<p>I'm thinking about doing some research in the fall but I'm packed with 17 credits. Should I devote at least a few weeks a week toward research? </p>
<p>How many credits of classes do you usually take with research? </p>
<p>Also, let's say I want to do research with this specific professor but she has high expectations, gradewise and coursework wise. Would it be okay, to start small in research with a professor that's in a slightly similar field for a while until I've taken the required classes and improved my grades for the other professor?</p>
<p>Thanks. Feel free to share your research experiences.</p>
<p>One thing to check, if research counts for credit hours at your school: what are the max credits you can take? Like, at my school, you’d only be able to take 2 hours of research per week.</p>
<p>The research I do doesn’t count as credit hours. I put in maybe 10 hours a week and do fine. Sort of depends on your time management. If you think you need extra work, as well, go do that while researching with someone else.</p>
<p>For my lab, I have to do at least 15 hours a week, but that’s because the PI that I am working under has the high expectations and such, so 15 hours is a lot. I think it usually ranges from 8-12 hours a week, depending on the lab.</p>
<p>I also don’t think it matters what field you go into for the smaller lab, but I think you should go that route to prep yourself for the larger lab. If you didn’t have any experience working in a lab before (or haven’t taken any lab courses in whatever you are doing), it’s pretty much really hard to get into the lab w/ “high expectations.” Starting in the smaller lab will allow you to get the basic skills down and such, and then you can learn basic methods and such so the transition over to the lab w/ high expectations will be easier. Anyways, like I said, it doesn’t matter which field this other lab is, but keep in mind that you would probably be asking for a rec from this lab’s PI to give to PI of the lab you want, so do quality work even though the expectation might not be the same as the lab w/ high expectations. It’ll also help if the PI of the smaller lab knows (in a positive manner) the PI of the lab that you want to get into in the long run.</p>
<p>And with the lab I am in right now, I’m taking 14 units on a quarter system (3 classes).</p>
<p>I hope whatever I said wasn’t confusing o_O’'</p>
<p>Oh, and my PI says “You need to keep your GPA up. If your GPA drops while you’re in the lab, that means that you can’t be in a lab while in school, which is bad.” But, not all PI’s are that caring of their undergrads, monitoring their GPA and stuff. But, the point is that I think she’s right. If your GPA drops while you’re in the lab, remember that it’s your GPA that matters first, so you should either do less work in the lab or drop it.</p>
<p>Oh >.<‘’ I actually don’t know how helpful my post will be if you’re not doing research in some science related field… >.<‘’ Sorry.</p>
<p>Your post is very informative. Thank you so much!!! </p>
<p>I’m in a science related field. I’m a BME major and I’m going to be working under a EE lab for semiconductor materials. I think I might do 4-8 hours a week. I COULD drop piano(don’t need just taking it for fun), so I’ll only be taking 16 credits. </p>
<p>I don’t think it counts for credit hours but I’ll have to speak to the professor about everything first.</p>