<p>i was in a chance thread, and i happened to see how a kid was told that he should "get a research position with an ivy professor and you're in." i was wondering--how do you do that? are there specific things to apply for, or do you just email random professors asking if you can work with them over the summer? any response would be greatly appreciated, thanks.</p>
<p>^^it doesnt matter whether it’s an ivy professor or not -_- the main point is that you actually get a research position with a professor.</p>
<p>email the professor is the only way to go.but remember,it’s hard to persuade a professor to pick you…</p>
<p>^Yeah, honestly, it doesn’t matter whether it’s an ivy. Just try a nearby university or college, especially if there is one near you that is strong in a field you’re interested in.</p>
<p>well it does help,
ivy professors tend to publish more
but yeah
all you can really do is email them
and sound bright and enthusiastic
and it’s especially good if you can program or something useful like that</p>
<p>What if you live in Britain (where pre-university research with a professor is much less common)?</p>
<p>it’s not even common in the us,
it just seems that way because there are a lot of colleges in the us and a lot of ambitious americans on this board
you could probably just email the professor anyway and see what he says,
never hurts to ask
besides, maybe it’s good that it’s uncommon
because then you’re a special case</p>
<p>My husband the professor would delete such a request without even reading it.
Real research professors work with hand-picked graduate students and bright undergraduates whose work they have evaluated in class. They might find some scut work for a high school student to do, perhaps as a favor to a colleague whose child is genuinely interested in the field. But they aren’t going to waste their time and research grants on random high school students who want to pad their college applications.</p>
<p>^Ouch, that’s motivating.<br>
I’m SURE there are many professors out there who, out of the goodness of their heart, would like to work with interested high school students. After all there a lot of high schoolers on here who have done it.</p>
<p>Should I just stick with a community college professor or something? Would I get a similar experience?</p>
<p>python38: I actually don’t think it’s common at all in the U.S. I had to come on College Confidential to find out that high school students could even do something like research with a professor.</p>
<p>^^yea,i think there must be some ‘‘patient’’ professors who like to work with some HS students…</p>
<p>^^^like mine. hahaha</p>
<p>“I’m SURE there are many professors out there who, out of the goodness of their heart, would like to work with interested high school students. After all there a lot of high schoolers on here who have done it.”</p>
<p>There are some, not many. Professors also aren’t likely to respond favorably to a vague, random e-mail that doesn’t demonstrate any knowledge of the professor or the professor’s area of research. Given, too, the drastic cutbacks that are occurring in grants and other funding, even the most kind professor isn’t likely to have time to take on an anonymous, unskilled high school student. I know professors --including tenured ones – who are fearing for their jobs due to funding cutbacks.</p>
<p>It is a lot of work to supervise a high school student, and most professors aren’t going to have that kind of time unless the student has an exceptionally strong background or is a close friend. If the professors are wiling to supervise a student, they’re far more likely to select a star undergrad or graduate student, not a h.s. student looking to pad their resume.</p>
<p>If you Google, however, you can find research opportunities for stellar high school students who’ll get paid to do research. You also can find pricey research opportunities for high school students who can afford those opportunities.</p>
<p>I’m a Professor directing ~$2M/year in research funding. I would recommend attempting to form a relationship with the graduate students working in the lab. Try to find a match between your skills and some task that would make you useful. If one of my trusted graduate students told me that they found a qualified HS student that could help them be more productive and was willing to supervise them, I would give them the green light to hire them in a heartbeat.</p>
<p>^If you’re homeschooled, what would be the best way to start that?</p>
<p>You could try local universities… And show some real interest in the field you want to pursue in your emails.</p>
<p>Thanks ^^. What exactly do you ask professors - whether they’d be willing to mentor you on a project you yourself thought up, or whether they have anything that needs doing? (I’ve already done a higher-level project in the field I’m interested in.)</p>
<p>You’d probably have the best chance if you’re thought up a project, and if that project relates to their field. Doing this would indicate to them that you’re willing to do the hard work of thinking and research, and you’re approaching them out of genuine interest, not just to decorate our resume.</p>
<p>It was actually my older brother (who did postgraduate work in Computer Science) who suggested what I do, as he knew I was interested in doing some kind of research in the area, but didn’t know where to start. Do you think professors would mind the fact that it was my brother, not me, who came up with the idea? It was me who wanted to work in AI (a sub-field of Computer Science), but my brother who suggested the project, as I really wanted to something, but had no idea where to get started (I tried programming my own AI for a bit, but that didn’t turn out too well, which was why I asked my brother for advice.)</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>What the professors would be interested in is why you’re interested in the project (Preferably for more reason than, “My brother suggested it”), and what you’ve done to research the project. “I was waiting for a professor to hold my hand and guide me so I could start researching” wouldn’t be a good answer. ]</p>
<p>Similarly, “I contacted all of the computer science professors in the area” wouldn’t be a good answer to “Why did you decide to contact me specifically about this project?” The professors would want to see that you took the time to research their backgrounds and areas of research.</p>
<p>You will be asking a stranger to do a big favor for you so it will be important for you to demonstrate that you’re worth a professor’s time.</p>
<p>The below was posted by Coleus2 in Parents Forum in a thread about a different subject, and is very relevant to your question. Meanwhile, if you want to do research, nothing is preventing you from doing research on your own. </p>
<p>"I run a research lab at a Medical School, and often get e-mails from college students looking for paid or unpaid temporary positions. </p>
<p>For me, taking someone in to do a summer research project means using a lot of my time and my technician’s time to train this person. Even if we are talking about juniors in a relevant major with some lab experience, most of the time they will require a lot of training in our particular techniques before they can start “producing” useable data. While being trained, this person will also use a lot of really expensive reagents (that I am buying with my grant money) and will often use some really expensive equipment that could potentially be damaged. I will also typically work with them on getting them up to speed on scientific papers that provide background for the project, and, if necessary, help them write up a report for their college. All-in-all, I often joke that they should be paying me for my time, not the other way around, because this is really more of a one-on-one training experience for the student than a way for me to get some work done.</p>
<p>I have now become very selective and will not take on a student even as an unpaid research intern unless I am absolutely convinced that the student is responsible and hard-working and has at least some lab experience since taking in an underperforming volunteer can be a huge drain on the lab resources."</p>
<p>Well, I’ve gone through a programming book, and I’m reasonably skilled at Python, but I still want to improve at that. I’ve written a few small games, but I want to do something more useful than that. I’ve always wanted to write my own AI, but that’s way above my level; the project I intend to do will teach me about, as well as how to program, a lot of the key concepts in AI, such as neural networks. </p>
<p>I’m homeschooled, and I never did research in a lab, so I also want to get experience of that before going to university. Finally, I want to get a sense of what CS was like at university level; at the UK universities, you have to specialize immediately, and I wasn’t sure whether to apply for CS or Maths this autumn. </p>
<p>I’ve already pretty much finished a project directly related to the one I’m considering doing (although I’m still polishing the code); the one I’m going to do next is slightly more niche, though, and I can’t find many papers or advice on it on the Internet. I can’t ask my brother for much advice (he specializes in graphics, and only knows a small amount about AI), which was why I wanted someone to mentor me for the next project. Would the project I’ve already done be the equivalent of lab experience?</p>