Am I wasting my time with this RA position?

[u/Far_Category8507]

Hello all, so for some background I’m a second year in UG and really wanna go into studying race and ethnicity (more specifically race/legal consciousness), and I would like to hopefully lean further towards the behavioral analysis side of research.

I recently attended a research fair, and at the fair I found a research assistant position that was really adjacent to my field but happened to be FWS exclusive. I found another position that was basically one where you were performing qualitative research to improve our research library’s research and data system, essentially we’re just having random students use new research tools and see how we can improve, like I said it’s very qualitative.

Im just kind of worried this research assistant position won’t at all relate to my field, and wont look any good on my CV.

Additionally, I have applied to and been accepted for a volunteer research position at the FWS lab that I couldn’t become an assistant at. Im unsure if this will look just as good on my CV.

I hope someone can help me worry less lol.

Thanks.

[u/I_Heart_Kant]

Can you be more specific about what kind of research you are doing at the library? and also what kind of work are you doing at the FWS lab, I think that would allow people to give you better advice.

[u/Far_Category8507 → u/I_Heart_Kant]

I’d essentially be conducting research on how students interact with discovery systems and other University research tools, using qualitative and mixed-methods approaches to understand their impact on student learning, research behavior, and equity of access. The research emphasizes evidence-based decision making and incorporating student perspectives into library system design. From what I’ve heard it’s mostly qualitative.

At the FWS lab I’d be conducting more descriptive research on the history of student activism in California, and how different political and sometimes cultural events contributed to different protests and riots. It’s definitely less quant/qualitative than my ideal research field, but still inexorably connected to my research interests.

I hope this clears things up.

[u/I_Heart_Kant → u/Far_Category8507]

For the library stuff, unless you are getting paid or are enjoying it, I personally wouldn't keep that. I don't see how that would really help with PhD admissions in political science. To me this doesn't really read as academic research experience.

As for the FWS lab I think this maybe would be helpful, but political science centers around causal inference rather than descriptive research, and so the skills you gain at this research lab may not be as helpful to your future as work somewhere else if that makes sense? I would try to look for a tenure track political science professor doing political science research. Outside of the more applicable research experience you'll have, the number 1 thing I received from my undergraduate research experiences was that my mentors helped me a ton with navigating academia and telling me exactly what I needed to do for PhD admissions. The norms for each discipline are different and so if the professor heading that lab is in history, their ability to help you will be limited. Additionally, the while publications are by no means necessary for PhD admissions, it would be pretty cool and helpful if you did get one from your research work, and a publication in poli sci (or also econ, people in poli sci love econ lmao) would be looked upon much better than one in history. I hope that helps!

[u/Far_Category8507 → u/I_Heart_Kant]

This was very helpful! Thank you so much.

[u/Rare-Bench-9052]

You're likely wasting your time and money going to college for a major that rarely has any real world job implications

[u/Far_Category8507 → u/Rare-Bench-9052]

1. I would say it’s less about your degree and more about who you know and what you do. I have worked for political campaigns, think tanks, and soo many non-profits. This has given me the opportunity to open so many different doors for different jobs. It’s really less about what you’re majoring in and more about who you know!

2. There are soooo many real-world applications. You can work for city, state, or local government (what I’m doing now), you can teach any level of social studies, you can go to grad school (including law school), you can work for a non-profit, think tank, be university professor, you can even go into journalism, that’s a really expanding field. So I dont really agree with poli sci not having any “real world implications” lol.

3. Respectfully, why are you trotting around in the political science subreddit if you don’t believe the field of study leads anywhere?