Part 1 of this post on research covered the questions of how important research is when applying to med school or residency, how to find a mentor, and how to decide on a research topic. Here, I’ll go into some of the more specific questions I’ve received.
How to know if a mentor is good or bad?
In the initial stages of finding a mentor and committing to a project, focus on three key things. How responsive is this person- do they take a week to reply to each email, or are they proactive about communication? This is one of the biggest complaints students have about mentors, so pay attention to this before you commit to working with them. The second thing is how much they care about your interests. Do they ask your opinions and make sure that you are interested in the projects they suggest you work on? If they don’t make an effort to find out what you are most interested in, that’s not a great sign. Third is personality and how well you guys interact. If you can laugh with your mentors and if you guys have good conversations, that makes all the difference, and will affect how much you enjoy your experience.
How to deal with unresponsive or otherwise not-so-great mentors?
Truly, I am lucky that I haven’t dealt with this much. The PI I work with at Yale is incredibly considerate, patient, and overall super fun. The people I worked with at Princeton were the same- I really enjoyed their company and they made me laugh a ton. I have dealt with mentors on smaller scale projects who are unresponsive to email, and I tried to just finish up whatever project I was doing with them but I never continued working with those individuals. Honestly, you can just email and follow up a couple times, but if someone doesn’t respond, you shouldn’t commit to more projects with them. Try to pop in to their office and casually ask if they had a chance to think about your email, but be normal about it and say something like “Oh, I know you are super busy, I just popped in to see if you had any thoughts on xyz, No worries if you need more time, but let me know!” That will at least nudge them to give you an answer and you won’t look crazy.
How to impress your research mentor?
HAHAHA I am not sure if I have ever done this. I try to just put my head down and get the work done and do whatever my mentors tell me to. That’s the only way that I think I can impress them. These people are experts in their fields and they know 500 times more than me. I’m not going to blow them away by my knowledge. Maybe in terms of creativity I could contribute something. But otherwise, I think you grow by putting in the hours, and I think that’s all mentors really want from us. If you do that, they’ll be happy.
How much of a time commitment is it? How to balance it?
I think it’s really helpful if you can devote one entire summer to research. I had done this in undergrad and also in med school. This gives you some uninterrupted time to focus on the project without worrying about classes. But besides that, I think it’s nice if you can block out about 5 hours per week to wrap up those projects during the academic year. Of course, it’s hard when classes or rotations get busy, but if you can put in that much time, I think you’ll make good progress. Since starting rotations, I haven’t put much time into research, and I feel slightly guilty but I also get home at 9 PM sometimes and I wake up at 5 AM, so there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do it. After this year, I hope to do a lot more. In undergrad, I used to spend a few hours a week in lab- sometimes I’d go in at 10 or 11 PM and just crank out some work, and I didn’t mind because I could do it on my own schedule. Anything with a flexible schedule will be easier to balance. Otherwise, I guess the answer is to take one less class or participate in one less activity. There’s only so many hours in a day.
Okay that’s all for now. There’s also the question of taking a year to do research, and that can be a whole other post. Anyways, have a nice Memorial Day Weekend friends!
All views expressed are solely mine, and are not endorsed by my academic institution. This post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, and this site should not be relied upon as health advice. I am a student, and share my opinions and experiences through this platform, but am not qualified to give medical advice, nor am I seeking to do so.
