<p>can anyone tell me how the system works? Is it b*tch work, mini project, or a full blown one stemming from your own ideas? Also, can anyone link me to the main undergrad research sites. This is all I could find: </p>
<p>I'm a biology grad student at Harvard, and I'm working with a Harvard undergrad (he's going to be a sophomore, and he started this summer), so I can tell you how it works in my lab.</p>
<p>This summer, he's working with me learning techniques and learning about the types of projects people do in our lab. He's definitely doing a lot of technical work, but it's also the kind of work I do on a day-to-day basis -- it's important for him to learn the techniques and protocols before he starts his own project. </p>
<p>When he comes back next summer, he and I will sit down with the professor in charge of our lab and discuss a project he can start himself, which he'll continue working on with assistance from me and other members of the lab. He'll do his senior thesis on that project. I guess it's a mini-project compared to a graduate student or postdoc project, but that's only because he doesn't work 60 hours a week all year like the grad students and postdocs do. :) He will certainly have to do lots of original thinking and planning and troubleshooting, with any assistance he needs.</p>
<p>How much time and how much mentoring will the undergraduate student receive directly from the professor in charge of the lab?</p>
<p>I meet with mine twice per week.</p>
<p>In my case, he will receive just as much as the rest of us do -- he meets with the PI on a regular basis, has the opportunity to give lab meeting, etc.</p>
<p>Do you happen to know if there are similar opportunities is Physics? Also, would one be required to be a Biology major to work in a Biology lab?</p>
<p>Yes there are similar opportunities in Physics (although it's more difficult to get to the point that you're designing your own project because the field is already so far along so you need really upper-level coursework to follow the cutting edge stuff). No, one would not be required to be a Bio major to work in a Bio lab.</p>
<p>Hey molliebatmit! I'm going to be a freshman at Harvard this fall and I am VERY interested in getting started and acquainted with research just like the undergrad student you're currently working with. I'm a potential molecular/cell bio concentrator and I was wondering how exactly one would get an opportunity like that to work with a grad student. It seems like the perfect opportunity for me especially because I went to a school that didn't emphasize scientific research at all - basically, I don't have any prior lab/research experience. So I would love to do something similar - learning from a grad student about the basics of lab techniques... and setting up a foundation further research (possibly a senior thesis). Can you offer me any advice? Thanks so much!</p>
<p>what about research outside of the sciences? anyone know anything about that?</p>
<p>My undergrad just emailed the professor in charge of my lab this winter with a short resume (just talking about the classes he had taken, his intended major, his extracurriculars, that sort of thing -- no research experience required) and a cover letter explaining why he found our research interesting. My professor invited him to visit and talk with me to see if the project I'm working on was something that would interest him, and then he and I both decided that we'd like to work together. He got summer housing at Harvard through the [url=<a href="http://www.priselink.harvard.edu/index.html%5DPRISE%5B/url">http://www.priselink.harvard.edu/index.html]PRISE[/url</a>] program, and a stipend through (I think) [url=<a href="http://www.seo.harvard.edu/resprog/hcrp.html%5DHCRP%5B/url">http://www.seo.harvard.edu/resprog/hcrp.html]HCRP[/url</a>].</p>
<p>My lab currently has 5 undergrads, and some of them are working with grad students and some are working with postdoctoral fellows -- it just depends on who wanted an undergrad at the particular time that these undergrads expressed interest in the lab.</p>
<p>It's pretty easy to do undergraduate research at Harvard (although of course I can't speak for anything other than biology). There are a lot more professors than there are undergrads, after all. :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply! I was just worried that my lack of research experience might limit my options severely. Hopefully something will work out for me. :)</p>
<p>I just hope the process of finding a lab isn't too competitive...</p>
<p>I don't get the feeling it is -- after all, if you include the labs at the medical school (which my lab is, officially), there are several hundred biology professors at Harvard. It certainly wasn't particularly competitive for me to choose a lab as a grad student.</p>