<p>I am currently finishing a rotation in a very competitive lab. I am the first of 5-6 students that will rotate in this lab this year, and the lab will take up to two students. There are typically 3+ students that want to join this lab every year, so some people are turned away. This is my second rotation, and I will complete one more rotation after the first of the year. </p>
<p>I think that my current lab is an excellent fit, and I do not think I can find a much better fit. I would love to join this lab. Should I voice this opinion to the PI now, and maybe ask him now if he is willing to let me join. I cant tell him that I will definately join since I have one rotation left. Do most of these labs shy away from telling someone they can join until they have seen all of the other rotation students work? </p>
<p>To my knowledge, my school has no policy on when you can start discussing joining a lab but it is currently pretty early for this discussion. I am fine holding off this discussion, but I want to maximize my chances of being able to join this competitive lab since it is a great fit for me. Any advice from other students is appreciated.</p>
<p>I agree -- if it's a competitive situation, you want to have this discussion with the PI as early as possible. It doesn't have to be in the context of "make me an offer now", but you can voice your opinion that the lab is an excellent fit for you, and that you'd like to work on project X for your thesis.</p>
<p>If there are more rotating students than spots available, it is likely that the PI will not offer you a spot now. But you want to make sure he knows of your interest. I would advise further that you keep in touch with him and with the lab during your third rotation.</p>
<p>This is a question about rotations although I am still applying. Curious if Harvard DMS (neuroscience) students can rotate in Psychology dept.Thanks!</p>
<p>This isn't really on topic but I thought I would share it anyway. One of my coworkers was in the situation you are describing, he really wanted to do his thesis in my lab and couldn't see doing it anywhere else. He spoke early in the rotation to my PI who assured him that there would be the opportunity to do that. At the end of his rotation (his third) he was told that there would be no funding for him and that he couldn't do his thesis with us. He ended up doing a fourth rotation in something totally unrelated and returned. He is publishing his first paper right now in our lab and has a good start to his thesis.</p>
<p>
[quote]
This is a question about rotations although I am still applying. Curious if Harvard DMS (neuroscience) students can rotate in Psychology dept.Thanks!
<p>It is quite important that you discuss the possibility of returning to a rotation lab for thesis studies as soon as possible with the PI. I only take students who can clearly articulate why they would benefit from staying in my lab and why the lab would benefit from having them. This is not a simple discussion. In addition, if a student waits to speak to me, I am likely to take another equally talented student who did speak to me!</p>
<p>Thanks Mollie! Unfortunately there are three faculty in psychology who have very similar research interests(but use very different techniques) as faculty in DMS neuroscience but they are not part of HILS.</p>
<p>out of curiosity: i often hear about the exceptional graduate student who finishes his PhD in 2-3 years (in the biomedical sciences). how do they do this, especially with having to go through lab rotations and courses?</p>
<p>I have never heard of anybody finishing in two years. I have known a couple of people to finish in three, and it is some combination of low expectations from the outset (a coworker only had to publish a single article to defend her thesis) or amazing research productivity (getting several articles out within a year or so of starting.)</p>
<p>2-3 years is mostly impossible, it is easier if you join a program without rotations, but still quite difficult even then. The first year in most programs is rotations + classes, so while if you are very lucky you might get onto a paper from your rotation, you probably won't be first author on it. Once you join a lab you need to actually do the research, take the qualifying exam, and probably TA. Getting a paper through the review process can take ~6 months, and thus if you want 2-3 papers to graduate you are probably looking at 3-4 years. 4 is definitely doable, though rare.</p>
<p>Just a question for mtlve and mollie and whoever else that has done rotations:</p>
<p>Do you actually get to do a short independent project in each rotation or do you usually shadow predoc and postdocs in the lab or does it vary from lab to lab?</p>
<p>It varies from lab to lab, although even if you are helping with an existing grad student/postdoc project, you'll be doing some independent work.</p>
<p>The lab will want to see how good you are at the bench, what your work ethic is like, what special skills you bring to the table, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for responses, I guess I will talk to the PI.</p>
<p>Neurokid- The rotations vary drastically by lab. Sometime you are assigned to work with someone and other times you are on your own. Most of my PIs gave me projects initially, but I have picked up an entirely different project early on. In the first lab I got side tracked with a strange results in a control. The grad student I am working with now is trying to get a paper out ASAP, so I started working on that. My third lab used to make rotation students pick and complete a project entirely on their own, but he recently started assigning projects and someone to guide the students. You cant get much done in a few weeks, so any projects will be small in nature. That being said most people I know have a some time of project..</p>