Recruiting research students

One of the most important tasks for a research mentor at a PUI or MCU is selecting research students. Sure, it's important at RO1s, but there your graduate students have been vetted to ensure that they have some ability in the lab. In the undergraduate ranks faculty have little choice but to take unskilled people and make them able. As stated here before, this is part of the research productivity problem. When the only product that counts is papers, faculty can't afford to burn time and lab resources on training students who lack hands, brains or hands and brains. While I have been fortunate to stumble upon some truly gifted research students I can't afford to put my research program in the hands of fate.

Just because a student is good in class does not promise that they will have hands or brains in the lab. Fortunately for me, I get to teach lab. There I get to see if a student can follow instructions, can think their way out of a problem, can keep a notebook, can work independently, is willing to ask questions, asks good questions, etc. All those things are good predictors, but what works best for me in finding students is to recruit unexpected competence.

Some of my best lab students have been B/C students in lecture before joining the group. Some have tattoos, piercings, unusual hairdos, etc. While ignored by most faculty they have talents that surface in the lab. Once recognized, pointing their skills out to them can be the inspiration they need to transition to A/B or A status. Having been B/C students they tend to be less convinced of their own ability and deal with the bad days in the lab by looking both within and without to solve problems. They work harder, because they have always had to in order to succeed.

And, while it can't be documented in a list of pubs or in grant applications, with these students you get to change lives. These students often find that being good at something is all the inspiration needed to propel them in the direction of their dream career. For some that will be graduate school, for others into a pharma career. Some of you will think this a silly point, but for me developing the student is why the PUI and MCU schools exist, and why I do this work.

Don't get me wrong, I take any A student who wants to work with me, but in the final analysis I have got more bang for the investment out of B and C students. Truly gifted A students will succeed no mater where they are. They can be a joy to have in the lab. But, it's the unexpectedly competent student who benefits most from our time, and pays back more in the end.

T.S. Hall