<p>My D is a sophomore pre-dental student. She applied for a summer research position through UPMC and was not accepted. She has great grades, etc. but they are more interested in kids who are pre-medical. She doesn’t really want to do research, but knows she needs to make her dental school app. stand out. She has her volunteer hours, and shadowing hours completely under control, but is lacking research.</p>
<p>She is currently a bio major. It appears as though the biomedical science dept. has the ability to allow students to do research during the semester. How difficult is this? How time-consuming, etc.</p>
<p>I do not know about the particular department, but my daughter did some unpaid research work. It was very flexible. Your daughter just needs to ask in the departments. There is also some summer research money available. I think first you have to have someone who says you can work for them. Good luck.</p>
<p>She needs to do all the work herself to get a research position. She should look online at the various professors works and labs. Which labs seem interesting to her. What kind of research can she do? Then she should contact the professors and ask if they have space for a student to do work this summer. They will either say yes or no. If yes, she will probably then meet with them in person and take a tour of the lab and what she would be expected to do.</p>
<p>Unfortunately it’s kind of late in the semester to be doing this. With only 1 month until summer, many professors may not have space for her (or they may but it will be unpaid). She should get on top of this ASAP</p>
<p>Awesome answered this well. Do not expect to be paid. The goal should be getting your foot in the door of someone’s lab that does work that interests her. If it ends up being a good match, then down the road it may turn into a paid student employment position or maybe a for-credit independent research project. But really, pay and credit are not important for her dental school applications. The first step is getting in the door.</p>
<p>Emails to possible faculty should mention being interested in specific aspects of their research and a willingness to volunteer in their lab in order to help and learn more about their field.</p>
<p>She should not feel restricted to the Dental School or the biology department when emailing faculty. </p>
<p>Not everyone will have room in their labs, but she’ll eventually hit on some that do.</p>
<p>I will add that if any offer her to come interview or look around, she should read up on the research they’ve done (read some of their most recent publications) so that she has a background knowledge of their work and a few good questions when she goes to meet them. Showing up clueless to what their research is or what they’ve done recently is not good.</p>
<p>But don’t feel intimidated by research publications. You won’t understand everything. No faculty expects undergraduates to have anything close to a working grasp of their research without having been in their lab for a while. Have a general understanding of what they do so that you can ask questions and have a conversation, but don’t feel intimidated because you don’t understand all the details in a research paper from their lab that you might have dug up…just try to understand the general gist. You aren’t expected to be an expert, let alone even a grad student.</p>
<p>My D was able to secure a summer research position that she will be able to continue in the fall semester. She emailed a handful of professors in the biological sciences dept whose research interested her. Only a few responded, but one was still looking for assistance during the summer. She is really excited!</p>