I’m a freshman and I really want to get involved in genetics, immunology, or oncology research this summer. I live relatively near a large private university that has research centers dedicated to all 3. I’m fairly advanced in STEM at school, next year I’ll be taking AP Bio, AP Chem, and (probably) AP Calc AB. How could I get involved with a professor’s or doctors research at the univeristy? Should I just start cold emailing people? Eventually I would like to (somehow) conduct indepenednt research or become an author on a paper that I helped a mentor work on, so if anyone has tips on that part those would be appreciated as well. Thanks!
I would say just start emailing researchers and hope that one sticks. I’ve sent over 50 emails to many different researchers so far and haven’t gotten a single yes; Frankly, it’s super hard to get an answer, much less a yes. Just send a bunch of emails and hope for the best.
I think that this is going to be a particularly challenging summer to find research for high school students. Too many college students have lost their internships and are vying for those same research positions.
I’d look for free local or national programs specifically for high school students. It will be very difficult for a professor to take you on without a structured program, especially if you’re early on in your high school career. It will be very hard to make it happen this summer because of COVID, and because competitive programs start taking applications much earlier. If you message me more info about location, I’ll be happy to research some things. Otherwise, I really like this website: https://www.pathwaystoscience.org/programs.aspx?u=HighSchool_High%20School%20Students&r=&s=&sa=either&p=either&c=either&f=&dd=&ft=&submit=y&adv=adv