<p>^Hmm, I don’t think it is as much about timing as how much time and effort you put into the research: to show the professor you are passionate about what you are doing.</p>
<p>Then again, I am only a rising senior in High School, but I did co-author a paper with a professor when I did research all of last year.</p>
<p>^someone wants to brag lol</p>
<p>@sapatel: Well I would have reported her for smoking weed in the room and having a drug dealer come in and also smoke weed in the room. But she was just really rude/self-righteous in general and accused me of being the ‘inconsiderate’ one whenever I tried to talk to her. </p>
<p>@abutler5: You have to work in a professor’s lab for a good amount of time before you can even think about publishing. Spend your first year or two focusing on classes and then work at getting a good lab position. Obsessing over co-authoring right now isn’t going to get you anywhere.</p>
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<p>Actually I was giving my opinion to his question, and the only reason I included the research bit was to establish credibility (just so he wouldn’t think who is this random guy without any experience posting).</p>
<p>If I wanted to brag, I would sure as hell not do it here because that doesn’t get me anything and is just a waste of my time positing it.</p>
<p>I apologize if it appeared as if I were “bragging”.</p>
<p>lol it’s okay, your advice was actually good</p>
<p>@flutterfly - I’m an incoming transfer junior, so unfortunately I don’t have a year or two. Kind of a bummer. If everything works out, I’m going to work in a lab this year and do a senior honors thesis next year, I’d just love to get published before I leave Cal, but the timeline probably won’t work out for me.</p>
<p>I would’ve liked to be able to study in my room but I couldn’t since my roommate was distracting…</p>
<p>I also should’ve done way more practice sets for problems. I might have a 3.2 GPA had I done that thoroughly enough.</p>
<p>I also would make more of an effort to teach myself things. I had an easy high school so I didn’t really comprehend that whole, “Teach it to yourself,” idea.</p>
<p>Focus on your grades but don’t let it become so obsessive that you lose sleep over it and stress about it 3+ hours a day. I’m pretty sure I developed an inferiority complex since I kept comparing myself to my peers. I don’t know what kind of background you’re from but my parents told me that I can only do my best. After a year of being stubborn, I finally realized that they were right (for once, hence my disbelief). To put it bluntly, be confident :)</p>
<p>Yep, you have to start every situation with confidence in yourself, otherwise you increase the chance of your own failure through a self fulfilling prophesy.</p>
<p>Plus, nobody else is going to have as much confidence in you as you do yourself due to people’s natural inclination to overvalue their own ability and undervalue others. I think they call that the fundamental attribution error. I’m no social psychologist, but I have experienced this with my friends. Of course, I have never made this mistake myself, as I am far too much of a badass.</p>
<p>I would have at least tried to study abroad, joined clubs, made more friends, took pictures (I have none).</p>
<p>I basically lived under a rock the whole time I was at Cal and I totally regret it.</p>