Importance of research area as an undergrad

[jbrussell93]

As an undergrad, how much does the area of research matter when applying to graduate schools? I am a biological engineering student hoping to go to graduate school for neural engineering. I'm currently in a neurobiology lab working working in the theoretical/computational side of neuroscience and neurophysiology. This is actually what has sparked my interest to continue into neural engineering. I enjoy neuroscience very much, but I feel like the work I'm doing is much more theoretical than what I would prefer... I'm more interested in neural interfacing and neural prosthesis and wonder if my time would be better spent in a more "applied" research lab. I am really enjoying the lab that I'm currently in because it involves a lot of math and programming (which is new to me), but will graduate schools care if it is more theoretical and biologically focused than engineering?

 

[Choppy]

When I look at candidates for our graduate program, the specifics of their undergraduate research experience aren't nearly as important as how they have performed and what they got out of the experience.