Hi Fatih,
I wrote I while ago about internship, thank you for your answer, it
helped a lot. Now I have another question.
As I wrote before, I am a third year MolBio student at METU.
I am thinking of trying to find a lab to work at during the second
semester (here at METU). But I am not sure whether I should do it or
not... I have quite a high CGPA right now, and I am afraid that
working in a lab will bring it down :(
I plan to apply to grad school after graduation, probably in the USA,
and I would like to be accepted to a high-ranking program. So just how
important it is for grad school applications to have lab experience
outside the standard summer internship and 4th year special project?
Should I spend my time on lab work even if it will be harder to study
for classes?
Thank you in advance,
Sincerely,
Answer:
lab experience is more important than your GPA if you GPA is over 3 or 3.5.
In my opinion, classes are just classes, and they are value if you can and if you know how to put them into practice in our field.
Thus, I suggest you to put more effort in lab and project works and try to find balance between them. On the other hand, keep in your mind that as an undergrad you always right to stop working in the lab when there are lots of study for the classes.
I forgot to mention about the importance of the reference letters. You will need at least three recommendation letters to apply grad schools, and to have a great reference, the best way is to work in a lab under supervision of a PI so that he/she can know you better and give his/her recommendation letter.
Good luck,