Abandoning a professor and trying to get another one? >_>

starbright
Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:21:16 +0000

It’s not free labor. Taking on an unskilled student (even undergrads) to help with university research, is for the most part, a HUGE burden and investment on the part of the lab that solely benefits the student. Students need training to be of any remote use to a lab. Moreover, it’s extremely unlikely you’d be in a position to be doing ‘research’ instead of just assisting. As in the proverbial beaker cleaning and sweeping floors. on the faculty. If you can’t appreciate that they gave far more than you can give back, or that you simply could never get to do more than ‘assist’ at your level of development…that attitude might be a reason they’ve not bothered to invest more with you.

I speak from the position of mentoring lots of young people in my lab, and also watching with gratitude the very generous gift my kids have gotten from working with faculty in their areas of interest. They know it’s a gift, and are just thankful for any chance they’ve been given to even be a lab, period.

To answer your question, you can do what you want. There is no rule here. But you might ask yourself first why should someone take you on?