benge88 Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 Hi Guys - I am interested to know how what hours we all spend in the lab - and also what disciplines everyone is in. This could also give people considering grad school an idea of what to expect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benge88 Posted January 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 I'll start MSc Cellular and molecular medicine - physiology really - 830 - 400 ish mon - fri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bloh Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 If you made the right decision with regards to going to grad school: long days + weekends. If you went to grad school for the wrong reasons: short, unproductive & miserable days and usually no weekends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gb35 Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 If you made the right decision with regards to going to grad school: long days + weekends. If you went to grad school for the wrong reasons: short, unproductive & miserable days and usually no weekends. I actually know some happy, productive, graduate students doing great work who pretty much work 40-50 hours a week and almost never on weekends, other than to maybe feed cells quickly or something. But most of the people who really like it do burn the midnight oil as you said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanInVan Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 It really depends. Generally I was in the lab 10-6 Monday to Friday. Now that's not to say there weren't 18 hour days (I remember stumbling home at 1 am only to be back there at 7 am many times), 7 day weeks (although, there is a rule of thumb that nothing done on the weekend will ever work), and getting kicked off of machines because "labs techs who are paid to work have priority during working hours." Also, depending on what phase of your work you are in, there can be class assignments, papers and thesis writing which will take up some of your home time. For the most part, I found it less time consuming than undergrad. I did an MSc in Medical Genetics at UBC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skp1187 Posted January 13, 2011 Report Share Posted January 13, 2011 work mon-friday, and usually either saturday or sunday. Avg hours/week: 50 Studying neuroscience. I usually come to work anytime I want (usually around 10am), leave when I get hungry lol (around 8pm) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmr Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 At one point I was in the neuroscience lab 70-90 h/week, 7 days/week for 2 months straight. That was excluding the hours I had to crunch and analyze data and finish paperwork. The rats did not seem to appreciate all the time I was spending with them either. If you find hard work satisfying in itself (regardless of results), then life science research is for you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunner10 Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 I'm doing my MSc in Neuroscience. I work Mon-Fri, usually 9-4 in the lab. Weekday nights and weekends are dedicated to data processing and analysis. I haven't had to go into the lab on a weekend so far, but I'm certain I will have to down the road. I think the amount of time you spend in lab is largely dependent on what kind of research you are doing, if you have to share machines with others, etc. I'd say I put in about 50-55 hours a week with everything. I also have a graduate course that is 6 hours a week. I'm also curious what kind of graduate courses everyone else has to take because I think that would vary significantly from uni to uni, and even between departments in the same uni in terms of # of hours per week, level of difficulty, and so on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-Rock Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 Back when I did my MSc (Medical Genetics), I was in the lab from 8 - 4 or 5, Mon - Sat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostLamb Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 It really depends on the nature of your experiments and the expectations of your professor. Some people are always in on weekends, others are never in on weekends, and a few do weekends if they have to (usually to catch up after a few failed experiments, or get access to equipment that is heavily booked during the week). Some professors expect students to be working in their lab all the time, some expect to see you at least once during a weekday, others don't care whether you are there or not as long as you are producing. Some expect you to keep a daytime schedule (8-5 ish) while others are very flexible about which hours you put in. Realistically, it isn't the number of hours you put in, it is the quality of the work you produce that counts. I know people who spent hours and hours at the lab but really...they wasted most of their time they were there. Other people were not around as much, but accomplished a lot more because they remained focused on the task at hand while they were at school. I think it is key to know your supervisor and his or her expectations of you. Don't think that you have to 'spend more time at the lab' because other people around you are there all day and all night while you only spend 8h a day there. Open lines of communication between you and your supervisor are most important. What other people see and think is less important, and especially if you are producing then what is there to complain about? *off of soap box* When I was in grad school, I did everything from being there 12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week to 7-8h weekdays only to only coming in a couple days a week because i was more productive staying up late at night doing data analysis, reading, and writing and then sleeping through the day. Some supervisors allow it, others are against it. I learned and I produced and I published and in the grand scheme of things that's the aim of grad school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiceWine Posted January 19, 2011 Report Share Posted January 19, 2011 mon-fri, 9-6. + weekends + going to lab at 3AM to start/finish an experiment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slashsev01 Posted January 19, 2011 Report Share Posted January 19, 2011 dont forget...no lunch breaks and must also learn how to poop ur pants to save time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewfieMike Posted January 19, 2011 Report Share Posted January 19, 2011 in the fall I lived 200m from the hospital. I would go to the lab from 9-12, usually take a good hour to eat lunch, stick around til 5, go home for supper, head back from 7-10. I did that for a good 3 months. It was rare for me not to be there on the weekends as well. I actually prefer doing work on the weekends so no one is around bothering me. I'm a bit of a lone wolf when it comes to doing lab work. I like working at my own pace with my own quirky way of doing things, with music playing. We have 5 post-docs and one other grad student in my lab. 3 of the post-docs have kids and so work their ASSES off to get everything done in a day between 8-4. I have the luxury of sticking around longer. As of January I now live 8km from the hospital and I don't have a car. I bike to/from work but it takes about an hour each way. My days are now 8:30-5:30 with my evenings doing work at home. Once I get my car, I imagine I'll be coming back to do evenings again. It'll make it easy for things like checking on my cells, which I'd have to bike all the way in on a sunday to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patho_Medicus Posted January 20, 2011 Report Share Posted January 20, 2011 WOW...some crazy house people have here. I go from 9:00-6:00 and occasionally weekends, but not often. I am very productive as is, but like someone mentioned it depends on your project and the nature of your experiments . Sigh...I am almost done too, which means thesis writing is going to creep up on me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedPen Posted January 20, 2011 Report Share Posted January 20, 2011 Wow! You guys put in crazy hours. I do 9 am to 5 pm Monday to Friday. I NEVER work on weekends and at home in the evening. Occasionally, I leave the lab at noon. Sometimes, I'll stay until 8 pm but leaving at noon is more frequent than staying late Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TarCalion Posted January 20, 2011 Report Share Posted January 20, 2011 I generally treat it like a job. I'm in from roughly 8 until 4-5 PM on weekdays. I almost never work on weekends, and I save course work (if there is any) and presentation prep for the evenings. I usually leave lab stuff at the lab and don't number crunch or data analyze except between breaks in experiments. I'm not the absolute most productive student, but I also have a life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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