I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet: labs are valuable for the social atmosphere. At my school, there are grads and undergrads who hold hours at the lab

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet: labs are valuable for the social atmosphere. At my school, there are grads and undergrads who hold hours at the labs, so everyone's there for those. The rest of the time, people can help each other out, shoot the shit, etc. If you're stuck, you can talk to your neighbor. Maybe they're stuck too. Unlike some other posters, I found it <i>harder</i> to get things done in the lab, because of the socialization. But it's a totally different experience to work on a project in the lab than at home alone or with a small group of people you know. It's much more like my experiences at work with an open floor, with people walking around and talking to each other. [Edit: Ehh, how do you make things italic? I'll have to look that up.]