Independent Research? Or Research with a Professor?

A lot of people have asked what is better- independent research, or conducting research with a professor.

From my experience, research with a professor is a lot more rewarding of an experience, especially if the professor is directly studying a field which interests you. However, it is far more difficult to attain, and may require hundreds of cold emails before even one person takes your plea into consideration.

For independent research, it is more of low risk, low reward. However, it can still be immensely beneficial and teach you critical skills in conducting research that you may not have bene able to garner doing research with a professor. It also attributes all of the credit to you and your mentor (if you have one), so if you are very motivated and are interested in a more niche field, then it is definitely worth it in my opinion.

I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on the matter- independent research, research with a professor, or a mix of the two? Whatever it was that you did, how did you end up securing it and did it work out for you (did you feel rewarded after)?

I know Rishab Jain's template is also super useful for research, as well as his consulting. I'm curious to hear as well your guys' experiences with research from there is too. Feel free to discuss on this thread!

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