I wanted to apply for research and there was a professor I was interested in working with but someone told me that professors may not have their research being done at campus. I don’t have a car and the shuttle takes about 2 hours to get somewhere that would take a car 30 minutes.
This isn’t specified in the faculty page. How do I ask a professor that I was really interested in the research but also wanted to know where they were doing research? Is it normal for research to be done outside of campus?
It’s pretty rare for the research to not be done in a university building. Depending on how big the campus is that may or may not be near where undergrads usually go. He’ll probably want to meet you/discuss the position with you before you get the position anyway so the location of the lab will probably come up naturally anyway.
I wouldn’t say it’s rare for research to be done off-site - professors often have relationships with hospitals, other research institutes, nonprofit organizations, clinics, observatories, etc., to do research at those locations. And in some fields, community-based work or fieldwork is the norm. Archaeologists go on digs (although you wouldn’t have to drive there!) and community psychologists go into the community to recruit samples, for example.
But even if the professor does their research offsite, that doesn’t necessarily mean that YOU will go offsite. For example, their research may involve using an fMRI scanner at a different location, but only they or their grad students and postdocs go there. The undergrads stay on the main campus and do other tasks. Or you can opt to be involved in the part of research that doesn’t necessitate traveling. Or if you are in the lab long enough, you can ride along with someone.
When you talk to the professor about the potential of being an RA for them, just be straightforward ask where they do their research. That’s not a weird question.
^sorry, you’re right, I was only thinking about basic science biology research, where it would be much rarer to be off site than other fields.
We have a couple exceptions here where basic research is funded by big-name companies that for legal reasons want some research done off campus, from what I’ve heard. But, these are few exceptions.
OP, go ahead and ask the professor. You won’t necessarily get a “yes” from the first person you ask, so don’t play “what if” games with yourself that keep you from starting the process.
I was lucky that when I was in grad school, the lab was in the basement of the engineering building. I guess people didn’t like the odors wafting up through the ducts, though! Now there’s a huge research center that’s about 30 minutes away. I guess students just take the bus out there, but what a pain. Some experiments have to be tended multiple times a day, for days at a time.