<p>To preface this, mods if this is in the wrong place please move.</p>
<p>I'm thinking about doing research in a uni lab over the summer if possible. I've come up with an email to professors that I think appropriately outlines my request/background, but would like parents/adult advice on it before I send it out. Anyone interested in reading and offering feedback (wow this is strikingly similar to threads people create about essays)? I'll PM.</p>
<p>Sure - send it over</p>
<p>For simplicity’s sake, I’ve decided just to post what I have so far here. Personal info is obviously edited out</p>
<p>Dear Professor ____,</p>
<p>I am a high school junior at XXXXXX High School in XXXXXXX, XX, inquiring whether you have any openings for a lab research assistant this summer. </p>
<p>Last summer, I was fortunate enough to attend lectures on stem cell research by Dr. Hans Keirstead and other prominent researchers. Although I was not able to fully grasp everything they said, their presentations encouraged me to consider a career as a researcher in the sciences. I figured that working as a summer lab assistant would give me good exposure to the field.</p>
<p>I have limited prior experience in this regard, but I am a fast and eager learner. By the end of my junior year, I will have completed one year of high school biology, two years of high school chemistry (honors and AP), as well as precalculus, geometry, and two years of calculus (earning an overall GPA of 4.95/5.00). I would be happy to provide references from my current math and science teachers.</p>
<p>I can be most easily reached at this email address or via my cell phone (XXX) XXX-XXXX. Thank you for your time and consideration,</p>
<p>XXXXXXXXXXXX</p>
<p>Do you have any hands-on experience with the techniques used in their labs? You can mention that your science classes had a lab component (which you obviously enjoyed immensely :)) and you learned to run gels 
or something like that.</p>
<p>Do these professors’ labs regularly take in HS students? Are you looking for a paid or non-paid position? Are you over 18? FYI, in my state, the law says that kids under 18 can’t have their hands on any dangerous stuff in the lab. Therefore, academic labs and companies who hire summer interns specify that they are looking for 18 and over applicants.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Nothing beyond the basic labs done in AP Chem</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The particular university I’m looking at has taken HS students in the past. This will definitely be non-paid, and no I’m not over 18.</p>