<p>I've heard that for research to be meaningful, one has to have their own project. However, I found a mentor too late to qualify for the SURF grant. I'm just working for pay right now, but I was just wondering what an undergrad is supposed to do during research. I'm doing some basic chores, but I am also doing some stuff that I consider "science", such as running gels, analyzing sequences, and making genomic maps. I enjoy my work and was promised my own project, but I'm getting a little worried because it seems like some of my super competetive peers got better gigs than me. Should I be worried? It's already been about a month in, and I'm starting to get concerned about my lack of a project.</p>
<p>did u ask ur mentor about a possible project yet? you could just talk to him and tell him that you want one--and since you've been working for a month already I'm sure you have enough experience to at least start working on a project. You go to WashU right? did you do any lab work at the med school or anything during the course of the year? because if you did, then you could definitely bring that up about your "lab experience" when you talk to him.</p>
<p>I'm a little embarrassed to ask actually, it just doesn't really make sense to me why he should pay me to work on my own research project. When I'm doing basic lab chores like autoclaving, I know I'm at least helping out the lab. It would make a lot more sense if I had gotten grants, but unfortunately, I didn't.</p>
<p>I'm asking because I never did research before, my parents don't know anything about science careers, and I don't really have enough connections to know what real research is supposed to be like.</p>
<p>It's your first summer. Your goal this summer is to build experience. Projects of your own are dessert at this stage. Techniques, exposure, and a solid LOR is the bread and butter of summer research.</p>
<p>I've been volunteering in a lab starting a year ago and all I did was basic chores like streaking and putting cottons into pipets. I wanted to receive and work on my own project but I didn't know how. I was even embarrased to ask for one because I had no previous research experience and I was only a volunteer. What I did is I applied to do undergrad summer research program for this summer and now I'm working on my own project while getting paid.</p>
<p>I'm in a molecular biology lab and the main things I'm doing are a balance of no-brainer and brainer work. No-brainer work are things like picking and maintaining strains of C. elegans and streaking plates with bacteria. More brainer work are designing primers, running the PCR, analyzing data on genes and sequences, and so on. My PI and supervisors just give me things to do and I do them. As of yet I don't get to design my experiments and decide what to do next because I lack much experience to be independent like that. Btw I'm working on four separate projects, one of which my supervisor said is likely to be publishable soon.
Is my experience the norm for undergrads?</p>
<p>^ That's very similar to my experience. Started with grunt work and basic lab techniques, and now I'm into more complex procedures but I'm still completely directed.</p>
<p>Mainly, I still don't have the microbio and genetics knowledge to start a project, but I've been told that I can start a project when I'm ready and have the time. So I'm in the same boat, starting from the bottom and work my way up. I sure don't enjoy cleaning fish tanks everyday, but I know I'll graduate with some solid research and a great LOR, as well as good experience to put on a resume. I think that's pretty standard for undergrads, you just have to stick with stick to it until you get more substantial work to do.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies, I'm glad others have been through a similar situation.</p>