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Usually how much research experience is expected

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2020 10:22 am
by 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 :cry:. 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.

Re: Usually how much research experience is expected

Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2020 7:21 am
by 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)

Re: Usually how much research experience is expected

Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2020 9:28 am
by mssg123
Nishikata wrote:
Wed Sep 16, 2020 7:21 am
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.