Dear Undergrads: How to win at research (or at least get a good rec letter) Pt. 1

04 November 2014

Yes, it’s rec letter season again. Grad school, internships, fellowships, and the great Hunger Games that is medical school admissions. As a senior member of a large lab with a higher-than-average contingent of undergraduate volunteers, I count somewhere in the neighborhood of a dozen students I’ve personally mentored over the last several years, and that means even have to write a letter now and then in the service of former students.

Which is great. Honestly. Duke students are an incredible bunch. Smart, hardworking, and ambitious in a way that’s almost sweet, they hide it so poorly.

Only problem is, the more students I work with, and the longer ago it was, the harder time I have remembering who did what and when. Not that I forget the people, but sometimes I have a hard time remembering even my own projects, and this is no exception. So believe me, I want to write you a compelling letter, filled with telling anecdote and high praise. But we are fighting a battle here against the slipperiness of memory.

To which end, dear undergraduate, research aspirant, I am encouraging you to make it easy on me. And to make it easy on you, I am going to give you the keys to the kingdom,

The Guide to Being Remembered

Follow these simple precepts, keep out of trouble, and you are well on your way to that glowing recommendation:

Precept 1: Don’t be a flake

Sounds simple, right? It is. But just to be clear, this is what I mean:

• Understand, this is my job. I work summers, spring break, finals, some nights, and many weekends. And I like my job. Naturally, I understand that you have other obligations, and I do not expect you to put in forty hours a week as my personal lackey. But you should understand that, just like with any internship in the real world, work goes on, with or without you, and if we can’t depend on you to show up and get things done, you are not going to make a good impression.

• Understand, this is not like class. Classes push content to you. You make your own schedule, plan ahead or cram, and so long as you turn in something reasonable by the deadline, it’s good enough.

  When it comes to research, that just won’t cut it. The questions we work on are not problem sets that we estimate will take you 4 – 6 hours to solve over a weekend. They might not be solvable at all. When you work as part of a team, you don’t have the luxury of cramming all the work in during an eighty-hour week at the end of the semester after disappearing for a month. I’m not that good, and neither are you. Progress takes consistent effort over the long haul.

• So what’s this mean? Straight up:
  • If you work with research animals or members of the public, those are almost sacred obligations. You will probably not be allowed to screw those up a second time. We just can’t afford it.
  • Answer your email. Like a professional. If I don’t have a reasonable expectation of getting a response from you within the day, we are not going to work together.
  • Show up on time. Do not miss appointments without prior arrangement.
  • Plan your semester. I realize that your classes have to take priority, but if you wind up disappearing at midterms, fall and spring break, and finals because you are overwhelmed, you will accomplish about three weeks’ worth of actual work during the semester. The end result will be embarrassing for both of us.
• The positive This all sounds like an enormous rant, but it isn’t meant to be. Research is a lot of fun! And if you work with me, I will not constantly be telling you to turn down your music and get off my lawn. The essential message here is that working as part of a lab is not just another extracurricular activity. When you volunteer in a lab, you are part of a team, and that team needs to be able to count on you. Most importantly, demonstrating that you are a trustworthy, dependable member of a lab is the foundation of a successful research experience. The more we trust you, the more we will entrust you with, and the more you will get out of your research experience.

Next time: What key quality separates good undergraduate researchers from great undergraduate researchers?