Is it a bad idea to do research with multiple different professors at the same time?

Question

I want to go to graduate school to study computational molecular biology and biochemistry.

During my first three semesters as an undergraduate I finished my distribution requirements and started doing research with one professor. During my fourth semester I started doing research with two more professors (working in computational biophysics and computational linear algebra). My work with two of these three professors has already led to work that will be published soon. I am considering starting research with yet another professor (in statistical genomics).

Is it wise to begin research with yet another professor? I fear that having engaged with too many professors makes my resume read like that of a dilettante rather than a promising computational biologist.

Answer 1

There comes a point where a person will be spread too thin – that's inevitable. Only you can really say how much you can take on before your workload starts to interfere with your academic goals and achievements.

If you're already doing the work of two students, I'd be cautious about expanding that to three.

I'm spending around 9 hours a day on research right now with ~3 hours in class, 1 hour eating, and 4 hours free time, on week days, and even more free time on weekends

You make it sound like those four hours of free time are being wasted, when they might not be. Perhaps your brain is appreciating that rest more than you know. And I don't see any time allotted for physical fitness; besides being good for your health, fitness can be good for your mind.

If you decide you want to try a third project, you should be honest with yourself, and up front with the sponsoring faculty member from the outset. "I'm already working on two other projects, so, to be honest, this might turn out to be too much for me. But I'd still like to give it a try." Such a disclosure might make it a little harder for you to find someone willing to take you on, but it might help save your reputation if you find yourself in a position where you've bitten off more than you can chew.

Answer 2

First of all: congratulations and good luck. It seems you are quite enthusiastic about research. That said: be careful not to take too much on your plate, especially initially. Your time schedule seems very stringent which may lead to a burn-out.

I have the feeling that you are too erratic in your current research: there is no overall story to connect the different pieces you are (or plan to be) working on with different professors (computational biophysics, linear algebra, statistical genomics, mathematics, ...). It's true that there is likely some overlap but to do effective research you need to have a single point of focus, which you can tackle from different angles. What is your main focus?

I would say less is more. Having so many different professors in such diverse fields will inevitably hinder you from digging deep in each one. An important part in research is choosing your battles: deciding what to focus on and planning your work/collaborations in a meaningful way. It seems to me that you just want to do everything, which (while commendable!) rarely works out in the long run. You can't do everything, even if you want to.

Answer 3

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Your schedule reminds me of my marathon days of thesis writing and of my 24-hour calls on surgery. In both cases I accomplished a lot in the moment, but retained little. College is your first formal exposure to academia. Racing through it could shortchange your longterm foundation. Just as with muscles, you need to alternate periods of stress and relaxation otherwise the adaptation to that stress never occurs.

Publishing one paper doesn't indicate mastery of a field.

Few outstanding scientific issues are definitively solved in one paper. A string of publications on the same topic is more common and, for a CV, more impressive. Someone who can attack the same problem from different angles with different approaches is a promising candidate.

Form an informal committee; don't add to your collection

Instead of being a human ping-pong between PIs, why not ask a few of the professors to guide you in writing papers at the intersection of their interests. Those sound like interesting discussions even if no paper comes from them.