<p>does anyone have experience with turning down professors’ offers to be your research mentors, after you have e-mailed them to ask them? like, you picked one of all that replied, and what did you say to the others…?</p>
<p>Would anyone who has successfully found a research internship with a professor mind PMing me what their email said? Admittedly, my email would have to take a slightly different format because I’m primarily interested in Political Science/International Relations, but it would give me a nice starting point.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
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<p>By ‘research’, I meant reading about the topics you’re interested in pursuing. Not going to the lab or whatever.</p>
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<p>I’ll try to modify the email I sent to my science professor then I’ll pm you.</p>
<p>Would anyone who has been successful in attaining a research internship by e-mailing a professor please PM me the successful e-mail? I just want to get a good idea of the general format to use when contacting professors. By the way, I am interested in biological/medical research.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>I’m in pretty much the same situation as fadh up there, interested in biomedical eng, but I’ve got no idea where to start : \ </p>
<p>Likewise, I would greatly appreciate it if anyone would pm me a succesful email.</p>
<p>Now, as if this post wasn’t original enough, thanks in advance!</p>
<p>To those who have requested a sample email:</p>
<p>I think I’ve PMed all of you but if you didn’t receive it, please PM me again.</p>
<p>To those who want a sample email:</p>
<p>PM me!</p>
<p>This may sound stupid, but I live in Canada, can I still get an internship here? I hope the rules are the same. </p>
<p>Basically I just write an essay, find professors, and email them? Sorry for being totally lost. I am completely new to this stuff.</p>
<p>I’ve recieved a number of replies from professors in my field of interest (political science) and I’m really quite excited about the possibility of working with them over the summer, or even earlier. I encourage all of you to at least give it a try and send out a few emails. Don’t expect to assist them on groundbreaking research as an equal. There’s simply no way that’s going to happen. Instead, be open to various possibilities. Let your passion for your field of interest show in your email. Let them know how honored you would be to work for them, and always be respectful and mindful of the fact that they are very busy individuals. If you’re lucky, as I have been, you may get a few responses and then you go from there. Meet with the professor in person (you go to him - don’t expect him to come to you) and just have fun. Seriously. </p>
<p>Also, a word of advice. If you’re really serious about working with someone, don’t send emails to the tenured faculty with a bazillion published articles and graduate level classes. Instead, try to single out younger, newer faculty members who teach at the undergraduate level (maybe introductory courses), and perhaps have a little more time on their hands/scheduling flexibility. It seems to have worked for me, that’s all I’ll say.</p>
<p>Hi I’m interested in interning with a professor at a local university. How should i approach them? I understand that I should email them explaining why I am interested but what else did you do? I don’t have much experience but I want to make sure I give it a shot!</p>
<p>How many of you guys send a complete research proposal to the scientist along with your email? I’m assuming at least some of you want to enter in science fairs, and having your own research plan seems to be the only way to guarantee a good project. Otherwise, it’s kind of based on luck (getting interesting results). Well, at least for biology, which is my field.</p>
<p>^^^ I agree with Hammurabi.
I think it would be the same in Canada, ithe system is not all that different is it?</p>
<p>I did bio research, and I did not complete a research proposal. Why? because I didn’t fully comprehend the research field until after the interview. Also, I wasn’t sure if I would just help out with research, or actually submit to a science fair or anything. I got lucky though, and got interesting results. My professor, for the msot part, assigned me a topic. Usually professors (at least I think) already have plans for their research set out, which they have to describe when writing for grants. So I don’t know how conducive they would be to a completely new research plan designed by you, unless it was very very close to what they already had done/planned to do.<br>
also, you shouldn’t really know the results of a project when you start. That kind of defeats the purpose of research.</p>
<p>nith - i meant that in order to be moderately sure of a good science fair project, you need to have a structured plan instead of just showing up at the lab and helping out with someone else’s work.
i contacted professors (working in same field) about mentoring me for my project, but the responses were largely negative. so i am conducting my project without a mentor, which is difficult but not impossible. i am using lab equipment at a nearby university and will have a supervisor, just not a mentor.
the difference between research and science fair is that for the latter, one must actually be sincerely interested in the field and take initiative, rather than assisting someone else do their own research. either way you learn valuable skills, but science fair projects are far more student driven in most cases.</p>
<p>well, just make it clear that you want to do some independent research, and not just make gels, or follow someone around the whole time.</p>
<p>I think its great that you decided to conduct your own project- I always think these projects are more “individual” than those from labs w/ mentors. Make sure you mention that during the scifair (that you worked by yourself w/out a mentor). Although I’m sure some advice would be beneficial if you get stuck.</p>
<p>and if you’re still considering an internship, don’t get discouraged. I honestly emailed about 50 professors, and most labs were already full. I did email kind of late (late March), but still.</p>
<p>i was actually talking about my current research project (started last summer). i’ve been working on it for maybe 7 months now…the majority of that was planning, getting donations for materials, etc. though. i should probably start contacting profs for this summer…wow, how the time flies. are most labs filled by january?
the thing is, i did really like doing my own stuff. i’m not sure if a lab internship would entail just doing menial stuff or what…in your experience, do most professors actually care about your ideas or do they just use you for the free work? i guess that’s putting it a little harshly, but getting an internship just to clean out test tubes is not very attractive to me especially when i could be making money to help out my parents.
anyway, the point is: have your research experiences been positive? are most professors willing to spend time with a high school intern’s project? what is the likelihood of developing an isef worthy project from a summer’s (or more, if you continue into the year) worth of research?</p>
<p>Very interested. Studying Information Technology and Spanish. I have a big interest in Human Computer Interaction, Info security, and also the use of technology in the financial sector. Im thinking of email contacts directly. PM for any advice.</p>
<p>Okay, everyone who reads this thread from now on, I have posted a follow up in a whole thread <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/summer-programs/1063234-how-apply-independent-research-internships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/summer-programs/1063234-how-apply-independent-research-internships.html</a></p>
<p>This should end this thread.</p>
<p>Hi tsubomi1993,
Found your post really motivating. (: I really want to do research of the caliber that you have over the summer, but I needed some help with the applications I’ll be sending to the professors I’d like to work with. If I PM you, could you please forward your application to me as well. I’d really appreciate that. Thanks!</p>
<p>I’m looking into emailing professors at the University of Washington and asking for interning as well. Again, same problem, I don’t know how to approach writing the email to them. Could someone PM me a sample email or example of how to approach a professor about interning for them??</p>
<p>Update
I created a thread since so many people messaged me.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/summer-programs/1063234-how-apply-independent-research-internships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/summer-programs/1063234-how-apply-independent-research-internships.html</a>
and
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13870430-post83.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13870430-post83.html</a></p>
<p>I emailed about 30 professors and got 6 replies, all saying that they don’t have room or they’re overcommitted or that the facility doens’t allow them to accept random students…sigh</p>