I’m currently a rising senior seeking an opportunity to further my scientific research experience over the summer. I have developed a research idea of my own, and would like to know how I could possibly acquire a mentor or lab to work with.
Find local universities in your area and see if they have an online list of faculty members who teach/research in your area of interest. After you’ve done your initial research, look at papers published by these faculty members. Draft an e-mail detailing your proposal and why you think it falls in line with the interests of the potential research mentor (make sure to reference their published works). With that being said, most labs have probably been filled by now because summer has just started, so it might be harder to find a potential mentor. Moreover, research positions are highly coveted, meaning that you’re going to have to e-mailing upwards of 50 prospective faculty members for a response. In my own experiences, I e-mailed 30 faculty members and got 3 responses (2 said no, one offered an interview and tour). Some other miscellaneous tips would be to e-mail these professors in the morning (e.g 6 a.m) so your e-mail is the first thing in their inbox. Also, make sure your e-mail title and manner of addressing the faculty member are all appropriate in the context of the situation. HMU if you’ve gotten any more questions.
@FattoWolf did the interview turn into a mentorship? just wondering as a i have an interview soon and im praying all goes well.
Also (not saying this applies to me) but for those who do research for ‘resume-padding’, how do colleges see that these kids aren’t passionate if they do research solely for intel and siemens to boost applications?
The interview wasn’t a deal-breaker; the professor just gave me a run-down of what I’d be working on the lab and told my role in relation to the other grad students/post docs in the lab. He basically did 95% of the talking. With that being said, I’d still prepare for the interview by thinking about potential questions that the professor might ask you (e.g what interests you about our lab specifically, what do you hope to get out of this experience).
In response to your second question, research is obviously an impressive extra-curricular. Intel and Siemens are especially impressive to colleges. The two seniors who were Intel Semifinalist at my school ended up going to Stanford (obviously they did other extra-curriculars, but I’d imagine Intel played some role). I’m a rising senior, so I don’t know much about how adcoms work, but I’d imagine they’d be able to discern whether a student is simply doing research to build their resume rather than for personal experience because they’ve seen thousands of applications. If you’re a big business and humanities guy who does Model UN and Journalism, it might seem odd if you suddenly decided to do research over the summer. You should try to build a profile in which you can explain how each extra-curricular activity fits together. Look at your other activities and see if you can explain how research fits in with your overall narrative.
Good luck with your interview!
Also, if anybody needs help drafting an e-mail for potential lab work, send me a message. I can share the template I used.
@FattoWolf Thanks for the information!!!