<p>I just attened UCLA's open house day for its prospective freshman students and loved it!</p>
<p>So now I am pretty sure that's the school I want to go to. </p>
<p>I am a MIMG major and want to start rsrch asap when i get there. I understand that I can't just rush into rsrch as a green, hotheaded little freshy b/c I need some background experience in labs and knowlegdge. I talked with the life sciences student affairs advisor and she suggested that I could start the sprign semester of freshman year if I was really motivated. </p>
<p>Is this too soon? I do not have extraordinary intelligence or experience. I just have a lot of energy and am willing to invest hard work. I also want to take a freshman cluster to get the composition andhumanities GE's out of the way. Will pursuing an SRP in freshman year and doing clusters while trying to maintain a decent 3.___ GPA be feasible or advisable as a freshman? </p>
<p>As a biology major what clusters are recommended? I know that it's not wise to take, let's say, global/envioronmentalism or The Cosmos b/c I will repeat courses. But what are some medium hard humanities/history classes? I am moderately interested in Am history and sociology. Which GE's has the most reading/hw and hardest tests?
I want to challenge myself, but still have time to relax on the weekends.</p>
<p>GPAwise, it depends on your work ethics and nobody can judge/guage that but yourself. Don't limit your search to just SRP listings, which are very limited. Its not unheard of for incoming freshmen to start research their very first quarter (I've known a few that even started working in two labs their second quarter on top of a full courseload).</p>
<p>I took the IRD cluster and thought it was really easy, but there were other posters that have said otherwise. I guess things have radically changed since I took it back in 04?</p>
<p>If you're gung ho about doing basic science research, start reading journals such as Cell, Nature, Science, Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) etc. Review articles give excellent synopsis in specific fields of the Biological Sciences. Also if you can, attend seminar lectures on campus. There are tons given throughout the year and different departments post flyers all around South Campus. You can even ask the MIMG department to put you on their email list to get notification of any upcoming seminars.</p>
<p>Before you begin looking for a professor to potentially work with, read their latest publications so that you're at least quasi-knowledgeable about their research and can ask the PI (principal investigator/researcher) questions about what he/she is trying to accomplish during the interview. Here's a website that contains research summaries of different PIs: <a href="http://www.mimg.ucla.edu/research_pages/index.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.mimg.ucla.edu/research_pages/index.htm</a>. Don't limit lab searches to your own department, look for PIs in MBI (Molecular Biology Institute), Biological Chemistry, Pharmacology, the Gonda Building, Jonsonn Cancer Center, even in Warren Hall.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, review all the Chemistry and/or whatever Physics (EM & Optics) you learned so far since Biological Science is essentially based on the priciples of the Physical Sciences. Some PIs are known to give undergrad students, who potentially want to join the lab, a quiz to see if they can do simple calculations like molecular weight, dilution concentrations, unit conversions etc.</p>
<p>You don't have to wait until Spring of freshman year to do research. You can start now. I started 2nd year of high school and have been doing it ever since.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Edit: I forgot to mention that when you are ready to join a lab, pick one that's somewhat smallish in terms of the member numbers. That way you don't get lost in the shuffle and get more one on one interactions with the PI. It helps her/him getting to know you better.</p>
<p>Do you want to just do gruntwork in a PI's lab or work on your own projects, potentially under the guidance of a PI? These are important questions you'll need to ask yourself - "research" is a very broad word.</p>
<p>Who willingly goes into research to just do "gruntwork" except for those doing it for workstudy since they need the money? If you end up doing nothing but gruntwork, you need to seriously reassess that lab unless for some reason its what you knowingly want to do</p>
<p>yea jyancy is right. people don't go into research because they are interested in research. they go into research because they are interested in a very SPECIFIC topic that is currently understudied. That's why most ppl don't go into research till they've at least finished the LS series (sophomore and beyond). Also, although there is TONS of research at UCLA, there are millions of premeds waiting to get a spot. So you have to be convincing to the research mentors that you are really interested in the topic being studied (and to be interested you need background knowledge).</p>
<p>I just wanted to add that premeds aren't the only people that are trying to get spots in research labs (bruinboy kinda made it seem like that was the case...) But, I do agree that in order to get an undergraduate spot in a lab you must be VERY interested in what's going on in the lab especially if you're pre-med. I say this because there are a number of PIs that don't want pre-med students b/c they're afraid that these students are only there to build their resumes, at least that's how my mentor explained it to me during my interview when she asked if I was pre-med (which fyi, I'm not.)</p>