I’m applying for Early Action and wondering if it’s appropriate or even beneficial to email a professor to ask about his/her research.
As background, I’ve been conducting indepdent research that I hope to ultimately publish in an academic journal.
I wanted to contact a professor or two who conduct research in the same subfield as that of my project. Or perhaps those in a related subfield that seem like they have research that is very interesting to me and that I might want to participate in. I’m curious about generally if there’s opportunities to work with them as an undergraduate
I wanted to contact professors: 1) to help learn more about opportunities to see if Penn might be the ideal fit for me 2) if it can give me a leg up in admissions at all to relay my research interests to a faculty member who might be able to evaluate it, I wanted to take the opportunity
Penn? This is Tulane forum.
@fallenchemist Sorry about that. Tulane and Penn are my two colleges I’m most interested in at the moment. Thanks for pointing that out
@javislife1998
OK, now I see you posted the same on Penn forum. That makes sense. You just need to be carful you make all the proper edits when you copy and paste.
I think the answers on the Penn forum are pretty accurate. There is certainly no advantage as far as admissions, but I see no downside either. Some profs might think you are being a bit presumptuous, others might think you are being commendably proactive. I think if you frame it as something like “I am trying to decide between several schools, with Penn and Tulane being the two I like best at this time. One of things that will help me decide is how possible it is to get seriously involved in research in XYZ, which I see is an area of expertise for you. I have done a bit on my own, as you can see from the attached. It would be great if you could provide some insight into this possibility”. Otherwise you might be wasting their time if you end up not going there, but this way you have made it clear that your purpose is not to ask if you can join their group per se, but that you want to know how likely it is so you can make the most informed decision on where to attend undergrad.
I cannot speak for Penn, but I can tell you without reservation that Tulane may have the most undergraduate participation in high level research in the country, or would certainly be in the running for it. It has been like that for decades. I attended in the 1970’s and my research in chemistry led to 3 publications in top ACS journals, with my name as lead author on the first one. In fact, the project was my idea as a spin-off from a failed experiment earlier, with an important tweak to my idea suggested by my mentor. It remains to this day one of my proudest accomplishments, as the papers have been cited hundreds of times and one of the spectrums we obtained has been used in advanced textbooks. And this experience is not unique to me by any means. Undergraduates from Tulane have presented their work at national conferences, and a couple of years ago they were starting up a peer reviewed journal strictly focused on research done by undergraduates. I am not sure where that stands, but I think it gives you the idea of how welcoming and supportive Tulane faculty are to undergraduates working with them.
I hope that helps.
@javislife1998
Here is a well timed article that references undergrad research at Tulane, if only a relatively small slice of it.
http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/110915_donor-funds-student-research_madeline-sell.cfm