<p>im an incoming freshmen interested in research, I email some of the profs, they all wanted a resume, but when they realize im a freshmen they dont contact me anymore. It seems that u have to have upper level courses, and experience in the field to enter research. If anyone did research in their freshman year of college, can u tell me how u went about getting it.</p>
<p>I'm also interested in knowing the answer to this.</p>
<p>Wait until you are in class. My son did research 2nd semester through his Chem prof he had first semester.</p>
<p>Research isn't a service that professors provide so that undergraduates can have something to put on their resume. Research and publications are very important to the livlihoods of professors at major research institutions. Why would they want some freshman with no previous lab experience and no relevant coursework anywhere near their test tubes?</p>
<p>That said, if you find a nice one, he/she might let you clean some glassware.</p>
<p>My son's experience was very different. He was quite involved in the research, the whole team was helpful in teaching him. It is beneficial to the prof because they are looking for students to "bring up" and he is also encouraging him to major in chem (they don't declare majors until soph year). This prof has asked him to return this year in any capacity he has time for and asked him to do summer research this past summer (though he had already lined up something else)</p>
<p>A lot of classes at my school were meant specifically for the purpose of giving kids research experience early on, precisely for this purpose. That's how we solved it, at least... other schools may/may not do the same.</p>
<p>I actually have a volunteer research position for an autism study - this was because I have some experience with caring for autistic children, as well as data entry. I got the child care experience by volunteering for a preschool summer program that happened to have autistic children, and the data entry experience through my mandatory government service hours, where I tallied up votes and broke them down by precinct, party lines, time, etc. </p>
<p>My current position is as a volunteer to take care of the kids while they're not being experimented upon, but if I do well, I'll be taken on as a paid research assistant doing actual important things. So, my advice is, know how to make your resume appeal to the job you're looking for.</p>
<p>well, just make yourself sound more presentable. I e-mailed five professors when I was a senior in high school and three responded and gave me positions in their labs. But basically I was a lab slave to them. eh, you gotta start somewhere.</p>
<p>i'm sure if you've had experience related to the research (i.e, working with kids for someone doing research in child psychology), that would help you and not cause the professor to shaft you. your level of involvement really depends on the professor. anyway, yeah. that doesn't really answer your question.</p>
<p>if you want to find a place to start, try asking a faculty adviser or academic adviser and see if they know anyone who are open to working with frosh. you might be able to find a paid research position through jobs offered on campus but most of them involve you doing slave work- a great place to start, still.</p>
<p>ya I was looking for a job also, kinda killing 2 birds with one stone thing, I get a job and research experience. but when I am more experienced I hope to get my own research going or atleast be a member of a team where if the paper is published my name is there too.</p>
<p>if u r a workstudy, then go for work study jobs in labs. otherwise, get up to 10 hr/wk volunteering. (and everyone likes free labor.) u should attempt to read and understand the papers published by the lab. that will help. and ask a lot of questions about the experiments. that will pave ur way for it. a lot of ppl start out washing dishes. prof's think undergrads are very cheap labor but we are more likely to break things, ruin other ppl's experiments, make trouble, etc. so they don't want to get u started with high stuff early. and it's hard to find someone else (e.g. postdoc, grad student) to accompany you all the time to make sure things go right.</p>
<p>solution: take a lab course that make some relevance so u get some ideas about the techniques. (and u need freshman bio anw). tell the prof's that you want to volunteer. tell them what courseworks you've completed and what lab experiences you've had. after you get in, volunteer and be willing to learn anything. read papers. ask questions. attend meetings. show that you try hard. </p>
<p>i know you want to get ur hands on but if u don't have much experience, i dont recommend getting into it ur first semester freshman year. spend the time figuring out what it takes to get good grades. the best time to start is in the summer. after u take some courseworks and u can work day to day. u can do research most productively when you don't have to worry about classes. and u don't have to wrap things up and wait till next week when u fail an experiment.</p>
<p>no matter how lucky i was, i've been through 2 labs in 2 yrs (including high school) and i learnt a bunch of cool things to the point that I can do those with my eyes closed. but it's still hard to get into a new one anw. a lot of prof's are not on campus during this time of the summer. sigh and good luck.</p>
<p>And to be honest: lab experiments take humungous among of time, especially if you get excited at the experiment and you feel and urge to move on/ repeat the experiment. It can be a good source of procrastination if you don't have a really solid plan and self control. It easily takes my entire weekend, my reading days, etc. I don't hate it but this summer 70% of the time I forget to eat lunch and I work up to 10 - 12 hrs/day.</p>
<p>one of my lab bosses told me he can't pay a none-workstudy undergrad to work in a lab, if the student's not in a program that the university is supporting etc. it's some sort of NIH grant politics. so one thing that can turn a prof off is that you are a none-workstudy and you want to get paid.</p>