Usually how much research experience is expected

[mssg123]

Hi all

This is a physics undergraduate. So I didn't decide to apply for a PHD program until the end of my sophomore year. I am now really concerned and anxious about the amount of research experience . I would probably get 1.5 years of research experience before my applications. That's "3 semesters + 1 summer", more specifically. But one semester is doing the VIP program (Vertically Integrated Projects). It's basically a program from college of engineering. I'm not sure if VIP counts as research (the website says it is research tho).

So my question is: Usually, how much undergraduate research experience would be good? I have read the application profiles for many times and it seems that most people got much more research experience than I would do. Let's assume VIP does not count as research, then does "2 semesters + 1 summer" seems to be too little? But if I work really hard, would it make up for my lack of time?

Thank you so much for reading my questions and I would appreciate if you could share your opinions.

[Nishikata]

Do not count research experience like that. What matters is the quality of the research experience.

1 project that goes very well (publications, strong letters, collaborations etc) is better than 4 mediocre projects (i.e. you learnt nothing from it, and nothing comes out of it)

[mssg123]

Do not count research experience like that. What matters is the quality of the research experience.

1 project that goes very well (publications, strong letters, collaborations etc) is better than 4 mediocre projects (i.e. you learnt nothing from it, and nothing comes out of it)

Thank you for the reply. Maybe I care too much about the quantity. But what you said makes sense to me. Hopefully I could get my project done really well next year.