<p>Hi everyone,
I am considering applying to graduate school this summer. I believe many students select the schools they apply for according to labs they would like to work at. However, it seems that many of these end up not having a great mentor/advisor as their PI. My question is how would I know when applying to a program what kind of environment there is in a lab I am interested in? I guess I could email a graduate student in that lab, but would that be the only or the best way to go about it?
Thanks a lot</p>
<p>Unfortunately, you can’t really know this until you explore the lab for yourself (via rotating), after you join the program. That’s why, when selecting programs to apply to, you should choose ones with an abundance of faculty you could see yourself working with. If a particular program has only one or two faculty whose research interests you, that’s where your question most applies, and if there’s an interview weekend, that would probably be the best time to visit the professor/lab and gauge if the lab is the great fit that would offset the general limitedness in lab choices you would have from joining that program.</p>
<p>Of course, the more labile your research interests, the less of a problem all this is going to be.</p>