any common post-bac options in Canada (unless you just continue to volunteer for a year but at that point you won't necessarily be getting more hours/responsibility), and the vast majority of post-bac options in the United States are out of reach because of visa/immigration restrictions. I've seen Canadians do it, but they'd have to be better than any of the American applicants for PI's to even bother with the hassle.

@lucien if you can juggle research experience early on, do it. The earlier you do it, the earlier you can start asking to be given more substantive tasks (i.e., beyond running participants) or at least be able to get positions at labs with more involved RA's. Also the benefit of doing it this early, all the big Canadian programs (and some American ones) only looks at your last two years so you learn to adjust doing school work with research responsibilities during years where your GPA will count little for your applications. That isn't to say you shouldn't aim high for grades in your early years because that affects your ability to get into some programs but it's to put into context if your grades aren't "as high" as another person who didn't volunteer.

Wow, can I say how sorry I am for replying to the both of you so, so late? I really do apologize.

Both of your comments were extremely helpful, thank you. As Oshawott predicted, I am at one of the bigger schools in the region that's (apparently) research heavy so I was hoping I could work something out! Anyways, I did some research on one of the professors I was going to email and I hope to get to work with them at one point or another. Not for the sake of padding my application, but mainly because I think their work is super cool. They are doing researching involving LGBT communities - which is what I'm mainly interested in - and I am actually taking their second semester gender studies course (and of course PSYC100). 

Re: handling research experience + university. I will admit I'm pretty scared to make the transition from high school to university, but I worked about 25-30 hour every week this passing school year while still maintaining good grades so I definitely have the time management down. I think the real hurdle is figuring out how to handle the rigour of university level work, since I assume it's going to be a lot harder than high school work -- that I can't confidently say I'm ready for. But, I'll figure it out. And there's a good chance I won't even a get a volunteer position and if that's the case then I can just focus 100% on my grades (which I still am).

As I've said before, both of you were really helpful and I appreciate your advice. Thank you! 

[t_ruth]

It is the rare first-year undergrad who can contribute effectively to a research lab; however, I wouldn't turn away an interested and motivated student because of their relative lack of experience. I've had an undergrad who started working with me as a first year and before her junior year she presented a paper at a national conference on her own research (that she started spring of her first year)!

[samman1994]

From personal experience here: At my university there are actually some high school students who join labs sometimes for the summer (Biochemistry and Synthetic labs). My personal experience, I joined a research lab my first year. I joined a protein biochemistry lab, when the PI asked me what I knew about proteins, I said: "It's the squiggly colorful stuff" (no joke). I had no background experience, no background knowledge, and yet I was able to join whereas many were rejected. I've wondered for years why I was chosen above all others at the time even though I was the most underqualified individual my PI has ever accepted. I think it comes down straight to personality. Our personalities were very similar, and the most important thing to my PI is enthusiasm, and I was very excited to work in a lab. Anyways, long story short, I ended up becoming one of the best lab students she's ever had (her words not mine). I should mention, mine is not at a big research heavy school, and the labs can be somewhat competitive due to this (everyone wants to join, not much room). All I can say is, give it a shot, you might get surprised. Show that you have a real desire to work in that lab and true interest in the research, and that might be all thats needed to get you in. Can't tell you how many people I've seen that just wanted to join the lab with no interest in the research, and just want experience or a rec letter. Those people, no matter the accolades or grades, have gotten rejected 10/10 by my PI.