It really depends on the lab! It depends on the kind of research the lab does, the size of the lab, the current projects in the lab that you can assist with, the lab’s capacity to train you, but also, what your goals are! While some positions are more fixed, research can be quite flexible and projects can change or add new aspects tasks.
Typically, you don’t start with your own project, but instead get trained while assisting other lab members. In the beginning, you will likely start with reading papers, shadowing other lab members, going over tutorials, completing online training (e.g., ethics training to work with human subjects), equipment safety training, etc.
After on boarding, you may assist lab members with participant recruitment, subject handling, or data collection. Some more examples: help clean or organize or manage data, run (part of the) data analysis, or make stimuli for the experiment.
You may also be asked to help with more logistical aspects of running a lab, such as helping with setting up or updating the lab website or lab wiki.
Once you’ve found your footing and things are going well, you can ask if there is room for more responsibilities and/or your own (side) project. They may say no, but if you don’t ask you certainly won’t get it!
If you are thinking about doing an honors thesis, let your PI know early on! This allows them to plan for it and find ways for you to learn skills that that will be useful for your thesis.
Before you consider applying to labs, look at your calendar. Do you have 10 hours a week that you can devote to something else? Are your grades good and will they not suffer when you devote 10 hours to something else? If the answers are yes to both, that’s great! If you are not sure or say no, then please be honest with yourself if this is the right time. Don’t overcommit! It will stress you out and it may frustrate the PI or the lab member you work with because you are chasing deadlines/under deliver.
- How many hours a week is a research position?
That depends on the position! It can be hourly, part time, or full time. Typically, an hourly research position is at least 5 hours/week but typically more towards 10 hours/week. A part time position will be 2-3 days, and a full time position will be (you guess it) 5 days.
Pro Tip! When you are invited to discuss more about the position, one think you want to ask before committing is whether you are expect to work evenings, early mornings, or weekends. (And decide if that works for you or not.)
- What is a typical duration for UG volunteer positions?
I don’t think there are strict rules, but people typically expect you work for at least several months or one semester. Ideally, you would stay longer. When you join a lab as a research assistant or volunteer, the PI and their lab will invest their time and resources in you and learning you things. It will take time for you to learn new skills, so be patient! Especially technical skills take time to learn.
If you really don’t like it and are unhappy, then of course it’s ok to leave the lab. Just be aware that leaving (or ghosting) the PI/lab after a month, looks unprofessional and makes the PI feel like you wasted their time and efforts. (see also Leaving the lab gracefully).
- How long do I need to volunteer/work in a lab before I can ask for a reference letter?
For your mentor/supervisor to write a good reference letter, they need to have enough experience working with you and give concrete examples of what you did during the time in the lab. If you work 10 hrs/week, I suggest you work at least 1 semester (or 1 full time summer) in the lab before asking for a reference letter. But ideally, you’ve spend at least a year or more time in the lab.
You typically start as a volunteer, working in this position for a semester. If things go well and you like the work and you want to stay, then let your PI know! You can then also ask if you can transition to a paid position, for example, apply for the RAY program to get paid hourly or apply for a scholarship.
Internal:
- RAY
- REDI
- Work/study (although this is typically for more administrative roles):
External:
No. It is typically not expected that undergraduate students have a lot of research experience or any technical skills. Of course, some technical or research skills are better than no skills, but don’t worry if you don’t have those yet. It’s more important that you are interested in learning and are curious and ask questions. In addition, soft skills are very important and valued (especially those research labs that work with human participants). If you have any soft skills or experience working with people (especially, children or patients or elderly), don’t be afraid to mention this.
- Can I apply only to on campus research opportunities or also outside of campus?
Either is fine! It may be easier to connect with PI’s and labs on campus, as well as getting stipend sponsored by the university. But there is no rule it has to be on campus. You can also consider volunteering in research labs in hospitals or clinics.
Ok. You’ve decided to you want to apply and want to find a position. How do you get a foot in the door?
The first email you send to a professor (to ask about research volunteer positions) is important.
It gives a glimpse of who you are and how you work. A good, short, to the point email can be the difference between getting a reply or not.
Here are some tips:
- Keep it short and concise: no one has time to read long emails.
- Do your homework: make sure the lab is still at the university, what kind of research are they doing, their methods, how big the lab is. See if the lab has other research assistants (RAs) or UG volunteers on their website. If so, the PI is familiar with these positions and may have suitable projects for UG. (Btw, the opposite — no UG volunteers in the lab — is not a bad sign!)
- Do a spell check! The times I’ve my name misspelled is sad.
- Write it (somewhat) formally.
- Use your YorkU email if you can.
- Use a greeting at the beginning “Dear Prof. X” or “Hi Dr. X”
- Use a formal ending, for example: “Best wishes, Eline Kupers” or “Kind regards, Eline Kupers”.
- Use punctuation.
- Paragraph 1: Introduce yourself
- Mention your name, that you are a student at York, what year are you in, your major.
- Mention your interest in volunteering / getting involved in research.
- Paragraph 2: Why are you interested in doing research?
- How did you get interested in research?
- What makes you want to pursue this? Mention your motivation/goals.
- How is this opportunity going to help you achieve those goals. Keep it honest and genuine.
- Paragraph 3: Why this lab?
- Show that you did your homework and learned as much as you can about the lab. What topics do they research? What are the latest papers they published? It’s ok if you don’t fully understand their research or papers. Write about why do you find this topic interesting. Maybe you have a close personal connection to that topic? Maybe you are fascinated by a certain methodology? Maybe you heard about it in class and it made you super curious? Maybe you always wondered about this topic? Maybe you always thought X worked this, but then you recently learned it didn’t, and now you want to know more.
- Use your own words! I cannot stress this enough! Don’t copy paste a GenAI response to write your email. Don’t copy paste sentences from the professor’s website. We know what we wrote, so we can see when you do that. It makes the email look superficial, it gives the impression you are not trying, taking shortcuts, or not willing to put in the effort.
- Mention any skills you have that you think are relevant for the lab. For example, maybe you have experience working with kids and this is a developmental lab.
- Paragraph 4: Wrap it up!
- Mention how much time you will/can commit to this.
- Mention that you would be happy to stop by or getting the opportunity talk more (in person or over zoom). You can mention a few time slots that work for you.
Pro Tip! You can also ask if you can join the lab meeting. This is a low stakes effort for both of you and allows you to meet other lab members. It’s ok if you don’t understand everything in the lab meeting. You can also ask if there are any papers you can read to get more background information.- Attach your resume or cv, and unofficial transcript showing what courses you took.
Don’t be afraid to follow up when you don’t hear anything after 2 weeks. Emails fall through the cracks all the time and it is not personal. By following up, it also shows you are persistent. Though be gracious and don’t push it: if you follow up twice and still don’t get a response, take your loss.
Pro Tip! Reach out to postdocs or late stage graduate students in the lab instead of the PI! They usually have much more time to respond and may need assistants with their projects!
Yay! Congrats! Here are some things you can do (besides the actual research / tasks you’re given):
- Have a positive, curious attitude.
- Be on time (i.e., arrive early) when you are asked to be somewhere.
- It’s ok if you don’t know or understand something and ask for clarification!
- Get to know you lab members. Talk to them, ask them what they are working on! Your Professor won’t have always time for you, so by asking other lab members for help you can continue learning and get help when you get stuck outside of your meetings with your mentor/supervisor.
- Take initiative. Instead of waiting for someone to tell you what to do. Ask them if they have any tasks. If they don’t have any at the time, go learn things! Read a book, read papers, start a programming tutorial. Ask what you can do to boost your skillset. If you want to apply for a scholarship, tell your PI/mentor! If you want to do an honors thesis, also tell them!
- For low-stakes tasks, try to figure things out yourself first (within your skill limits and within a reasonable time limit). Then ask someone when you are out of depth or tried long enough (this is task dependent, but let’s say, after 30-60 minutes or so). Maybe you got code that has a bug, or maybe you need to find someone in the department. See if you can find any information on the lab wiki or online, or google the code bug and see if you can understand it where it comes from (or even find a solution!). This is only for low-stakes tasks that can wait, are not expensive, or involve precious data/equipment. In those cases, it is better to air on the side of caution and ask someone for help! In general, don’t wait until the next meeting or when someone asks when working on a crucial part of the project!
- Go to the lab meetings!
- Volunteer to present in the lab meeting. Even if you don’t have your own project, you can discuss a paper that you read or talk about the progress you made on a project.
- Follow other lab members: If they recommend a departmental talk or other relevant seminars, you should feel free to join them!
When you realize that working in a research lab is not for you and want to leave the lab, do so gracefully. It’s ok to leave the lab, it would be crazy if everyone would find the research topic that they are excited about on the first try. It can also be that you are not excited about doing research in general. Maybe you want to learn about a different methodology or want to explore other animal models. Maybe it is more personal and you don’t work well under the current mentoring style, or maybe an academic lab culture is just not for you. Maybe you don’t have the bandwidth to spend time in the lab/do the task and need to take a step back.
When you want to leave the lab, tell your mentor and/or PI. Ghosting is unprofessional and may result in awkward interactions in the future. Just send an email to the PI (and your daily mentor/supervisor) and ask for a time to chat. You can say that you are considering moving on to another position / want to focus on a new opportunity that came on your path / need to take a step back and focus on your studies. If there is something specific you want to learn/focus on, tell your PI! Maybe they can help you reach that goal by connecting you to someone or be able to change aspects of your role.