<p>I am planning to email professors in order to gain research experience, and have some questions. I read some old threads which cleared up a lot, but am still slightly confused. About how many professors should I email in total, and should I email multiple professors from the same school/department? Also, what is the best time to email them? I know one person who emailed during winter break-is this the best time? Or should I email around this time (beginning of the school year?</p>
<p>I emailed in the spring and I got a position for the summer, so it might be a bit early right now…</p>
<p>And I think it’s fine if you email multiple professors!..thats what I did!</p>
<p>I emailed a total of 30 at Yale and was invited to work at 28 of them. The other two were looking for undergraduate students</p>
<p>The timing (time of year) is heavily dependent on the university and type of work the professor does. Some labs only accept upperclassman (impractical), others only accept freshman and first semester sophomores (my preference)
I first and foremost want students who have a sincere interest in what we do and can articulate how working in my lab fits their career goals (PS: I want to go to medical/grad school is rarely sufficient justification on its own). carpet bombing is not as good of a strategy as picking 3-4 that really interest you, a lab you are willing to give up your personal time to work in. If they dont work out, move on to the next few</p>
<p>Be selective and demonstrate an interest. They may do something like give you a paper to read and then come back. This is often a way of checking that you actually are interested and willing to put in some effort. If you come back having read it and with some decent questions, you’re probably in good shape.</p>
<p>I don’t know if there is a “best time” to email professors, but I think it would depend on what you’re looking for. If you want an internship for next summer, it’s probably too early. If you’re looking to just get some lab experience and get involved throughout the year, any time is probably fine. At the very beginning of the academic year, professors may be kind of overwhelmed with catch-up from summer, new students, the start of classes, etc., but it’s probably past that by now.</p>
<p>I know of two guys who, their Junior year, looked up tons of related papers by researchers in the area universities in the areas of interest to them. They read those papers FIRST, created a list, and then approached the researchers. They made a good impression. Ended up being Siemens finalists.</p>