<p>So basically, here's the current situation I'm in. I am a 2nd year Electrical Engineering major at a tier 3 university. Just recently I've become extremely motivated to get into a top 5 graduate school, and I'm confident I can maintain a 3.9+ gpa and a good GRE score, but the problem at the moment is research experience. I'm currently very interested in robotics and control systems, and would like to do research in it over the current school year/next summer, but the problem is that none of the faculty that work in those fields at my uni are willing to take me in as a research assistant, or give me any research exposure. Recently I've emailed 2 professors at other colleges (George Washington and University of Maryland), but none of them even replied. Do professors take in students that go to other universities as research assistants, or do they just ignore the emails? If so, how is it possible to find research opportunity outside of college? I've been looking for institutions that offer research, but so far the only thing that comes up is the NSF, which only gives research during the summer. Does anyone have any experience with this kind of situation?</p>