<p>When you guys put down research experience, do you list your position you had like research assistant, associate, etc...? I'm a mech engineering major sophomore, and currently I'm pretty much volunteering in a lasers&plasma diagnostics lab. The professor gave me a schedule that requires me to go there 7 1/2 hrs a week. Right now, I'm just kind of following the grad students around and shadowing them, and seeing what I can help with. There aren't any experiments for me to work on atm. Is following them around and contributing a bit considered research experience?</p>
<p>Also, when you guys had research experience, did you guys work a lot with the professor or grad students? Right now, the professor just sits in a separate room and does stuff on the computer, and I'm in the room with all the other grad&undergrad students.</p>
<p>Yes, although with these 1000 character limits, it’s not as easy as you think!</p>
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<p>Haha what did you expect, to sit on the professors lap? Just kidding. Unfortunately for myself I never did undergrad research but from what I hear, that is very common, in fact, probably the norm. Don’t worry about it.</p>
<p>really? You want down what position you had? I just asked a grad student and he told me that he just listed the research experience he had, and described what he did. He never mentioned anything about his “rank” as in research assitant, associate, etc… maybe it’s diff for everyone? Can I get some diff opinions please?</p>
<p>We’re kind of getting into the nitty-gritty. It all depends on how you want to frame your statement. I’m uploading a CV in addition to my statement just so that I have my bases covered, but in the narrative of my research statement, I say something like “As an Associate Scientist, I [blah blah blah]” As simple as that. </p>
<p>My title is in industry, however, so it is much more concrete and unequivocal.</p>
<p>my research experience is a little different. I did research at Columbia University Medical Center for a few summers and worked with a research scientist (no grad students), then i did one summer at Columbia University Biomedical Engineering and worked very closely with the professor and not the grad students. And now im doing research with a staff scientist at Brookhaven National Lab Center for Functional Nanomaterials, where its just me and him, one on one all the time. I find that working with the professor or staff scientist directly is a million times better than working with grad students. I guess it all depends on the circumstance whether or not you can work with a professor one on one.</p>