<p>I'm not exactly sure if this is the right place to put this but I figured some of you guys would have already gone through the process.</p>
<p>I am not sure how to contact professors about asking to do research with them.</p>
<p>I've heard that some profs would rather you take their class first but most of my interests lie in classes that would count nothing for my major (government-ish classes that wouldnt count) and therefore taking them could jeopardize me graduating on time.</p>
<p>Also, I am having a hard time finding profs that are remotely interested in what I'm interested in. I have found two so far and one of them is in Dubai for who knows how long. Would I just settle for something that isn't really related but kinda sort of is for what I want to do in my masters degree? (Interested in terrorism/national security/genocide as a broad summary.).</p>
<p>And I've already started reading the profs' research and whatnot so I'm not going to be sending a generic email or whatever. </p>
<p>Is emailing the best way to do it? Or do profs just ignore them? What sort of tips would you say that would help things?</p>
<p>Also, I did read some things about emailing professors for masters but I'm not sure if that would be the same as asking to do research as an undergraduate.</p>
<p>Sorry if this has already been posted a million times. xD</p>
<p>I started out by emailing professors with a brief blurb about who I was, what I am interested in, and how their research intersected with my interests, and would they happen to have any opennings in the lab? Most I didn’t hear back from, but a few I did. I found I was much more successful, though, when I already knew the professor and/or one of their grad students.</p>
<p>Doing research as an undergrad that’s not exactly what you want to do in grad school is normal, and it’s certainly preferable to no research at all. Not everyone has access to professors whose interests are very similar to their own in undergrad. Like psych_ said, just send some e-mails and see what happens.</p>
<p>I definitely agree that doing any research is better than no research. However, I would suggest meeting the professors in person whenever possible. Also, if the research group has scheduled seminar you may ask if you can sit in and get a better feel for what they do.</p>
<p>When emailing, do you guys suggest being short and to the point or explaining your thoughts about their research/publications in a longer message? </p>
<p>And would going to a professor’s office hours to ask them about research if you are not in their class be weird?</p>
<p>I think it’s best to e-mail first; in the e-mail you can schedule an in-person meeting. I’d keep the e-mail fairly short (two paragraphs or so, maybe): explain why you want to be in that particular lab, what your background is, that you’ve read their recent publications and think it’s interesting, etc. You can talk about things more in depth if/when you have a meeting with the professor.</p>
<p>Not a great idea: undergrad wants to do independent research work, so what does the professor (principal investigator) get out of this?</p>
<p>Ask for a job with the professor. Learn from experience. Get a great recommendation. Then search out graduate schools and professors that have some interest.</p>
<p>DS knocked on doors, as a second term freshman but couldn’t start until sophomore. He wasn’t too choosy. He didn’t do research. He did as he was instructed, Robotics, mechanical engineering. Now as a staff member at professor’s university and armed with a MS, he does some “research” besides assisting other grad students in their research in the area of work of the PI. .</p>
<p>Even at the master’s level, DS had to interview with the PI to see if their interests lied in the same plane. The PI gave a lot of input before an area of research as selected.</p>
<p>The your own project thing depends SO MUCH on your field (not quite possible if your lab just does transgenic, double, or triple even, transgenic mice studies for example)… and on your PI (personality AND the money they have).</p>