The best thing to say is: each person's research experience differs. It is impossible to fully compare two different lab experiences. My professor never assigned me a graduate student to work with and I was never given a specific time to come and leave the lab. My roommate, however, was assigned a project under the guidance of another graduate student and many people were given times when they had to arrive at lab. The most interesting part about the six weeks was watching how everybody spent their time during the day. I can share some people's average day with you to show how drastically they can differ among students in the same program.

I, for example, started my first month of lab work coming to lab at 9 (generally) and getting done between 3-5 (with lunch in between). Then, all of a sudden, I shifted gears and went to lab between 8-8:30 and coming back around 8-9 at night, working on my experiment. Even though a 12 hour "work day" seems like a lot, it went by extremely quick because I enjoyed spending time in the lab. Finally, I was done with my experiment after six weeks.

On the other hand, one of my good friends went to lab every day at around 8:30, and wouldn't come back until 8 for six weeks! We came to a point where we didn't even expect him to show up at seminars or workshops that started at 7 anymore, because of the perpetual (yet valid) excuse, "I was at lab." He was in another pharmaceutics lab creating some unique sort of molecule with a mirror-image structure, and he had to stand by his experiment 24-7 to make sure it was working. He had to go to lab AFTER he gave his presentation because his project still wasn't completed. The best part about it, however, is that he never complained because he always loved being at lab.

My favorite example was this one student working in a physics lab on something dealing with string theory. He was assigned to a project that his professor told him would be extremely hard for even a college student getting a degree in physics. He spent 3 weeks doing intensive research on string theory and doctorate-level physics formulae until he finished his experiment. He spent the next 3 weeks casually doing more research on string theory and exploring more ways to solve his project.

These are just a few of the examples I can give about people who went to SSTP 2006 and their lab experiences, but I know that all 18 students enjoyed their research experience, no matter which laboratory they were in.