Does anyone have any tips on how to best approach professors if you’re looking for a position in their lab during the school year? I’m a rising junior, and I was looking for internships in bio-related labs because I think I have an ok biology background (made USABO semis). I’ve reached out to dozens of labs already and personalized cold emails to them, but I haven’t heard a single word back from any of them, even from labs that I know have taken high schoolers from our school before. Is there something that I am doing wrong with this whole process?
Maybe consider a summer program next year instead ?
There are other threads answering your question but I can’t find them. Someone else may.
If I were local, I’d cold call office hours. Sales 101 and that’s what you are doing is selling yourself - get in front of the decision maker. Office hours gets you in with no gatekeeper.
Now the school may have a rule against having non students or underage people.
But I used to be in outside sales. The hardest thing and most important thing is getting to the decision maker. Many struggle to or simply don’t know how to say no. So go meet them face to face, unannounced when you know they’ll be there.
Another thought - see if your teachers have professor connections or experience / knowledge of previous kids.
Finally - maybe be a kid and do kids things instead.
Good luck.
This year may be more difficult than in previous years, because of cancelled research grants, and uncertainty about research grants going forward. Some programs have also had to reduce the number of incoming graduate students, which could mean fewer people able to supervise undergraduates or high school students.
The folks I personally know in bio research are under tremendous stress right now trying to figure out how they will fund their research and support grad students next year.
If I were you, I’d keep trying, but don’t take it personally if you don’t hear back from folks.
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Good points.
I tried finding summer programs to do research in this year, but a lot of them were shut down/only available to rising seniors to do. Thank you so much for the advice!
If it’s a funding issue, would I have better luck applying for internships at more well-funded colleges, or would it be harder to get internships at more well-funded colleges?
Even the most well funded universities are not immune. For example, Stanford had to cut back on the number of high school students they could accommodate in research programs this summer, because of cancelled grants. (My daughter is doing a summer thing there and heard about this.)
It probably will depend on the individual lab and its grants, more than the overall university.
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To see the magnitude of what’s happening, type “NSF cancel”, “NIH cancel”, “CDC cancel”… This matters if you want to understand biology and medical research.
A HS junior is going to be wayyyyyyyyy down the list for these labs.
Since you’re a HS student ie., with limited skills (even with USABO,though that obviously is topnotch and shows potential) and not enrolled at their university, I don’t even know if “I saw the -NIH grant- was cut, is there anything I can do to help as a volunteer ?” Or “Do you need s.o to take care of the animals until funding is restored?” .. would be “heard”.
There may be no one left to read the emails, or no one who can act on whats in them, or those left may be so completely devastated or overwhelmed they may not register your email.
If a 20-year project involving a hundred people was 2 years away from finding a cure and the funding is cut/pulled, it’s 20 years of work that can never got “back”, teams dismantled, a complex architecture collapsed, all your hopes and hours and weeks and years lost, study participants left in the lurch with their medicine and potential cure cut with all sorts of side effects, pain or deaths, unemployment looming, animals that were key that must be killed or left to starve, cell cultures that could be lost forever..
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You are doing nothing wrong. I expect it will be difficult to get an internship working with a college professor. The professor’s first priority will be to students at their college and as others have noted upthread the overall level of STEM research grants has decreased.
It is fine to email professors but also consider pursuing summer STEM programs and discussing potential research opportunities at your HS with your teachers.
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@blossom what you got up your sleeve? You’re creative about these types of thing’s. What would be a good replacement for the OP since an internship might not be on the table in high school?
Don’t think you’re doing anything wrong. Cold calling was hard even before the research funding got slashed everywhere. A couple of things that have worked for my kid and his peers in addition to cold calling:
- asking your teachers - this may be specific to his school, which has an established research track and often connects the kids with local colleges and medical centers. Maybe worth a try.
- asking older students involved in research to connect you with their mentor. If they go to your school and have done impressive work there, the lab is more likely to take someone from the same school.
- asking other adults you know - your friend’s father’s uncle may know someone who knows someone who just happens to work on a study that may be open to taking on a high school kid. My son found his first lab placement this way through a very tenuous connection.
- following your personalized email, show up at a talk that the professor is giving. Approach them after the talk and let them know how interested you are in working with them. Bring your resume. My son’s good friend secured a year-long gig this way even though his email had gone unanswered.
Best of luck!
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