What are the benefits of getting involved with research?
Getting involved with research can be an incredibly beneficial opportunity. When involved in a lab, you are given incredible opportunities to witness, help, and possibly impact research projects, learn about data analysis and literature review, learn how posters and papers are produced, and you can be given opportunities to attend conferences related to the lab’s research to present research! You are able to learn more about your interests, form mentoring relationships that are often important for starting your career, and gain very practical skills.
What type of research is there?
Research is present in a variety of fields, from neuroscience, physiology, biochemistry, psychology, public health, sociology, economics, education, kinesiology, speech-language pathology, environmental science, horticulture, human development, zoology, animal science, and various engineering fields, just to name a few. This really varies based on your university.
How do I find out about research labs?
Read through and thoroughly search your school’s departmental websites on various faculty and their research. It’s easiest to first start looking through a faculty directory specific to your major. If you’re already familiar with and interested in your major it’s fairly easy to also find the research within that subject matter interesting. You might also have other interests either somewhat related to your major or career path that you are interested in, and the same thing goes for that. Other opportunities, more rarely, might be found on the website and app Handshake, where jobs typically aimed at students are posted. I even found my most recent research experience by reading an article about a grant being funded at my school for a research project that interested me.
How do I actually get a research position?
In my experience, I have gotten experience through cold emailing and applying via Handshake. Cold emailing is when you email a professor you’ve maybe never met about a possible research position. It’s essential that you are actually interested in the Principal Investigator’s (P.I.) research and that you display some knowledge of their research without acting like a know-it-all. You do not want to get involved in research solely for the sake of it or to check a box for medical school extracurriculars. You should want to gain research experience because you are interested in their research and hope to learn from them. In an email, briefly explain your major and the reason that you’re interested in the research topic. Explain what it is that you hope to learn from this experience and how it ties into your career interests and that you hope to meet with them to further discuss a possible opportunity. Asking questions is a great way to display that you are interested in learning more and also comfortable with not knowing everything. Do not expect this experience to be paid, especially initially. While I wish undergraduate students were always paid for their help in a lab, it’s simply not the norm and may come off weird if you express that as a reason for joining a lab. I know that it is a privilege to be able to do unpaid work, but you also want to be respectful of the investment and time that the lab is putting towards you. Expect to not always hear back from P.I.s as they are busy people and might not always have an opening. I’ve probably emailed 20+ P.I.s before I got my first opportunity. Do not give up! If you truly want this opportunity, you can get it!
What should I expect a research lab to be like?
This really varies based on what type of research you get involved in and what they want you to do. Each lab is slightly different but there are some similarities in the structure of research labs. Labs are led by a P.I., who typically has a Ph.D. or MD-PhD in the subject matter that their lab works on. The Principal Investigator is responsible for the preparation, conduct, and administration of a research grant. A research grant is the way that researchers receive funding to conduct their specific research project. P.I.s typically have multiple projects and/or grants at the same time. P.I.s also have graduate students, or Ph.D. students working on their doctoral degree in the subject matter, working in their lab. Oftentimes the work the Ph.D. student is working on will be used in their dissertation, summarizing what they worked on in the lab. There may also be post-doctoral researchers, staff scientists, lab technicians, etc. in the lab, and you will learn more about those positions when you get involved in a lab. It really depends on your role in the research lab, but you may also work directly with graduate students or simultaneously with undergraduates reporting more directly to the P.I.
Getting involved in research is achievable if this is something you truly want. It takes patience to get these opportunities, so do not be hard on yourself. It is most common to get a research opportunity in your junior year of college. Opportunities might also not be long-term, but any experience you gain is valuable and will help you in the future. The skills I have gained thus far are truly invaluable. Best of luck on your journey!