<p>What are the best ways of finding out about professors' reputation?
I'm a Canadian undergrad going into second year on September.
One suggestion I got is to try asking other people in my field and see how prestigious the journals a professor is publishing in are.
But this tip doesn't work well for me; the only prestigious journals I know of for my field Biochemistry are Nature and Science. When I scanned various profs' publication records available on my undergrad's department website, I don't think I saw many journals published in Nature or Science.
And roughly all the profs in my department have won some kinds of awards. What kinds of awards should I use as a measure for finding out the degree of profs' reputation?
Being able to find out about profs' reputation will help me decide on what profs' courses to take and whom to work with for indepedent research or lab/research volunteering for the rest of my undergrad career. I'm aware that LORs from prestigious profs have a much greater impact compared with those from not-well-known profs.</p>
<p>"Being able to find out about profs' reputation will help me decide on what profs' courses to take and whom to work with for indepedent research or lab/research volunteering for the rest of my undergrad career. I'm aware that LORs from prestigious profs have a much greater impact compared with those from not-well-known profs."</p>
<p>I don't think it's going to work out the way you think.</p>
<p>ratemyprofessor.com
hahahaha
it might help i guess
wont hurt to try</p>
<p>norcalguy: Why not?</p>
<p>
[quote]
ratemyprofessor.com
hahahaha
it might help i guess
wont hurt to try
[/quote]
I don't want just any kind of reputation. The type of reputation I'm interested in is that among scholars in my field and admission committees, not among students!</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm aware that LORs from prestigious profs have a much greater impact compared with those from not-well-known profs
[/quote]
What on earth gave you that idea? The most important thing is that they know you well and that they write well. This is often inversely correlated with their fame.</p>
<p>Try looking for the citation records of the professors. </p>
<p>Science Citation Index compiles all the times each scientist is cited in peer reviewed publications. People with more citations are generally more prominent, and certainly better known. If you want to pursue this further, also look at the impact factors of the journals in which they publish. Science and Nature, along with Cell, at at the top, but impact factors will sort out the prestige of the other journals.</p>
<p>You can also check whether any of them are members of the National Academy of Sciences. Check out the NAS website.</p>
<p>Reputation of the scientist writing the letters seems to matter more for graduate school than for medical school. For graduate school applications you can count on the faculty in the Biochemistry department knowing that Professor X, who wrote your letter, is a prominent biochemist. Unless X has a Lasker prize, the medical school admissions folks may never have heard of her, even if she is about to get a Nobel. </p>
<p>For graduate school, your potential as an investigator is, by far, the most important admission criterion. Some would say the only criterion. For medical school, lots of other things come into play. Your gpa and mcat's predict how you will do in your medical school classes, your extracurriculars and knowledge of the medical field indicate whether you are personally suited to the field, your interview counts for a lot.</p>
<p>All that said, please keep in mind that "world famous researcher" and "good person to sponsor an undergraduate for research" are not necessarily the same. You need to find out who really looks for, encourages, and helps undergrads just getting started. There is probably no way to figure this out from public sources. You may do far better to talk with one or more professors in the department, go over your goals, and ask them who they would recommend. Perhaps try the department chair, or the director of the undergraduate program, who will have an overall view of the department. Speak with junior and senior undergraduates, and with graduate students if your college has a graduate program.</p>
<p>This is much more likely to be fruitful if you really want to do research. If you are doing it just to get into medical school, then the professors will not want to waste their time, and you probably will not enjoy the experience. Most people who go to medical school have no scientific research in their backgrounds. It is hardly required.</p>
<p>I knew if I waited long enough, someone would answer for me ;) What afan said^^^. A more famous professor doesn't mean a better teacher, a better rec letter, or a better PI.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The most important thing is that they know you well and that they write well. This is often inversely correlated with their fame.
[/quote]
bluedevilmike: Could you explain how that's inversely correlated with their fame? Do you mean that less prestigious profs tend to be better guiders and recommenders?</p>
<p>afan: I just visited the Science Citation Index at <a href="http://scientific.thomson.com/%5B/url%5D">http://scientific.thomson.com/</a> but how do you use it? Does this website have records of all the journals published by profs and researchers all over the world? I tried a search feature of the website; I set the search option to "Search by Full Journal Title" and I put in a random journal title of a prof in my school's department. Strangely, it didn't return any results. What is the proper way of using this?</p>
<p>I also checked out the National Academy of Sciences, but, unfortunately, this only applies to the US, not Canada.</p>
<p>
[quote]
..."world famous researcher" and "good person to sponsor an undergraduate for research" are not necessarily the same. You need to find out who really looks for, encourages, and helps undergrads just getting started.
[/quote]
There are about 20 profs in my department; consulting every single one of them about doing research will require much time. What I came up with to deal with this problem is to first "filter out" a certain number of profs based on prestige. This will help save time and increase the chance that I will find profs who might simultaneously be 1)great undergrad research sponsor, 2) prestigious researcher and 3) great LOR writer and recommender.</p>
<p>
[quote]
This is much more likely to be fruitful if you really want to do research. If you are doing it just to get into medical school, then the professors will not want to waste their time, and you probably will not enjoy the experience. Most people who go to medical school have no scientific research in their backgrounds. It is hardly required.
[/quote]
In addition to med school, I'm also thinking of grad school. I thought doing undergrad research will be helpful later on if I change my mind not to go to med school and want to go to grad school instead. I want to remain flexible as possible in my ability to change path.</p>
<p>ysk1:</p>
<p>I'll give your question a shot.</p>
<p>Bigshot professors generally don't spend much of their time in the lab doing research. They're applying for grants, writing articles, off at research conferences, etc. (If the bigshot professor's in the lab, chances are he's talking with his graduate students, postbaccs, lab techs, research scientists, etc.) Since a prospective undergrad will be spending a lot of the time in the lab, chances are they won't ever see the bigshot professor. How can that undergrad get a good recommendation if the bigshot professor's barely seen them, let alone interacted with them?</p>
<p>That's why people here have been recommending that you find someone who's less "prestigious" - chances are, that professor will actually have the time and inclination to get to know you. And that is where great LORs come from.</p>
<p>"There are about 20 profs in my department; consulting every single one of them about doing research will require much time."</p>
<p>Have you actually tried to look for research? Let's put it this way: If you can email less than 20 profs and still find a lab that'll take you, consider yourself lucky.</p>
<p>shades_children: Thanks for clearing it up. But it would be best if you could work with someone who's both a prestigious researcher and a great recommender, right?</p>
<p>Yes. It would be best if you can find a big shot who's also down-to-earth. ;)</p>
<p>
[quote]
Have you actually tried to look for research? Let's put it this way: If you can email less than 20 profs and still find a lab that'll take you, consider yourself lucky.
[/quote]
norcalguy: Between June 1 and 25, I emailed 6 profs out of about 20, and I got replies from 3 of them. Two of them weren't willing to automatically let me work in their lab; they wanted to have a little talk with me first about my expectation and what I wanted to do in the lab. The other one just said his lab was already full this summer. He told me to contact him again on middle of August about working in the lab starting Fall semester (September).</p>
<p>That's actually an encouraging response, given the late date. Most profs would expect to line up their crew of summer students by the middle of the spring term at the latest. The fact that 2 were willing to talk to you says good things about their interest in undergrads.</p>
<p>No one, no one, no one is going to invite you into their lab site unseen. All they have from you is an email. They would need to find out whether you would fit in the community of their lab, what you are interested in, and what you already know, so they can decide whether they have something for you.</p>
<p>It takes a while to learn to navigate ISI. First, it is a commercial site, so you may not be able to get in to most of the useful stuff for free. Your college probably has an account, and you will have to login that way. Depending on how they set things up, you may have to do this from the library. Once you are in, search for a professor's name. Do not worry at this point about the journals. Once you have the name, you want to click on "citation report". This will then give you this sort of information</p>
<p>Results found:</p>
<p>517 (this is the number of publications)</p>
<p>Sum of the Times Cited information :</p>
<p>90,505 (this is the number of other papers that have cited a paper by this author)</p>
<p>View
View without self-citations
Average Citations per Item information :</p>
<p>175.06 (this is the quotient of citations/publication. How often, on average, are this author's publications cited by others)</p>
<p>h-index information :</p>
<p>156 (this is a relatively new formula for evaluating the the citation information)</p>
<p>These are astronomical figures for one of the most noted Nobel laureates ever, so don't be surprised if none of your professors are anywhere close. </p>
<p>Again, this will be interesting, but do not assume that the most highly cited professor is the best one with whom to work. Speak with the head of the undergraduate program at your college and get advice on where to look for research opportunities.</p>
<p>afan: Thanks for your post. My college doesn't have an ISI account, but it has one for Web of Science. They are the same thing, right?</p>
<p>I don't know.They have a range of packages and it depends on what your university has. </p>
<p>Try it and see if it works. </p>
<p>But do not use this to pick professors to pursue. Do you have an adviser in Biochem yet? If not, seek out someone in the department to guide you.</p>
<p>I just found out they are the same thing. When I searched for my prof's name and clicked on "Citation Report", I was led to a page containing figures similar to what you described. As you said, the numbers are nowhere close to those you listed. But what is considered poor, average, good, and excellent (Nobel standard)?</p>
<p>I don't have an advisor in Biochem, yet. What are some ways of seeking out excellent undergrad research sponsors?</p>
<p>One more thing: When I do a search using a prof's name, many different people with the same name appear in the result, because the search engine doesn't let me search using the prof's exact name. For example, if a prof's name is Bob Jones, then you can only put in Jones B*, not Jones Bob. So every person with the last name Jones and first name starting with the letter B will appear in the result. What would be the usefulness of "Report Citation" if it takes into account journals of different people under same last name and first name initial?</p>
<p>There are several pages where you can narrow down the search once you have a name, for example, by field and by institution. You have know not only where the person works now, but where they worked in the past to use the institution search.</p>
<p>finding mentors: Contact the head of undergraduate biochem program. This may or may not be the department chair, but find out. Tell them you are interested in biochem as a major, maybe grad school, and need both general advice and help finding a research experience. They will expect to hear this from new students, so don't be shy. You will not find an experience for this summer, it is far too late. Not that many people do research after freshman year, since most need more background before they can do anything in the lab. However, contact the people now, and if they are around, and you are around, the summer might be a good time to get acquainted and have a good talk.</p>
<p>Good numbers vary by field, and I am not sure about biochemistry anymore. VERY roughly, perhaps one fifth the number of publications, one twentieth the number of citations, one fifth the citations per paper, and one fifth the H index would make someone a respected tenured professor at a top university.</p>