Veritas et Utilitas Posted August 22, 2011 Report Share Posted August 22, 2011 Hi everyone. What was your worst experience / some mistakes you have made in ECs and research? Examples may include "I wish I didnt join...", "I should've done ... instead", "Never do ballet". I have nothing to share cause I haven't started school but I wanted to her about your mistakes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anon1234 Posted August 22, 2011 Report Share Posted August 22, 2011 interesting thread i would say never join a club where it's a bunch of people just getting their friends to be execs so they can say they were the "president" or "VP", and all they really want is someone else to do all the work while their friends do nothing, but get more credit. i joined a couple of clubs like this and really regretted it and even ended up leaving because it was just so dumb. so i would say, join more reputable clubs on campus and ones in which you see everyone does their part! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apache Posted August 22, 2011 Report Share Posted August 22, 2011 yeah but their reference letters get you great scholarships and they're great for job references (i mean if you start ur own club with friends...) interesting thread i would say never join a club where it's a bunch of people just getting their friends to be execs so they can say they were the "president" or "VP", and all they really want is someone else to do all the work while their friends do nothing, but get more credit. i joined a couple of clubs like this and really regretted it and even ended up leaving because it was just so dumb. so i would say, join more reputable clubs on campus and ones in which you see everyone does their part! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
future_doc Posted August 22, 2011 Report Share Posted August 22, 2011 Smoke and mirrors where perception becomes reality Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lactic Folly Posted August 23, 2011 Report Share Posted August 23, 2011 If you get a funny vibe about someone/something, listen to your gut before signing up. A lot of experiences are quite dependent on the people you work with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shikimate Posted August 23, 2011 Report Share Posted August 23, 2011 worst experience is when you run a DNA gel, gel looks perfect but you forgot to add ladder, or doing PCR and forgot to add the polymerase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Applemanv3 Posted August 23, 2011 Report Share Posted August 23, 2011 worst experience is when you run a DNA gel, gel looks perfect but you forgot to add ladder, or doing PCR and forgot to add the polymerase. Haha, your post brings back some nightmarish memories!! It's even worse when you're trying to get yourself established in a new lab and end up wasting a bunch of gels over the first week. In my defense, those were the first ever gels I had run at that point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FT4 Posted August 23, 2011 Report Share Posted August 23, 2011 worst experience is when you run a DNA gel, gel looks perfect but you forgot to add ladder, or doing PCR and forgot to add the polymerase. Haha thanks for the tips! I start in a genetics research lab in 2 weeks and now I won't make a fool of myself or waste time! I remember a friend who didn't completely seal the lid on a centrifuge on his first day and it started to vibrate like crazy and fell off the table and shot the glassware inside it everywhere! I would have been mortified, especially since the machine is worth more than most summer salaries! Luckily the PI was a nice guy and was understanding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdawso23 Posted August 23, 2011 Report Share Posted August 23, 2011 worst experience is when you run a DNA gel, gel looks perfect but you forgot to add ladder, or doing PCR and forgot to add the polymerase. Hahaha. This reminds me of my first week in my lab when I did a digest but forgot to add the restriction enzymes...needless to say, nothing happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shikimate Posted August 23, 2011 Report Share Posted August 23, 2011 haha good old memories guys. Lots of fun things in the lab. Keep it safe and hope all your research goes well. On the dangerous side, I heard from a PhD student another person he knew smelled glacial acetic acid and lost his smell after a massive bleed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chantalle47 Posted August 23, 2011 Report Share Posted August 23, 2011 Speaking of lab mistakes, I ran a qPCR one day and instead of a nice sigmoidal curve for results, all I got was a bunch of squiggles. Turns out I'd forgotten to put the qPCR plate into the machine; all I'd done was run a qPCR of air. My results are currently hanging on my lab's wall of shame Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chantalle47 Posted August 23, 2011 Report Share Posted August 23, 2011 But if you wanted some actually useful advice, I would say the biggest mistake I made was being super anxious about getting into medicine in my first two years of undergrad. I did so much better in my classes once I finally learned to just calm down. Recognize that there is more to life, and your application will probably be better off for it. I also should have transferred out of a first-year English course once the professor told us that she's only ever given one A in her twenty years of teaching (I'm not sure how she got away with doing that). Try talk to other students who have had that prof before, or look on rate-my-prof, find out about that stuff ahead of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helljumper_Ty Posted August 23, 2011 Report Share Posted August 23, 2011 worst experience would have to be going into a degree program to get the nice pay cheque and not for something I was/am interested in. It was a waste of two and half years with horrible marks and taking on some debt in the process. The biggest thing is to figure out what you want to do, determine the steps, and give it your all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veritas et Utilitas Posted August 24, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2011 worst experience would have to be going into a degree program to get the nice pay cheque and not for something I was/am interested in. It was a waste of two and half years with horrible marks and taking on some debt in the process. The biggest thing is to figure out what you want to do, determine the steps, and give it your all. If it is not a secret, what exactly did you do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehumanmacbook Posted August 24, 2011 Report Share Posted August 24, 2011 Speaking of lab mistakes, I ran a qPCR one day and instead of a nice sigmoidal curve for results, all I got was a bunch of squiggles. Turns out I'd forgotten to put the qPCR plate into the machine; all I'd done was run a qPCR of air. My results are currently hanging on my lab's wall of shame LOL. Nice. Taq Polymerase was probably like...wtf is going on??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
<abstract> Posted August 24, 2011 Report Share Posted August 24, 2011 LOL. Nice. Taq Polymerase was probably like...wtf is going on??? lol, funny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeWinged Posted August 27, 2011 Report Share Posted August 27, 2011 My worst experience is, without a doubt, discovering this site. Who knows what I could have accomplished with all this wasted time . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thatonekid Posted August 27, 2011 Report Share Posted August 27, 2011 My worst experience is, without a doubt, discovering this site. Who knows what I could have accomplished with all this wasted time .This was too true for me last year. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
<abstract> Posted August 27, 2011 Report Share Posted August 27, 2011 My worst experience is, without a doubt, discovering this site. Who knows what I could have accomplished with all this wasted time . It would be funny if someone put this site as an e.c... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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