anyone experienced workstudy program @ UBC?

[Guest smooth operater]

Hey guys.

 

I am going into my 3rd yr undergrad this fall, and I would like to check out the workstudy program @ UBC. My main purpose of going into workstudy is to gain some real lab experiences and make connections with professors, so I am planning to work in an acadamic lab environment only. for those of you experienced the porgram, will get such opportunity in workstudy @ UBC or is it just a program for students desperate need to pay off student loan by working as a slave? Any advices are welcome. Thank you so much!

[Guest kakashifan]

hey...

i don't know if you read this thread: p084.ezboard.com/fpremed1...=121.topic but it might help you.

 

have you done lab work before? will you have a full course load? i did lab work-study during my 4th year of undergrad. it is definitely a harder job compared to shelving books in the library. you have to constantly think and schedule when to come in and incubate something and take something out or put in a reagent and such. if you don't have ANY work experience, it would be hard for you to get your own project. in my 2nd year, since i had no lab experience, i filled pipettor tip boxes, autoclaves media and garbage. (which is fine for the pay rate i had, but i didn't learn much at all)

 

well.. to make it short, if you want to get lab experience through work-study, i would recommend finding a lab willing to take you on ASAP, then they can apply for workstudy. you should also discuss how difficult/easy your role/duties will be. and you should definitely find a lab on campus or somewhere near your home since you don't want to waste much time commuting.

 

hope it works out for you. sorry if i'm all over the place. feel free to private msg me.

 

=0. k

[Guest smooth operater]

hello Kakashifan. I took a look at your thread. Thank you for your attempt to help.

 

I am doing a biochemistry major @ UBC therefore I have taken many hours of labs (mostly in chemistry) already. But I never have any "real lab work experience" before. That's why I believe workstudy is a good stepping stone even though the jobs may seem simple.

 

To be honest, my main motive is to make connections with professors so they can be my LOR's when I need them in the future. Learning about complicate experimental procedures comes second. I figure that I can learn them in grad school if I choose to go with that path. So, I don't really mind doing minor works as long I get to observe and make connections with profs.