How to: research as an undergraduate

My dad took one of my new business cards when he visited last month. We were talking today and he asked for another since he had given it to someone at work. This colleague has a daughter who may be interested in entering my particular field of study, and Dad thought I might be able to offer some advice on how to prepare for, then get admitted to, graduate programs.

My first thought was that she should gain some experience in a research environment. I didn’t have that opportunity as an undergraduate, so I did a summer program at a larger institution. But if you’re lucky enough to study somewhere with a diverse graduate population, chances are that someone would be very interested in having you to do some of the tasks we consider repetitive and boring.

I started my graduate study by easing into research doing these very things. But if you can get some experience using the equipment, knowing what to expect, understanding how long certain experiments take, and getting used to the language (and the abbreviations that the scientific community latches on to, uses extensively but seldom define – leaving most people, myself included, heading to google to figure out what people are talking about), you may find something to put on an admission form that may distinguish you from your many fellow applicants.

There was an undergrad doing a summer program when I began my graduate research. I think her name was Laura, and she wanted to go to med school. She decided to “take a year off to do volunteer work”, meaning, to me at least, that she hadn’t been successful on her first round of applications. I watched the senior group members roll their eyes at her constant questions and bids for attention. She had an air of arrogance and superiority that was striking, even in the midst of students and post-docs at varying levels of seniority. She wasn’t particularly productive – nobody wanted to work with her, so it was difficult for her to learn critical skills. We weren’t sorry to see her go, and I never heard what she ended up doing.

There was another girl, Josie, who started doing research during her sophomore year. I believe I was in my second year of study – still busy with classes, but beginning to find my niche in the lab. Josie worked directly with my advisor for some time, which was lovely, so I didn’t see much of her. The problem came when she developed a crush on one of the guys in the group. So I’d come back from a class to find her working at my desk, conveniently located next to the cute boy. I had no problem with her taste – I enjoy a little crush myself - but I’d rather people not mess with my things. I’m polite and accommodating, at least superficially, so I’d just ask her to scoot, and pretend to be productive.

The problem came when she decided to do some searches online, still at my computer, and I returned to find my desktop covered with playful kittens. Disproportional irritation was not the response the kittens were supposed to evoke, but they were quickly replaced and an email composed. The lesson? DON’T be irritating. Do not use my office supplies without asking, and don’t play with my computer – it likely has critical components of my life on it, and should you accidentally remove something, I’d have to plot my revenge, and that takes time I don’t have.

Josie never accomplished much – insisting on taking copious notes that never seemed to help her out much, but that allowed me to say “check your notes” whenever she’d ask me a question. I tried to help her with a couple of projects, but she had a habit of coming in for an hour, messing up 4 different things, then leaving notes to us so we could try to correct her errors. We wouldn’t do it, so she didn’t make progress, choosing instead to continuously work on different projects until they became so hopelessly riddled with mistakes that everyone called them a loss.

I complained about Josie a lot, finally telling my advisor that I needed a break from her. I think there was a large problem in that Josie would overstate her experience and expertise, and I believed her. So my expectations were out of step with reality, which is never a good way to build a working relationship. And she’d always mess with my stuff – stealing my pretty star-shaped post-its, using my pens from Japan. And while that might be irrelevant to some people, she should have known her audience. It bugged me, so I tried to make life just slightly harder for her.

Looking back, and now considering Josie at least a friendly acquaintance, I see that she did a lot of things right. She was a social little creature, and everyone in the group knew her because she’d find somewhere to sit and chatter at you while you were trying to work. If I were giving advice, I’d say not to be irritating. But there’s an interesting dichotomy – grad students always seem busy. Between classes (taking or teaching), reading, at least 2 projects, and some sort of lame attempt at a social life, it’s not easy to get our attention. So you’ll have to be a little aggressive, and making sure that at least a couple people know why you’re around and what you hope to accomplish works to your advantage.

Oh, and you’re going to screw things up – sometimes really badly. I was always paranoid though, and the first thing I taught Josie was how to copy things – notes, move code around, work in her own space – so that when something was ruined, I could at least start from where she did to fix it, rather than recreating everything. It’s necessary to ask for help, preferably as soon as you realize you might need it. Then you can develop some troubleshooting skills early on and gain confidence as you figure things out. If you make a mistake, then compound it exponentially as you try to fix it, it’s much harder for me to help you. I’m likely going to have you start over and watch over your shoulder to catch the initial problem. But don’t expect me to work on your projects while you’re not around – it’s not really my problem (and I have ownership of more problems than I’d like already), and it doesn’t teach you anything about research to just randomly push some buttons, fail, then leave. A willingness to learn and put in the time is critical and will gain you some much-needed respect.

You’re not going to have time to devote to research on any real level. At my peak productivity, I was working at least 10 hours at the office 7 days a week, and taking work home. I had meals staring at computer screens, didn’t ever return personal phone calls, would hurriedly dash off apologetic emails, and lived with a list constantly in my peripheral vision so I didn’t forget anything. When you’re caught up in an undergraduate course load, which is completely different than the graduate class requirements in my experience, it’s hard to manage all your responsibilities, and this research is going to be the first to get tossed aside. I needed to appreciate that more than I did. It’s a time of exploration for undergrads, and putting something on a resume for some abstract concept of applying to graduate or medical school isn’t the same motivation as trying desperately to build a career. So I was harder on Josie than I should have been.

The important factor to gain, from both perspectives, is that everyone needs to be realistic about the situation. An undergraduate with little research experience probably isn’t going to be incredibly useful to a graduate lab. I’m sure there are exceptions – cases where there is an incredible student with amazing insight and skill – but for the most part, students enter labs to get something different to put on an application. A topic of conversation on how they were able to learn something and get some experience that may help in an interview.

So, this is my long-winded way of noting some tips. So when my dad inevitably passes out more business cards, I have a quick reference for people who are interested in grad school.

1. Choose the right lab. Interview with the major advisor, but also ask if you can talk to the students with whom you’d be in contact most often. These are people you’ll need for any sort of productive experience.
2. Show some basic respect to the students (and their property). Understand that we have too much to do in too little time. But…
3. Be almost aggressively friendly at times. You want people to notice you, and hopefully like you. But you’ll need attention, so make sure you get it.
4. Remind me of what it was like to be at your level. Tell me your roommate is evil incarnate – I remember being driven crazy by my freshman roommate. Tell me how you’re so in love with, then heartbroken by, this amazing guy. I’ve been there too, and I can sympathize. I promise I’ll cut you some slack, but if you’re lazy and inefficient without explanation, I’m going to ignore you completely.
5. Pick a strategy. You’re either going to specialize in one project and try to get published, or you’re going to try to get involved with multiple experiments and gain a broad perspective.
6. Communicate your strategy to your group. We like people with an idea of what they want, and the more clear you are, the better we’re able to help you.
7. Keep in touch. If you can’t make a meeting or will be studying for a week, just let someone know. As a rule, grad students understand stress and priorities and will cut you some slack if we can expect you to be absent. If you’re MIA for a long time though, we’re going to write you off.
8. Be hard on yourself. Read journals, attend group meetings, ask to make presentations or submit abstracts to annual meetings or workshops. These things tend to be beyond what is expected of undergrads in research environments (because they're actually difficult), and can make an excellent impression. Plus, if you make a fool of yourself, better now than when it really counts later on.
9. Attempt to see a project through. If someone has set out some reasonable goals for you, make a strong effort to achieve them, or have a decent reason whey they should deal with you again in the face of failure. Fix your mistakes, ask for help and try to develop some ideas. Ask me how I deal with problems – it’ll help you decide if there’s something you can use or if you need to keep asking other people for strategies that work well.
10. Keep your expectations in line. Understand what grad students can help with, and figure out ways to be self-sufficient. Teaching and training are almost unavoidable parts of getting a PhD. And I loved working with enthusiastic people and watching them progress. It’s part of the reason I chose my current position.

Josie entered medical school this year – I wrote her a letter of recommendation and had lunch with her before I graduated. While she didn’t do as well as I wanted her to in terms of actual research, there were plenty of positive attributes to list on my reference form. She didn’t succeed on every point on the list above – probably not even most of them - but I gained a lot from working with her, and as I understood what to expect, and found ways to like her, it bothered me less and less to find my pens at her desk. I guess I’ll close by saying grad school and research environments can be harsh places. If you can find a gentle way to enter one, then decide if your dream of what more education is like matches the reality, you’re much better off than I was. So good luck with that.