If you're feeling confused about how to pick a thesis lab, rest assured that you are certainly not alone!
Whether you've rotated through multiple labs, or have to pick a thesis lab prior to starting graduate school, this choice can feel daunting and overwhelming, but I'm hoping I can help you find the place that's best for you.
When choosing a thesis lab, I think there are a few "most important" things to consider...
- The Principal Investigator (PI)
- Fit
- Research
- Funding
Above all else, I think your PI can make or break your experience in graduate school- they are your boss and mentor, and are there to guide you to achieving independence. I've heard horror stories about PIs keeping students for far too long, and I've also heard students sing praises of their PIs- ideally, we all want to be in the latter group. But how do you know if a PI is right for you? Well, you have to get to know them! If you are lucky enough to rotate through their lab, then you should gain some insight into their managerial style and overall personality, but, if not, your best bet is to ask their current students how they like the PI and what their working style is. Now, every PI is different, but consider them in the following ways:
- How do they manage their students? Do they micromanage or do they give students a lot of independence, and how does that style fit with what you're looking for? If you like having independence, but this PI loves to manage every detail of every experiment in their lab, then you may not do your best work with them.
- Do you feel comfortable talking to this person about mistakes and experimental failures? I've said this before, but grad school (well, research as a whole...) is basically a series of mistakes and experimental failures, with some successes sprinkled in, so you have to feel comfortable talking to your PI about these things! Is the PI the type of person to help your troubleshoot any problems you come across, or do they expect you to do it on your own? While your research should be independent, you should also have a mentor that you can go to for guidance.
- Does the PI feel like they can help you accomplish your professional goals? Graduate school is preparation for a career in one of many sectors- academia, industry, government, non-profit...the list goes on. Does the PI have connections with individuals in the sector that you're interested in? Do they encourage you to seek out extracurriculars that can help you prepare for your desired career?
Fit is how you feel in a lab- it encapsulates interpersonal relationships, the lab environment, and the work you're actually doing. Fit is very important for feeling invigorated about going to lab and persevering when things get tough! On to what should you be on the lookout for:
- How do you get along with other lab members and how do they get along with each other? You will likely be spending 2+ years with anyone in your lab, so it's important that you can get along with your fellow lab members! Can you ask them dumb questions (disclaimer: I do this a lot), and can you lean on them for support when things get stressful?
- What hours do lab members keep, and do these mesh well with yours? This may seem trivial, but everyone has different hours at which they feel they can do their best work, and working within your productive hours is not only good for your work, but also your mental wellbeing.
- What techniques does the lab use, and do you feel comfortable with them or are you going to learn new things? The techniques in the lab are probably what you'll be using for the next 4-6 years, so you need to assess whether or not they're right for you: ask yourself if can you do live animal work comfortably, or do you work well with human subjects, etc. Do you want to learn new techniques, or are you set with the skills that you have?
I'm assuming you've pursued graduate school to learn how to do great research, so it would be nutty if I told you that research fit doen't matter...welllll...it matters to a point. Your research interests will inevitably grow and morph throughout graduate school, as they do whenever one is exposed to interesting problems in lectures, guest talks, or even while lazily browsing PubMed. Do not think that you need to pigeonhole yourself into a research area in graduate school, in fact you should do the opposite: look for research that you can grow into. I think you should be excited about whatever it is you'll be studying for 4-6 years, but it does not need to align with your past research experience.
Some people shy away from talking about funding when determining which lab to join, but I urge you to do the opposite! You certainly would not accept a job without knowing how you were going to get paid!
- Ask if the lab has grants that you will be paid from, and until what date the grants are active (if they are grants from NIH, you can find that information on NIH Reporter).
- Ask if you need to bring your own funding, and, if so, what fellowships or funding sources the PI recommends!
- Ask how current students in the lab are funded. This likely reflects how you will be paid! If the PI says that your funding will need to be different from current students, ask why (are they counting on you to bring your own funding?).
The above were what I considered the most important aspects when choosing my thesis lab, but you may notice something that is curiously missing: the success of previous students in the lab.
Personally, I did not consider this as a factor because I think: 1) it puts newer labs at a disadvantage, and 2) that the paths of other students likely will not reflect your own. I've noticed that as people go through graduate school, career plans often change, so where a student ends up after defending their thesis is really their own measure of success and should not be yours.
While the advice above is certainly not exhaustive, I'm hoping it can help you while you seek out the lab that is the best fit for you!