[Maleficus187]

So I want to switch research advisers to, not really broaden my experience, but get some experience more pertinent to what I would like to do in graduate school. I suppose I need to give some background as my situation seems to be different than most, or at least those at my institution. I am a senior undergraduate now.

I started college at a small two year school and while I was there I got all of my gen eds out of the way (except for the world language requirement) including physics, calc I & II, and I had a year of gen chem and a year of orgo there too. There were no research opportunities available at such a small college and no one ever told me about REU's and other summer programs while I was there so I didn't know that they existed. So anyway I had no research experience when I came to the university as a junior, and it simply was not possible for me to go to the university before this because I could not get any financial aid until I was 24. Not that I just wasn't eligible, I couldn't actually complete a FAFSA due to an issue with parents tax returns, so costly education was out of the picture until then. Anyway coming in after meeting with the honors chemistry adviser I knew I needed to get started on research quick as I only had 2 years of undergrad there and wanted to go to a really good grad school. I knew I liked physical chem, but didn't know much about the sub-fields within phys chem. so I started looking on their department website to find something that sounded interesting to me so I could get started right away.

I found something which sounded good, did a little looking into it, and emailed the prof. about doing research for them. They agreed and said to get in touch with them after the summer when I came to campus in the Fall. Started in the Fall and was pretty interested when it first started. I was taking the quantum semester of phys. chem. this semester and had a prof. for that class who was really engaging, and I enjoyed the stuff a lot. I've always had curiosity to how the physical world works and love things like quantum and relativity. I struggled through the class as most undergrads do but still came out loving it. Fast forward a little to now and I find that I really want to do electronic structure research as a graduate so I want to do research more closely related to that so I can have some experience with things like ab initio etc. going into grad school. My current research is not really related at all and frankly I am just bored with it. It's not what I want to do. It is closer to the thermo side of p chem. So I am thinking about switching research groups to work for a Prof. in more computational chemistry.

For my current prof. our "group" consists of just them and I which is good for building my independence, but has it cons too. My current Prof. does work in another lab on campus which I believe is their spouse's lab. My research profs. spouse runs a very successful lab while my prof. seems to be less than successful. So anyway I want to switch to a different group (not the spouse of my current prof. to clarify) but I am afraid to leave some hard feelings about my leaving the current Profs. lab. They will be one of my main letters of recommendation as I did research for them for a year thus far and they are also my academic adviser. This semester my class load is too heavy to do much research, so I am not signed up to do any research for credit hours and am not obligated to spend any time in the lab any particular week, but I come in when the week allows me to and spend some time there just for the benefit of the experience. I want to spend the winter break doing research for another group, and then continue with that group on through my final semester to get some experience in what I want to do and to see if I am actually going to enjoy it. I don't want to leave on bad terms from my current Prof. and have him write me a weak or poor letter of recommendation which could hurt my chances of getting into the grad school I want to go to.

I feel like with another Prof. this wouldn't be such a problem, but with my current Prof. there are rumors that go around the department that they are unsuccessful  and have no graduate students due to an issue with their last graduate student. Any tips, advice, comments, or similar experiences would be much appreciated.


Edit: Monstrous monolith of text split into paragraphs. Dan

[EpicWinston]

Hey whats up? It seems you got your self in a bit of a pickle here. Although I can not give you any real advise because I have not done research, nor did I go to graduate school, I can give you a few tips to save your social relationship with your current professor.

1) You should make your move from research groups a transition not a complete switch. Spend some time in both labs for about a month and let both professors know you are spending time in each of there labs.

2) After you decided what lab you want to join, make it your duty to kiss up to whom ever you left. Write them a letter, send the Christmas cards, pass by their office just to say hello and chat, and extremely nice.

There is not really much you can do. When you make your decision just realize your current professor knew you were leaving soon. I am sure he had a back up plan ready right after you left. Any way good luck 

[TheUnfocusedOne]

I wouldn't bother switching. If it's your senior year, you should be applied to graduate school come winter. Everything you do past that isn't going to be seen by graduate school anyway, unless you're planning on taking time off after school.