<p>My major is Molecular Genetics, and I will in all likelyhood be at ucla in 08' (after a wonderful time on the merced shared exp. program) I know for Merced its possible to get to do some "cutting edge" reserch your freshmen and sof. year. How difficult is it for ucla your first two year, and/or your last two years as an undergrad? First hand experience in this subject would be greatly appreciated :-)</p>
<p>Not hard at all if you take the initiative and get in touch with professors with convergent interests.</p>
<p>EDIT: Whoops, I thought you were pre-med >_>;;</p>
<p>I heard that it's very hard to get a research position as a freshman pre-med. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Maybe if you sign up early you'll have a chance =D</p>
<p>You'll have a much better chance after a couple of years. Lets be honest: as a freshman most students have neither the knowledge base nor the intuition to do serious work in lab without a lot of handholding, to the point where they'll probably be detrimental to the grad student or postdoc helping them. Now, after at least a year of lectures and labs you'll be in a much better position to snag a job. You'll also be in a great position. As a postdoc or grad students you must produce good results in a timely fashion, otherwise you're going to have all sorts of problems. As an undergrad that pressure is reduced. Keep that in mind if you're planning to make the jump to grad school.</p>
<p>Whatever you do, don't get a work-study position as a lab-dish cleaner in hopes of securing a research position in the future. This is most likely not the case.</p>
<p>i HIGHLY recommend that you don't just "volunteer" in a lab, because you will be a dishwasher or a office filer. SRP99 is your friend if you are a freshman and you wanna get started on research. Basically, SRP guarantees that you wont be cleaning slides (both you and ur PI sign a contract). The downside of SRP is that every premed at UCLA is hunting for a spot and you have to be quick or lucky. Also, PIs know that freshman don't know s*** (no LS or upper div bio classes), so its really easy for them to weed out premeds just lookin for resume fluffing. You don't need to do research your first (or, arguably second) year, but if you absolutely love what a lab is doing, then definitely try and get some exposure.</p>
<p>I got research through SRP. Mainly because I was the first one to apply. :)</p>
<p>Okay, here's the thing.</p>
<p>Rarely do ppl in lab actually make you only wash dishes, that's largely a myth perpetuated by people that either hated research or hated their mentors, and there definitely are crappy mentors out there, but they'll usually make sure you get hands on experience elsewhere in the lab other than just the sink.</p>
<p>^for me at least, "washing dishes" means doing work that is more or less mindless and not contributing (even marginally) to the actual progress of the research. in some cases, believe it or not, you actually have to wash specimen slides.</p>
<p>trust me i know.</p>
<p>i've worked in a lab here for the past couple months, and to think that you're going to get out of doing any menial work at all as a first year undergrad is foolish.</p>
<p>but you're not limited to it...ever, as is the popular fear.</p>
<p>^ then you're not looking at the right places.</p>