<p>Keep in mind that a student doesn't need to look for internships only at the university he/she attends. Our son (who attends Duke) thought it would be fun to live with one of his brothers for the summer, but was willing to go wherever the opportunity was. He applied for many internships through his campus career center and wasn't having much luck. </p>
<p>He then did a google search of summer internships in the cities his brother's are in and came up with the summer internship for undergraduates at UCSD ( <a href="http://www.mpl.ucsd.edu/news/mpl.internships.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.mpl.ucsd.edu/news/mpl.internships.html</a> ). He's now thrilled to be living with his older brother for 10 weeks while doing research on the beach of La Jolla (can't beat that) through the Marine Physical Lab of Scripps Institution of Oceanography! </p>
<p>He assumed, at first, that they probably only used their own students, but I think he's proof that schools like to "mix it up" a bit. :)</p>
<p>My son, a rising sophomore, did the e-mail version of banging on prof's doors. But he spent a lot of time on each e-mail, first becoming very familiar with the person's work, and then writing very specifically and quite extensively about what it was about their work that especially interested him, and also detailing his previous lab experience. While in some cases he got no response at all, he did ultimately get into a top lab at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, which hasn't taken an undergrad in over ten years. And he is absolutely loving his experience there.</p>
<p>Mm, see, that's the problem about e-mails, is that it gives the prof an opportunity to just not respond. One can be much better at being persistent when you show up at their office (or even make a phone call) because what are they going to do, say "nah, I'm not here, sorry"? :)</p>
<p>Well from experience, GuitarManARS, you probably don't want to work for a professor who refuses to communicate with their students do you? I had a prof whose lab I was interested in working for this summer and after initial conversations of "email me later" he didn't respond until after I'd accepted elsewhere. I decided it wouldn't be worth running after someone all summer whereas the current professor I'm working for went out of his way to accomodate me.</p>
<p>It's not as though a professor who doesn't respond to emails is necessarily ignoring you -- he or she probably gets an absurd volume of email every day, and your email may have been lost in the shuffle. This is particularly true for very high-powered professors.</p>
<p>I agree with GuitarManARS in that a phone call or a visit is a great route; I've found it useful to communicate with a professor's administrative assistant, who is usually the organization and order behind the entire enterprise. ;)</p>
<p>Stargirl, Mollie is right. Professors get "hi please mentor me thanks!" e-mails in high volume every day, they have many more such people e-mailing them than they do have actual students, so you can't compare the treatment of one to the other.</p>
<p>However, unlike Mollie, I am a strong adherent to the "knock on professor's doors" method, also known as the "who needs to bother with an administrative assistant?" method. Don't give them any chance to shoo you away, I say! ;)</p>
<p>Mollie, out of curiosity, what ended up happening to you? Are you headed to Pasadena next year?</p>
<p>Nah, this guy was teaching me in class last semester and still hadn't responded a few weeks after he promised he would. I realize many profs are busy, but this was a touch different situation.</p>
<p>You may be right that it's a lot harder to turn someone away in person, but it also may be very off-putting to a very busy professor to have someone show up that way. Ultimately, my son got three offers of summer positions (altho one did come after he'd already accepted his current job and was through a connection), and I don't think he sent out more than 8 or 10 e-mails. However, as I noted above, his writings were really specific and passionate. Nevertheless, perhaps one could try a combination, i.e. following up an unresponded -to e-mail with a phone call or visit.</p>
<p>I think the success of an e-mail depends on a lot of things, including the field and the level of the student, as well as the content of the e-mail and the professor him/herself, so one really can't make generalized statements. But yeah, I'd say if one is going to send e-mails, do them right, like your son did. Make the e-mail thoughtful, passionate, and original. Now, as for randomly knocking on doors, a busy professor will turn you away and you go on to the next one. No need to worry about those ones, if they're too busy to talk with you then, I doubt they're busy enough for a student :) Most everyone whom I talked to when I had a door-knocking expedition at Columbia seemed very impressed at the gesture, and I really don't think it can hurt.</p>
<p>I guess this is proof old CC threads never die. :)</p>
<p>Dak and Donemom, congrats to your sons! </p>
<p>If you're local and can knock on doors, that's always a good thing to try. Mollie's right about admin asst's, too; sometimes they're gatekeepers. If you're going to go the door-knocking route, you'll probably increase your chance of success if you knock during posted office hours. ;)</p>
<p>I don't think students need to worry so much about whether profs are too busy or "important" to bother. Sometimes they can't respond if anticipated funding falls through (stargirl's maybe?) or their research groups are just not taking on any students; so don't be afraid to move on to the next one. The important thing is to establish and maintain contact, whether it's through detailed and targeted e-mails like Donemom's son's, face time after a lecture at your school, REU apps (S still keeps in touch with two "busy" profs he had to turn down), prior research experience, small talk over the buffet or at the poster session at annual professional meetings, etc. There are plenty of profs out there doing research. Most of them, including the "busy/important" ones, will find the time for students--either at their own schools or others--who show promise.</p>
<p>[So, GuitarMan... I assume from your future location that your "homework" paid off. Congratulations!!!]</p>
<p>Ok, I guess a little clarification is needed on what I'm saying as I skipped some information. Firstly in my own experience "door knocking" was the key to things but not in the usual way: I sat in the majority of professors' offices before I was even a second semester sophomore because I love to talk about physics. (It was around this time that I made the discovery that asking ten different physicists the same question means you get ten different answers...)
So anyway, come job search time I sent off emails/ went door knocking, and it came down to the professor who enthusiastically wanted me to work for him and the one who kept telling me to send me an email as he wasn't sure yet, even when I asked him if he'd made decisions after class. I guess what I'm saying is when you want to work for someone you ought to take hints for precursors to come, and I didn't like the signals of that prof.
Of course, it is worth noting that due to university budget crunches hereabouts, I am the only rising junior on the physics dept payroll, and I'm sure it's because everybody knew who I was even before I went around asking as it's not like my transcript is particularly stellar and such. So it never hurts to go around to say hello to people, even if it's just to talk! :)</p>