<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I want to do an internship at different universities research department.
Unfortunately I do not have any connections to that group that could introduce me.</p>
<p>When sending a request for an internship, would you attach CV and cover letter in the first mail or would you politely ask if you can send it to him first?
I think it's more polite to ask first, but on the other hand I think my cover letter and CV could make the difference.</p>
<p>First it would be good to make sure that the professor actually offers internships. As a grad student I saw a few weird emails of people asking for internships with our research center, which never had any internships. We’d occasionally get phone calls asking for them too. If the department offers internships, I would start by politely asking for the details about how to apply, instead of sending all of your information right at the start. The final decision on whether or not you are offered an internship won’t be based on your first email, unless that first email is very inappropriate.</p>
<p>This will likely depend on what field you’re in and how things are usually done in that field.</p>
<p>If the department has official “internships” that you could apply for, that’s fine, but in my field (biochemistry), it’s not unusual to just contact PIs with information about yourself and ask if it would be possible for you to volunteer in their lab (it may be better to say volunteer than intern, if you’re applying for any specific program or job). Students would email my PI every once in a while, and he’d circulate the email around the lab. Usually whether or not the student was successful depended largely on whether or not a grad student or post-doc had a project that an undergrad could do and the time and space to help them with it.</p>
<p>The norms in your field may be different though, so I’d check in with some professors at your school to see what’s normally recommended.</p>
<p>With regards to CV, I’d recommend just attaching it to the first email. If he doesn’t want to look at it, then he just won’t open it, but he probably won’t be offended or anything.</p>