Volunteering to do research remotely

Graduate School
1

<p>In attempts to strengthen my grad school application, I got the idea of emailing people who do area in the field I am interested in and volunteer to help them out with research remotely. What does everyone think about this?</p>

<p>My reasoning behind this decision is that
- It would strengthen my grad school application
- It would confirm my interest in he field
- I still need to continue working, so I couldnt commit to showing up somewhere but I could work from home on weekends / nights
- I am pretty set on the area I want to do research in and there is no professor that does this research within a commutable distance from where I live (and moving is not an option right now)</p>

<p>I am tempted to email professors and volunteer, but I am scared this will come off in a wrong way and I will later hurt my chances when applying to grad school at these institutions in a year.</p>

<p>What are everyone's thoughts?</p>

2

<p>I don’t think this is a good idea…I don’t think any professors would go for that. It’s hard enough to do this when you have established relationships with colleagues or graduate students, but an unknown?</p>

<p>You can do research in a related area that’s not exactly what you want to do with a professor within commuting distance.</p>