Undergrad research vs. Grad research

MaceVindaloo
Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:38:36 +0000

In general, I don’t think undergraduate research is anywhere near as intense as graduate research. Many of the schools I interviewed at strongly recommended having post-bac full time research experience because they felt it would give students a more realistic idea of grad school. It really depends on the level of your undergraduate research, though. I worked on several independent projects and a thesis, so I was working 30 or so hours a week not counting the the data analysis I had to do on my own time. I think that really prepared me well for grad school and the faculty I interviewed with felt the same way.

If I had not done those types of projects, I personally would not have felt as confident or be as realistic about graduate school. When you work with a postdoc or whoever on a project as an undergrad, a lot of the actual science has been taken care of already (theory, designing experiments, etc.) and the burden of trying to make it work is not directly on you. Even if you really care about the project, it is different than the project you personally have developed. You are also not automatically expected to put a massive amount of time into the project as an undergrad, which is not the case when you work on your own thesis.

I would strongly suggest summer research programs or just working in a research lab full time during the summer with a more independent project. That will really show you how it feels to do research full time with much more responsibility. Obviously many people come into graduate school without a lot of experience and they just have to adjust a little more.