Research Experience

[Guest Scholastica]

Hello,

 

Someone has told me that, in order to qualify to have had a "research" experience, you are supposed to have something published or anything in preparation or you should have attended a poster conference, etc.

 

Summer after 2nd year, I worked in a research lab as my summer employment. I learned a lot and had a small project, but I am not sure if it is going to be used for a publication in any near future.

 

Summer after 3rd year, I worked in a different lab, and this time I submitted a report to the Thyroid foundation and will be attending the Thyroid foundation conference in London next week! However, again, I have not been able to publish an actual paper or make a contribution subtantial enough to put my name in someone else's paper.

 

In these circumstances, should I list those two experiences under "research" or "employment" in the 48 sketch?

 

Thank you for your advice.

[Guest doctorinthehouse]

Not sure about the technicalities of the sketch, but I can tell you what I did (which seemed to work because I got in).

Firstly, the research doesn't need a publication to be eligable for the sketch. Put any research that you did on there and just put someone as a reference. The way I looked at it when filling out my sketch, if I got paid for it, I put it as employment, if I didn't, it was research. I did research for about three years in a lab. During the summer it was paid, and during the year, it wasn't so I put them as distinct entries.

Hope this helps.

[Guest blinknoodle]

It has been a while since I wrote up my sketch.. but I wanted to throw in how I approached my application which was perfectly fine as well. The important thing is to highlight your experiences that best reflect your involvement and what you feel is important (what you feel is important will say a lot about yourself as well).

 

First thing, I can't remember if it was specifically for Ottawa, but I remember there being a stipulation that course work could not be considered research. I interpreted that as orgo labs not being considered research. I stuck my thesis under research.

 

I also included my summers of research in research. Since I had my own projects, I used my (usually an abbreviated) project title as the sketch description (one for each summer). Though not all were published and I had no authored papers at the time of my application, they are *still* research (I did however have oral presentations as part of the summer program). Washing beakers, even in a research lab, would not be considered research, imo.

 

To further round things off, I included one employment entry to highlight the fact I was supervising other all the summer/thesis/co-op students during my last two summers.

 

Everyone's situation will be unique. There is no right and wrong way to approach things (other than over-representing what you actually did).

[Guest Daver83]

I was thinking about putting down my honuors thesis, but this statement in the guidelines is causing me to think twice:

 

"Specify your education level, ie: 1st year of university and the title of the project. Indicate the type of publications: paper, abstract and presentation at a scientific meeting etc., accepted or published with a reference, but not submitted or in preparation."

 

This would suggest that unless its published, then its no good. I wonder if the other schools would see it the same way...

 

any suggestions would be appreciated. Cheers,

 

Dave

[Guest GloballyAware]

you all rock!