<p>Hi. I attend a small school in the southern US. I plan to graduate this fall and I want to pursue a PhD in Condensed Matter Physics (Experiment).</p>
<p>I was wondering, how do you know if your research is strong enough to be competitive when applying grad school? Mine seems a little flimsy. Here's a mini-resume for the purposes of this thread.</p>
<p>Spring 2010 - Research with a professor at my school (We haven't continued work together)
Summer 2010 - Research Program at Louisiana State University
Summer 2011 - Research Program at Johns Hopkins Hospital (It was in Medical Physics)
Summer 2012 - Research Program at MIT</p>
<p>Publications: No papers. The only thing I have that's close is conference proceedings where I'm listed as a coauthor in one of my research mentor's presentation. </p>
<p>What should I do? Should I try and get some research in during the Fall semester and (maybe but it's a stretch) get a publication, or will that even matter at this point? What good is one semester or research? Anyone that is currently in Physics or something similar... how many publications did you have as an undergrad?</p>
<p>I considered posting this in "What are my chances?", but it seems like that forum is for undergraduate programs.</p>
<p>No, this is the correct forum.</p>
<p>As far as the institutions you’ve done research at, everything looks great on paper. A way in which you could improve, though, is to join a lab for more than a term/season. It will help with your chances of getting a publication as well. Working on a project or set of projects for a year or two is quite a different experience from what you get in 3-6 months.</p>
<p>Have you ever heard of anyone participating in research after graduation? I plan to graduate in the Fall, but I won’t enter graduate school until next year. I’ve been trying to figure out what I’m going to do with nearly a year off.</p>
<p>My school really doesn’t have “labs” or “research groups” per se. Just every professor works on a topic and he has maybe 1 or 2 grad students under him.</p>
<p>I went to a large, private research university and graduated in December. I worked with a professor at the school from February through August. I wound up taking September off, so I’d have the chance to drive across the country to get to my school.</p>
<p>Were you paid, or were you volunteering? What was your “official” title during the time? Post-Bac researcher?</p>
<p>I was paid at approximately what a grad student is paid (not much, but enough to pay rent and live off of). My school had a title of something like Extern for students that had completed their studies but were sticking around for a little while to do work.</p>