Hi, I’m a high school freshman who is interested in math and physics. I would love to get an internship at my state university (I live in a college town). However, I’m not sure how to go about doing this, since my school doesn’t offer any programs connecting students with internships or anything. Should I email professors whose work I’m interested in? If so, what should I include in the email (resume, LORs, what hours I’m available, stuff like that)? Also, realistically what are my chances of actually hearing back from someone since I’m only in 9th grade and have basically no research experience?
You’ll have to find a special program designed to involve HS students for the reasons stated above. You don’t have anything but enthusiasm to offer, so in reality you’d just be in the way. You need to find a program that has compensations built in for that. Start with Google and then visit the institution(s). It’s going to be a long shot. Good luck!
hey! I’m a HS freshman too! I got my bio internship (with no experience at all) through asking around and cold emailing. Cold emailing is when you send an email to someone you don’t really know. Just look at your local college website’s staff list and find professors in the field you’re interested in. 80% of the time they’ll have an email listed for each person. There’s also a YT channel run by someone named Rishab Jain who has some great resources on finding internships and stuff. In the email just emphasize how passionate you are about this subject and explain why you’re interested! I’m not sure about chances, but I got mine pretty easily.
My daughter got a few great internships - two at local universities - just by cold contacting professors. Most, of course, said no. But a few said yes. Note, however, that she was a junior when she began that process, not a freshman. For a freshman I think it would be more difficult, but you won’t know unless you try. However, you still have time for these things. What’s the rush? Why not get started on learning, build you knowledge and skills, and make yourself more useful for research assistance? You need to offer some skills - it’s not all about getting experience for you. Profs want intern/assistants who will be useful and will actually be able to help with various tasks. You likely need some more education before you will be able to offer that.
Thank you so much for the helpful replies! Generally the takeaway seems to be that I shouldn’t expect people to write back because what I offer is limited. Would I be more likely to receive a response if I offered to do basic things like clean the lab equipment or do simple calculations? Also, would professors care that I am advanced in math (currently taking calc bc and stats)? Would that be a selling point?
You don’t really need research experience to get a research internship in the first place. If you have some prior experience (e.g. math/physics competitions or some other ECs related to those subjects), put them on a resume, then cold email profs a cover letter with that resume attached.
You’ll have to email a lot of profs to get an internship if you don’t have a strong resume. If you do have a strong one, then you have more freedom and can target the professors that are studying the areas within math/physics that interest you the most.
If you do get an internship, make the most of it as you can put back on your resume for future cold-emailing. If you can get papers published, that would make you a compelling candidate for other professors at universities ranked much higher.
Try going for a more research-intensive position at their lab. Not only would it be a lot more intellectually-stimulating, but it would look much better on your resume/college application.
As has been pointed out, the lack of research experience is not a barrier, everyone has to start somewhere. 9th grade, however, might be a problem if you have typical 9th grade math skills. University level physics research is intensely math based. Typically, BC calc would be a minimum for a physics internship.
You can work in a lab doing technical work like running HPLC and electrophoresis and never think about math. That’s really the only angle a 9th grader could pursue.
I would also mention for liability reasons, a college may not want a 14 or 15 year old in their facilities in any fashion, even in a volunteer capacity.
