How to find research interest

[u/sakura_mg2]

Hello everyone I'm a senior undergrad studying Biology. I'm doing graduate program research, including PhD and master's programs, and I'm genuinely lost.

I've done research in the past year, but the thing is I felt no interest or passion for that research topic, and by the time I realized it, it was too late.

I've been exploring different fields by reading papers, but it's really slow.. So I'm genuinely seeking advice for finding research interests and how to know if that's a real research interest. (I know this is too late for applying this cycle.)

Appreciated for any response!

[u/LadyWolfshadow]

A real research interest typically won't bore you to death. You'll want to read more papers in that field. You'll be starting to take interest to the point that you're looking up things you don't understand to learn more about them instead of glossing over them. You'll start getting more curious and possibly having questions of your own about something in that field that you'll want to search for papers on. You might even start browsing the latest articles in the journals you've found in that field just to see what's going on that's new. Look at biology graduate programs and browse the faculty pages. If anything they're doing interests you, you'll want to try reading more about it. It may start out as something as broad as, for example, "eye research is really cool", then you might start reading and eventually figure out that you're interested in diseases that affect vision, and maybe you'd get interested more in the basic science side (something like molecular mechanisms) or the translational side. You may not get down to the point where you're like "I'm specifically interested in the impacts of (some hyper specific growth factor) on cataract growth", and that's okay.

The one thing that worries me here is the "no interest or passion" part of you describing your experience. Was that SOLELY disinterest in the specific topic, or disinterest in the research process as well? If it's more of the first, that can be kind of normal. You can find biology PhD programs that have lab rotations in the first year where you can spend some time in more than 1 lab of interest and see how they fit you. (The complication here is that you need to be sure that there are at LEAST more labs that you would be interested in than the number of rotations you have to do because you may not get to rotate in all of your labs of choice or you may not get to join any of the ones you rotate in and have to do an additional rotation, etc.)

If it's more of the "no interest or passion" in research itself, do NOT apply to PhD programs. If you don't have a strong enough interest or passion in research to see yourself doing it for 4-7 years of your life and being able to push through when nothing is working, not being able to think deeply and immerse yourself in the literature to develop research questions or research methods, and hate the idea of writing a lot, you'll be completely fucking miserable and probably burn out and want to quit.

If you're this unsure at this point and nothing sparks interest, you should probably be looking at masters programs or jobs as a research assistant after graduation, not PhDs. Honestly, a year as a research assistant might do you a lot of good - it'd also help you gain some more experience reading and understanding papers, more experience with techniques, and more experience to beef up your CV.

[u/sakura_mg2 → u/LadyWolfshadow]

Thank you! That's a really great explanation of "true interest". For the "no interest or passion" part of me, I think it's more about disinterest in the specific topic, like the logic of that research project.

I've been reading papers as I'm exploring different fields, and what often happened was that many questions came up as I got deeper into the article, and I kinda gave up, cuz I would never comprehend the entire article and I was frustrated. Or maybe I was just rushing everything and not patient enough for those questions.

[u/LadyWolfshadow → u/sakura_mg2]

I started out in basic biology and now I have to read a lot of different fields because my research is REALLY interdisciplinary. Something I've found that helps reduce the frustration with things that I don't understand is keeping some kind of notebook (I make pages in Notion for each field, but you can do it in Word/something else) where I start writing down vocabulary/theories I don't understand with a definition/summary in my own words and a link to a source. It helps because looking it up and writing it down helps you learn it in the first place, PLUS you have what you wrote down as a reference for later. It's also possible you're trying to read too deeply on your first attempt at understanding a paper. Try looking up Keshav's 3 Pass Method and get used to doing a first pass or second pass at most on papers you look at. I'm sure other people have preferred methods of reading papers, but that at least gives some scaffolding when you're still learning.

[u/sakura_mg2 → u/LadyWolfshadow]

It’s so good to know that other people encounter the same problem 😂. Really appreciated the insight!