<p>Just another second-semester freshman overachiver [sic] seeking internship/research opportunities..</p>
<p>What would be the best way for me to go about this? I checked the URAP website and a lot of the apprenticeships seem more inclined to upperclassmen or students who have previous experience with research or certain subject matter (i.e. they have taken prior classes on the material). I also checked on Callisto and most of the jobs are either way in the future or far away from campus. </p>
<p>By the way, I would prefer humanities/psychology-type opportunities as I am an intended philosophy major.</p>
<p>So where would you guys suggest I start looking for these opportunities? Is it too early for me to do research?</p>
<p>E-mail the professors directly. Heck, I got around six offers the summer before my freshman year by doing this and the number of offers is just increasing (I’m a second semester freshman like you =x). It is definitely not too early to start research. I started in high school (9th grade =p). There are plenty of freshman doing research their first semester. </p>
<p>You should just look carefully into what each professor is doing and express interest in participating in research with them. Most likely, you’ll start by doing trivial things (probably the first semester/year) and slowly you’ll do more significant tasks, no matter how brilliant you are (well of course there are exceptions <em>cough cough</em>).</p>
<p>@Foraminifera, can I ask what kind of research you started in 9th grade? xD Sounds really cool.</p>
<p>And @overachiver1000, what kind of work did you have in mind? I’m a little confused getting into Berkeley as a freshman myself; I’m only envisioning test tubes and all that kind of chemistry stuff whenever I think of research. I’m also interested in the humanities. What kind of research can be conducted for humanities/philosophy?</p>
<p>Foraminifera: Thanks! Also, how did you word your emails, might I ask? For example, should I ask for qualifications and then send them a follow-up email telling how my qualifications match their criteria? Or should I just go ahead and list a bunch of possible qualifications on my first email to them? Sorry, I’m kind of a newbie at this, haha. ^^; </p>
<p>LemonCat: For philosophy I’ve found a couple projects under the psychology, cognitive science, sociology, and poli sci departments that can overlap with the subject matter. If you go on the URAP website, you can find a bunch of research opportunities under pretty much every subject area (:</p>
<p>@LemonCat
The typical 1st semester lab work…cleaning things/moving things around/tedious data gathering/reading papers. It got a bit better my second year where I applying the knowledge from the papers I read to the research. And, as my username suggests, I studied foraminifera. </p>
<p>@overachiver1000</p>
<p>Uh…I kinda went like “Hi, I have 4 years research experience. I worked in (insert name)'s lab and he recommended I talk to you about future opportunities…blah blah”</p>
<p>In a general case, you’d probably state some of your qualifications in the e-mail (what classes have you taken relating to the subject/programming skills/not sure for humanities, but whatever would be of interest). You’d also probably want to state some of your interests and might want to tell them about projects they’re doing that you’re interested in.
If the purpose of research is to get experience, tell them that and they’ll give you an
appropriate position if they have space. They might make the mistake of giving you a 2-3 year long project or a semester-long project if you do not state what you hope to achieve out of research.</p>
<p>Honestly, even if you have no qualifications or the experience they’re looking for, just tell them you are really interested in what they are doing - I’m also a freshman and got positive responses from doing this (ignored by one and got offered to work with them for the others…and I asked like a month after the deadline) Remember that they are all really busy though, so make sure you don’t bog them down with too much info, you know? If you leave a good impression, they’ll contact you if they have openings.</p>