<p>Woah, I wish I joined CC and saw this like…last year. :'|</p>
<p>Thanks so much!</p>
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>The area I’m interested in is political science/law/government, but I don’t know what I would be doing with the professor if I approached them. . . </p>
<p>Do they even have a lot of work to do that I can assist them with?
Or what sort of project should I come up with for these fields?
Or do you think it’s probably not a good idea? </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what you want to do (although I’m sure there’s plenty of things to do), but you’ll never know what you could do until you ask the professor.</p>
<p>This thread is amazing. If only I had seen it a year or two back when I was looking for a spot. May I add that I think you should just mass email professors (with a personal touch of course) about 50. I got about 20 replies back and 6 accepted me. Thereafter I chose which one I wanted. Also once you get a position and have completed the internship it’s much easier to get the next one and you can pick and choose the topic of research to your liking.</p>
<p>diane123: I know a friend of mine who is brilliant in economics. He got an economics internship because he had a passion for it. If you are skilled in political science/law/government and have a serious passion for it you should get in although it is very uncommon.</p>
<p>Could you tell us how you turned down the other professors? </p>
<p>Diane123: I believe one of the posters in the original thread did a polisci project. Check who it is and you could pm them.</p>
<p>I simply sent them an email thanking them for accepting me but also informing them that I had found a research position slightly closer to my interests. I THINK they understand because they have interests in certain fields too. Some even replied saying they were glad I did. Others I don’t know. They might have been mad, but I can never tell!</p>
<p>Very well said, thanks for your suggestion!</p>
<p>Too bad I can’t edit the original post though.</p>
<p>Firstly, thank you so much for creating this. I’m going to be a sophomore this year, and I love physics to death, but I’m not taking any AP sciences until junior year(earliest I can take one). Would I really be qualified to research at a college lab before junior year, in your opinion? I haven’t won any research award. I’ve read a lot on the astrophysics field and I’m taking an astronomy course at a local college though. I’m doing some independent research this summer… do you think that I should ask around for my after-sophomore summer or wait until junior year?</p>
<p>Thank you so so so much for this post!
After reading this, I mass emailed about 20 professors at yale knowing it was a long shot…but one accepted me anyways for the summer and some offered me positions for the school year!
I start next week, and I’m new to “real research” so I might be a little awkward…
in general, does anyone have any suggestions as to exactly what I should expect?</p>
<p>Wow Yale! Lucky haha. In the beginning I had a mentor and I just kind of shadowed him and he taught me a lot. Now he’s still officially my mentor but I do a lot of independent research. Just basically follow whatever your told. Then start giving smart input once you get the hang of the research ~ 2-3 weeks in.</p>
<p>lol mass spamming failed so hard for me. rejected by around 55 labs, with one lab giving me the maybe and then finding out i don’t have comp sci background and then rejecting me.</p>
<p>Annoyinggaakash: don’t give up keep mass emailing but don’t forget to make it personal for each professor!</p>
<p>Sorry to everyone for the delayed response. I just finished my exams so now I have time to reply.</p>
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<p>I started doing research in 9th grade. I didn’t start any AP classes then (or anything of similar standard) so you can definitely do research. The only skills I had was knowing how to do a titration haha. The professor taught me most of the skills I needed to use.</p>
<p>Also, since you’re already doing some independent research, you should already have some idea of what are you want to.</p>
<p>It’s very interesting that you’re interested in astronomy and astrophysics. I participated in quite a few astronomy competitions and an olympiad. I know of some astronomy and astrophysics projects. If you want to know more, pm me.</p>
<p>If you feel prepared mentally, then you should do research. You don’t want to go into the research project feeling that you’re not quite good enough because it could be that the professor teaches you some skills. </p>
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<p>Ahhhh, I’m so so so sorry for replying late. Be prepared to learn a lot of things. You might get a bit stressed out by the number of things you have to learn but take it as something fun and interesting. </p>
<p>Try to write down notes so that you can remember procedures.</p>
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<p>Follow what avatarmage said and as I said in the original post, "If you’re really serious about working with someone, don’t send emails to the tenured faculty with a bazillion published articles and graduate level classes. Instead, try to single out younger, newer faculty members who teach at the undergraduate level (maybe introductory courses), and perhaps have a little more time on their hands/scheduling flexibility. "</p>
<p>Hello! I’m a rising sophomore. I read through all of this, but I wasn’t quite sure if my question were answered. I already have a professor in mind to mentor me because she is the mother of one of my friends who just graduated this year. I’m very new to research projects, but it sounds really interesting to me. I’m a bit of a newbie, so please excuse my “stupidity” here… </p>
<p>How should I outline my own research project and what can I do with the results I arrive at after the project is complete?
What is the point of having a professor “mentor” me? (I don’t mean to sound rude if it comes out that way, I’m just wondering how they can help me with a project)</p>
<p>bump bump …</p>
<p>i think imma just stick to be an intern at uncle’s friend’s ophthalmology clinic for july and volunteering at the same assisted living center i volunteered at last year in august. i spent an entire day sending out personalized emails. profs either didn’t respond or they just said no. i emailed profs at all different unis and in different departments. i followed your advice, but i guess i just tried doing this stuff way too late.</p>
<p>I was wondering if it is possible to do research with a history professor and if anyone knows what research in history would be like at the university level. (I hope this hasn’t already been posted in the thread but I looked through the whole thing…) I have a feeling it would be very different than working in a lab so I’m not sure if History professors would want to work with high schoolers the same way professors from other subjects do. Also, I will probably be emailing them for a school year internship would that bother the professors? Since, I’m guessing at least, the undergrads would be back in school so they wouldn’t need high schoolers anymore.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what kind of research you would do with a history professor but hey it never hurts to ask right? I guess it would be a lot more theoretical and would probably require a lot more knowledge though. But just email perhaps even meet and talk with the professors. good luck!</p>