Alexandra Lasu (me): Where did you go to college?

Meghna Mehta: I went to UCSD.

AL: Why did you decide to go to this college?
MM: When I was applying for colleges, I was looking for universities in California only. I never
wanted to go out of state. I wanted one that had very good bio-majors, so it was between here
(UCSD) and UCLA. I actually didnt get into UCLA, so I ended up going to UCSD. I fell in love
with the campus like right after I applied to it. I did a tour and I fell in love with the campus. So
Im really happy that I ended up going here.
AL: What appealed to you about the campus?
MM: I dont know what it is. All of the UCSD students joke around the days they have the tours.
They have the sunniest and brightest days that makes the campus look so nice. And theres
always students walking and-- I dont know. Its a really nice campus and Im from San Diego, so
it was cool to be able to have my college life, because I lived on campus, and still be able to go
home without it being this big production with booking a flight and packing all my stuff and going
home. It would be more like calling my parents for the first two years, because I didnt have a
car on campus, and they would come get me. When I lived off campus, I had a car and could
just drive myself.
AL: Did you know what you wanted to major in when you entered college?
MM: Yes. I loved science and biology in particular. So I knew that I was going to do some sort of
biology major. UCSD has like ten different bio majors. Theyre basically the same thing, but I
ended up going with biochemistry and cell biology for my major.
AL: Was there anything in your life that pushed you to major in biochemistry?
MM: Not really. I just loved science. Like in high school, I did pretty well in all of my classes but
my science classes were my go to classes. I felt like the material was super interesting and I
really liked them.
AL: What was your college experience like?
MM: I think I had a really good college experience. I was super lucky in the sense that Im from
San Diego. My parents pushed from the very beginning that they wanted me to live on campus
which is what I wanted to do. So I had a really good college experience. I actually have a twin
sister and we both got into UCSD. Its super interesting seeing that- we were always together in
high school, but we were in two different colleges. I think that gave us the chance to be
independent and learn how to do things without each other which is- growing up as a twin, you
become dependent on your twin for everything. Like when you go into a room, you feel like you

dont have to talk to anyone because you already have somebody right next to you that is
basically the same as you. You dont have to put yourself out there because youll always have
someone. So I think it was a really good lesson about learning how to put yourself out there and
put yourself into these situations where you have to go up to people and speak to them. That
was one of the main things that I think I learned in my college experience. And like I said before,
I had a great experience. I think I got the best of both worlds. I got to experience college life
fully. I got to do all the things that college students do. Learn how to live in the real world. But I
also got to go home and celebrate my cousin's birthdays and my parents birthdays and stuff like
that, which with a lot of college students, thats the stuff they miss out on. I got to have random
weekends with my family. And because I lived so close, I didnt get to go home as much as I
wanted. But my parents were cool enough to give me my independence. They didnt call me like
every day and be like when are you coming home? I got to decide when, which is really nice.
AL: What was the transition from high school to college like?
MM: I think a lot of universities, I can only speak about UCSD, do a really good job of
transferring students from high school to college. So for me, a lot of my first quarter classes
werent very- when people tell you about the transition from high school to college, they make it
seem like this so scary, daunting thing. I think if you go to a good university that wants to make
the transition as easy as possible, its not that crazy. The things that changed is stuff like having
to fend for myself. Like if its raining and I want food, I have to walk in the rain to go to the dining
hall. If I have exams and stuff, its not like I have my parents to make me dinner. You have to
fend for yourself. But the thing is that its a very good learning experience. You learn to time
manage. Another really cool part about the transition is you dont realize how much free time
you have. Obviously when I was a junior and senior and even a sophomore to a certain extent, I
started getting more extra curriculars like working and joining clubs and being a part of lots of
organizations. And my freshman year was kind of the transition period, so I didnt have as much
extra stuff. So, you dont realize how much free time you have, because your classes are max
three to four hours a day where as in highschool, you have like eight hours a day of school and
then you have tons of homework.So, it was kind of cool having so much free time, and you get
to socialize in that time. Plan lunches and all that kind of stuff. So I think it was a great transition.
I didnt find it to be overly daunting. But definitely when you get into the upper division classes,
you see the transition from your general education to those upper division science classes. I
think thats a huge jump in the level of intensity, but you work up to that. Its not overwhelming in
that way.
AL: Is it like more homework and more advanced terms?
MM: In college, I dont want to say all the time, but lets just say I have 20 classes. I would say I
only have a max of eight have homework. College is not about homework. Its a lot of self
studying. And I guess thats part of the transition period; learning how to go to class for an hour
and your teacher just spits out all this information at you. Then you have to go home. And thats
why you have a lot of free time. You use that free time to study. So its a lot of independent work
and if youre not an independent student I would say use your first quarter, your first semester to

take easy classes, so you could learn how to do that. Because it is a huge jump, whereas in
high school, its mainly a lot of homework and a few exams here and there. In college its more
like study study study and then you have one big exam on all of the material. In high school its
chapter exams. In college its fifteen chapter exams in one. Its not a lot of homework. The
reason it gets harder is because its a lot of detailed information that goes more into a topic.
Because general classes are called General Chem and General Bio. When you get into upper
divisions its Molecular Bio. Thats an actual class. Its super specific on a topic and its a lot of
information. I think thats the challenging part. But as long as you find classes that youre
interested in, no matter how hard it is, youre motivated to study because you want to learn the
information.
AL: What was the transition from college to the working life like?
MM: For me, it actually wasnt that tough because after my freshman year, I applied to work in
this exact lab (Dr. Hemal Patel). I was a volunteer, so I wasnt paid. Usually you dont get paid
when youre just a college student because you dont have a strict schedule of when youre
going to come in. You try to come in as much as you can. So after I graduated I talked to Dr.
Patel about getting a full time position here and he said yes, because I had already worked here
voluntarily for three years and two summers. During the summers I was working here 40 hours
a week. Thats a lot time getting experience. It would obviously slow down once school started.
For me, it wasnt that hard of a transition. Especially since there were a lot of kids going to
school and then going to a brand new environment. It wasnt like that for me. I already all of the
people. I already knew exactly what I had to do. So for me, it wasnt that hard of a transition.
AL: What were you doing when you were doing your volunteer work?
MM: I was doing exactly what I was doing now, working with the worms after my first summer of
volunteering. So ever since then, Ive been doing projects with the worms. Obviously during
school it was way more spread out, time-wise. Here, when I can do like 5 experiments a week,
back then I was doing one experiment a week because I wasnt coming in as often. But I was
doing, more or less, the same work. On days that I didnt have worm experiments I would go
help other people in the VA with their experiments. Because when I was a student, I was still
learning so I wanted to as many different techniques as possible.
AL: What is the most rewarding thing about your job?
MM: I think that a lot of people think about the medical field, they just think about a doctor
helping a patient. I think the cool part about being involved in research is that for a new medical
instrument or drug to come into play, theres years of research that goes into it. So when you
come into work and do experiments that are small in scale, they have a great impact because it
will eventually be applied to patient care.
AL: What is the most challenging thing about your job?

MM: The most challenging part about working in science specifically is that even though a lot of
times you do things exactly the same way, exactly like how the protocol tells you to do, a lot of
stuff can go wrong. I think thats the most challenging and frustrating part because no matter
how much you follow what it tells you to do, if you do one tiny thing wrong, depending on what
youre doing, the results of the experiment can be changed dramatically. I think thats frustrating.
I also think doing trial and error when youre coming up with a new protocol for something that
has never been done in the lab, and youre starting it up with nothing to fall back on or to rely on
to start. So you have to just start making it up as you go so to speak. I think thats pretty
challenging too. But thats also a really good way to learn because you see what worked and
what didnt work firsthand.
AL: In your own words, do you feel like youre successful at your job?
MM: Yes. Ive been working here for a few years and its really cool when new students come
into the lab. I remember when I first started working here, it was super overwhelming and I was
always looking up to everyone as though they were higher than me because they had so much
knowledge on what we were doing. Now when the new students come in, they ask me
questions. It feels like I have learned something over the past few years. Even still I get the
feeling that I dont know as much as someone else. Youll always feel like that. But you do know
that you learned something when you have people coming up to you and asking questions on
techniques and protocols and stuff like that.
AL: What was it like the first time working with interns?
MM: They had been coming for a few years. It was only last January when they were working
under me full-time. So about a year ago I had my first group of students under me. It was
interesting because I never had it where I had to lead four students and teach them everything
and they would follow me throughout my day. I think the hardest part was making sure that they
never felt like they were bored but I was one person trying to divide one job to four people. I was
trying to make them do stuff that I would normally do all alone. So I felt like a challenge was
trying to make it stimulating and interesting for all the students. But I think it works out in the
end, they start learning a little bit on their own. Theyre able to work on their own and I dont
have to be like alright take a turn to pipette. Now you take a turn to pipette. They can do it on
their own and they dont tell like theyre waiting in line to get a task done.
AL: Theoretically, if I were to follow in your footsteps, what advice would you give me?
MM: I would say that when you went to college and if you wanted to pursue research, you
should look up as many labs, and professors that have their own labs, and find something thats
interesting to you. Because, going back to one of your earlier questions, its challenging
sometimes and its frustrating. So you should find something that youre interested in class-wise,
no matter how hard it is, youll want to study and learn the material because its interesting to
you. My advice would be to find something that interests you and something that youre
passionate about so you could give it your 100% and be successful at it.

AL: Is there anything you regret about becoming a researcher?

MM: No. Career-wise, some advice I would give is that when youre in a bio major, like a
chemistry major, normally to get higher up in the field, you have to go through more school. You
would have to get a masters or a PhD or a Doctorate. Because theres only so long that you can
be a laboratory technician. Its a great career for somebody who just graduated college because
it gives them the chance to delve more into research, but you would eventually want to go back
to graduate school if you want to be successful and move up in your career. So something I
regret is, well not really regret but more like advice for other students is if you want to have a
major which you can get a job within four years without having to go back to school, go for an
engineering major. Theres lots of opportunities and you can get a job after four years of college.
Its not mandatory for them to go back to school and get a masters or a PhD. Some do because
its always great to get more education, but those are some majors where you dont have to.
Whereas in my career, if I ever want to move up in rank, you have to go to Medical school.
Thats been my plan from the beginning. But I think that a lot of people who go to college don't
know that theres certain niches in certain fields where you have to go back and pursue a higher
rank in that field.
AL: If you could go back to your first day of college and redo your entire college/career
experience, would you?
MM: No. Like I said earlier, this wasnt even my first choice for university. It was my second. But
you end up meeting great people no matter where you go and what clubs you decide to join. I
wouldnt change anything because if I changed something, I probably wouldnt have met the
people that I met. When people tell you that your college friends are your friends for life, its so
true. I met some of the best people in college and we are probably going to be friends forever.
So no, theres nothing that I would change. Because if I did, theres no guarantee that I met the
same people that I did or gone down the same path. So nothing would change except maybe
little things like classes. I would have researched a professor more before deciding to take the
class. But overall, experience-wise, theres probably nothing I would change.
AL: Ive been planning to come to this college (UCSD) because its great in the biology fields
and its also close to home, so I could live from home. So is there any advice you would give
me?
MM: I think a lot of people get bogged down when theyre applying and dealing with the whole
college process. Theres separate colleges at UCSD. Honestly, I think the university puts
emphasis into those colleges but they dont really mean much. What I mean is that you can be
any major in any college. SO when youre applying, I wouldnt worry about that stuff. Otherwise,
once you get in, I recommend you join as many organizations, clubs, intramurals, sports or
anything that will interest you because one thing Ill say about college is that youre 1 in 30,000.
The best way to meet people and get friends is with the stuff you do outside of class. Because,
unlike high school when youre talking with your classmates and your teacher will give you ten

minutes to work on stuff. Its not like that in college. You go into an hour lecture and its an hour
of the professor lecturing. Rarely do you talk to the people next to you. So when you go to
college, you can feel like youre one in tens of thousands of people. But a way to prevent
yourself from feeling like that is your dorm mates become your first friends. If you dont live on
campus, join some sort of organization on campus. Like a fraternity, sorority, clubs, sports,
something. Because thats a great way to get a group of people and college would be lonely if
you didnt have a group of friends or people that have the same interests as you to go through
everything with.
AL: Thank you so much for doing this interview
MM: No problem.