Writing a Follow-up to Cold Email for Summer Research

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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Hello! I’m a current high school sophomore and I really want to do research with a professor over the summer so I cold-emailed a bunch of professors and plan to continue over the next month. However, some of the professors, even those who I emailed a while back haven’t responded yet. I saw a bunch of people online saying that professors could take up to a month to respond to cold emails so I’m not sure if I should send a follow-up email or not. I emailed the first professor a little over 2 weeks ago. Can someone advise on whether I should follow-up or not, and if so, what I should say?

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It is fine to try but I would not send another email. It is unlikely that a college prof. would offer a research position to a HS sophomore. Remember they have plenty of college students who I expect would get first dibs.

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Does your HS offer a research class?

Have you talked to your HS teacher and/or guidance counselor and see if they know of any opportunities for HS students?

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I agree with @happy1 about asking your teachers or counselor about opportunities. There are summer programs specifically for high schoolers, although application deadlines may have passed for this summer.

My kid participated in a summer program at our state flagship after her sophomore year. She found out about it from her science teacher… there was an application process and I believe she had to be nominated by her school.

I think this type of program is more realistic (unless you have a personal connection with a professor) and frankly more beneficial for a high schooler.

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This was posted on another thread.

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I’m a college professor, and yes, i sometimes run behind on answering “less essential” emails. Professors get hundreds of emails a day, so it is possible that in you will not even get a response.

Personally, I would be more likely to respond to an email that asked me for advice on how to get involved in research, than one that asked to specifically work with me. If you were asking for the latter, I would expect you to be able to intelligently discuss the publications of mine that you had read that made you particularly interested in my research—as the undergraduates reaching out will be able to do this.

Apologies if any of this comes across as cold, as I am truly trying to be helpful. Good luck.

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This was really helpful, not at all cold. Thank you so much!

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