Undergrad research: junior or senior faculty?

[wilsonchan]

Let say you now have a chance to choose an advisor for undergraduate research. would you choose a junior or a senior faculty? It seems that junior faculties (esp those haven't got tenure yet) would be more "hard-working" and very research oriented, so may be more productive. But senior faculties seem to be more well known in their areas, and thus can write better recomendation letters for grad schools. What do you guys think?

 

[imabug]

pick whichever one is working in the area you find interesting. The seniority level of your advisor is only relevant to them, not to you or the project you'd be working on.

 

[symbolipoint]

Choosing by categories of younger or older by itself is not good. Choose the adviser who can communicate reliably and whose behavior you can accept. Other than that, on the surface, I would imagine that the older advisers know more and are wiser than younger advisers, but you still must evaluate each person individually.

 

[Vanadium 50]

The whole point of undergraduate research is supposed to be an experience in and of itself, not a stepping stone to something else. You should pick a project that you find interesting, working with a group that you believe will teach you something.

Another point - it matters less who writes a letter of recommendation than what they say in it.