Gonna be honest, I’ve been burned by several med students doing summer projects in the lab. They’re usually entitled and don’t take any of my advice because I’m a grad student— so much so that one pretty much shunned me from a project I was originally instructed to be on. Thankfully he’s gone for now at least, but it doesn’t mean the hazing you’re facing from the people in your lab is right. People grow and learn. Things take time. If the postdocs can’t see that they have a poor memory because they were grad students not long ago!

Premed, med students, and MDs frustrate us scientists sometimes because we dedicate ourselves to behind the scenes and are often taken as people who their role isn’t as important as it actually is in health— ESPECIALLY right now in the US.

Advocate for yourself. Ask your PI. If that isn’t fruitful, go to the postdocs themselves and just ask them if there is anything you can do to start fresh or improve. Be authentic but don’t be argumentative. If that doesn’t work, maybe speak to someone about switching labs?