Research Culture at University of Minnesota

I was pretty scared before coming into my research lab. I thought they would be pretty strict and have a schedule for when everything needs to be done. Surprisingly, my research lab starts around 9:30/10 even coming in later sometimes. It has been pretty laid back. There's no set schedule but more of a going with the flow type of environment. The first couple weeks here have been extremely chill for me which surprised me because I thought I'd be working hard all the time. I didn't expect the amount of freedom I get by doing research. My graduate student doesn't really tell me what to do rather I get to come up with how I approach my project which is kind of cool to do even if it doesn't work at first. It all makes sense now why research takes so long because no one's ever sure of what they're doing. 

-Diana