<p>Title says it all,</p>
<p>Basically, this summer I'm planning on doing quite a bit of lab work/research through a nearby university. I was wondering how many hours (total) would constitute a good amount of work done. Or am I completely wrong and the significance is dependent on the output (research paper, publication, etc.). This question was mainly brought up due possibilities of a couple extra weeks of research at the expensive of another summer program (negligible but important to me).</p>
<p>Any input would be appreciated.</p>
<p>EDIT: Junior going into senior year, for the purpose of undergraduate applications.</p>
<p>It’s better to focus on the significance of the research, rather than how many hours worked.</p>
<p>Most college applications will allow you to submit publications or research papers for consideration.</p>
<p>I’m not too confident that enough will get done to create a well-rounded research paper or to be able to get a publication. So the hours/volunteer/assistant approach will probably be more realistic in terms of possibility.</p>
<p>I think it depends what else you are doing. I tend to think that about 40 hours a week of work per summer is a good rule of thumb - that’s significantly less than most kids applying to elites do during the school year. It keeps you busy but doesn’t overwhelm you, and no one is a robot, we all need time to recharge. As far as number of weeks, common app doesn’t ask for a total number of hours, it asks for hours per week and weeks per year. I think 7 is a perfect number - again, 3-4 weeks off, because we are not robots, but still a lot of time/effort. Just do whatever you are comfortable with. Make sure you have time for college apps and any test prep you may need to do as well.</p>
<p>When I did research last summer, I worked from late May to half way through September, so I did approximately 14 weeks of work of which 12 weeks were 40 hours a week, and 2 were about 10-15 hrs a week. Sometimes I would go in on weekends and help out some more. Just make sure you’re doing something you enjoy, and have stuff to do during the down time, because sometimes you are waiting a while for the experiments to finish. It can be pretty monotonous, so just make sure you know what you’re getting into.</p>
<p>^Are you in college? Thats a really long summer, seems more like college than high school</p>
<p>Nope, I am a senior, and I started working May 20th-ish about 10 hrs a week going in after school twice a week. Then around June 8th I started full-time work after my exams ended. School began September ~7th and I had to keep working for another two weeks part time again because I had to get the research done. I was writing for my IB extended essay in chemistry and needed to have my work completed otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to complete my essay.
Also, when I met with the principle investigator of the lab the impression I got was that many labs don’t want to have a kid there just for a summer (I mean the usual 2 months internships) for high schoolers because the projects usually take longer than that to complete and to be honest most high schoolers will not be able to fully grasp the content of the project in that short timeframe. So I actually got in contact with the professor in March, he gave me all I needed to study on the side to get the gist of the research, and made myself as flexible as possible so that I could do as much in the lab as I could.</p>
<p>When filling out the app, not much emphasis is placed on the amount of time you spend but rather your results explained in an abstract or paper along with awards you might have garnered with it. While more time might correlate with more data and therefore meaningful results, it doesn’t necessarily mean more time will equate to more data as I’ve found in my own experience.</p>
<p>In my opinion, a good amount of time would be maybe 8-10 weeks in the summer, 4-5 days a week, ~8 hours a day. While that is a fairly solid amount of time to get results, it depends entirely on the field of work. Some procedures require weeks while others, a few hours. Work with your mentor, make sure he knows your goals so he can relegate something manageable within the time frame. As long as you think you can produce significant results, I wouldn’t worry at all about missing out on the opportunity to spend a couple extra weeks doing research.</p>