<p>I'll be attending Cornell in the fall, and was wondering whether or not freshmen typically are able to get involved in research with a professor during their first or second semester on campus. If it helps, I'm interested in research projects in business/marketing/etc! </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Absolutely! A few get involved first sem, while many more do it second semester. It’d probably be slightly more difficult to do research in that area, but definitely email profs (5-7). There’s also a lot of business-related activities at cornell though, so consider those as well.</p>
<p>Does that mean I contact professors in that area of study semi-randomly and hope they’re currently involved in research? Or is there a comprehensive list of research projects currently going on floating around somewhere (much like Berkeley’s URAP – <a href=“http://research.berkeley.edu/urap/projects/list-socsci.lasso[/url]”>http://research.berkeley.edu/urap/projects/list-socsci.lasso</a>) ?</p>
<p>Also, would it matter if I’m not studying what I want to do research in (but may plan on transferring later on)? Currently in CAS but looking into Marketing, Communications, etc which are both in CALS. </p>
<p>Thanks so much!</p>
<p>Look at the AEM or Comm department pages and see if any profs. have research that interests you. There is not a comprehensive list of current projects going on. ANd it really doesn’t matter what your major is - as long as you’re interested in the prof’s subject area, you’re fine. </p>
<p>Some profs have research opps here too: [Job</a> Postings for Cornell Students](<a href=“Career Services | Student & Campus Life | Cornell University”>Career Services | Student & Campus Life | Cornell University)</p>
<p>Is it possible to research with 2 professors at once? I know being a research scholar helps getting into a research group, but I was wondering if I’d be able to balance it with my freshman schedule (I’m in engineering, btw). </p>
<p>I’m planning on doing research in the chemistry field and in the mathematics field. Also, I’m not completely “new” to either of those fields. I’ve done over 2 years of chemistry research and have an internship with Cambridge and McGill PhD students over the summer for mathematics; I’m just really interested in both fields and just wanted to see if it was a viable plan for next year.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t encourage it. Doing research in one lab is plenty of work as it is (8+ hrs minimum) - it’s better to focus your research in one area than to spread it out.</p>
<p>Another quick question – would it matter that much if I don’t happen to have particularly extensive experience in the field I’d like to do research in? Would it be enough to have some related skills and be willing to learn, etc? </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I started getting into research as a research assistant with no former experience or knowledge of research. Just after three months I was promoter lab manager. So I would argue that being smart and having necessary skills are very important and extensive experience is far from a requirement. However, when professors take their pick on students to work in their labs, I know that they like to see people with experience within the field or at least experience with related fields. After having been part of two rounds of recruiting, I know what is focused on: GPA, coursework, work experience and extra curricular activities. What is nice to see is lab/research experience, but a word of caution, if you have an experience like that, you will usually be asked for a reference from the person you worked for. So if you did bad or the person says something bad, you are done. I had exemplary candidates who I thought definitely would be picked, only to get really bad letters from their references, and then immediately excluded from the shortlisting.</p>
<p>^ About when did you start looking for research positions? Also, is research experience vital in getting into a good grad school?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>