<p>I'm currently an undergrad in a huge lab, and I have graduate students mentoring me, which is fine. I'm just wondering how often you guys met with your PIs as undergrads and how you felt about it. (ie: too much, too little, just right) Did you feel comfortable in asking them to write you a LOR (ie: did they know you well enough) at the end? Thanks in advance to all who respond.</p>
<p>I have worked in five different academic labs in my career thus far. As an undergrad I met with the PI (in both labs that I had worked in) twice a month. This was great as it provided me a lot of freedom to get work done and try experiments that weren't proposed by the PI, allowing me to explore areas that I had just learned and utilize new reagents and methods that weren't in use in the lab. As a professional scientist, I meet with my PI once per week. It is a bit more restrictive in all of the areas that I mentioned but since I am no longer working 20 hours a week like in undergrad, it doesn't make things that much different. If I were in your position, I would strive to meet with your PI at least once per month, ideally a couple of times a month. This way when it comes time to ask their advice or for a letter of recommendation, you will have some history and they will know you decently well.</p>
<p>I didn't meet with my undergrad PI very frequently during the first two years I was working in his lab -- he met with the postdoc with whom I was working every two weeks, and every once in a while, my postdoc would have me come in and present my project during that meeting. I did meet with him on my own every semester, since he was also my academic advisor.</p>
<p>When I started applying for graduate school, I met with him more frequently to discuss which programs I was going to apply to and which other letters of recommendation would make my application strongest, that sort of thing.</p>
<p>So overall, I did not meet with him with any great frequency, but the letter I got from him was reportedly really good (good enough that I continue to use him as a letter-writer for graduate fellowships). I felt that he knew me and my work well enough, and that if he'd had any questions, he would have gone to my postdoc supervisor and gotten information. (Or else my postdoc wrote the letter and my PI signed it. This is what happens now that I'm a grad student -- I write the letters for my undergrad, and my PI reads them, edits them, and signs them.)</p>
<p>I don't meet with my PI very often either.</p>
<p>In my current lab I feel very lucky - my PI is generally available for drop-in when I need to talk to her, at least once every one or two weeks. I usually make the effort to schedule meetings with her, and I can always ask her a quick question during our weekly group meeting or journal club. She is more than willing to give LORs or advice. I work under a research associate under her.</p>
<p>In a previous lab I met the lab PI once, and worked under a MD/PhD assistant professor under him. I wouldn't have asked the PI, but the MD/PhD for a LOR. I saw him maybe once every one or two weeks.</p>
<p>In my internship this summer I had to make the effort to schedule 1:1 meetings with the group leaders two levels above me and ask them if they could eventually write me a LOR. I'm not sure if a LOR from my direct supervisor there would hold as much weight...</p>
<p>My advice would be, if you want a letter of rec from your PI, try to schedule an individual appt with him/her to go over your project, possible future directions and talk about your future plans... a little effort on your part could go a long way.</p>
<p>WOW i feel extremely lucky then. I talk to my PI pretty much everyday when I go to the lab. And most of the time I talk to her multiple times per day. And sometimes meetings can go on for an hour between us....</p>
<p>Yeah, me too. I see my PI every day. We've spent hours talking science before.</p>
<p>hi TBone, it all depends on your PI. If you work in a big lab, for a big shot PI who is very busy, then it is unlikely that you will meet very frequently with the PI. It also depends on the project that you are working on. If the project you are working on is high priority for the PI, then you may meet more frequently. Alternatively, if your project is low priority, you may less frequently. </p>
<p>If you are meeting with the PI twice per month as an undergrad--and by "meet" I mean a sit down in his office for a one-on-one--then you are getting a lot of exposure. I would hope that at the least you see the PI just around the lab almost everytime you are in the lab.</p>
<p>I see my PI almost every day, and always drop into her office to chit-chat or ask questions. Things are pretty relaxed in my lab :)</p>
<p>I see my PI almost daily where we'll discuss any new developments that may help in planning/doing current experiments. I meet with her once a week and meetings usually run about an hour or so depending on how many projects I need to discuss. We also meet as a lab once a week and I present my data every month and a half or so on top of presenting at journal clubs which are less frequent.</p>