I live in a college town, and I emailed a philosophy and environmental science professor in hopes of landing an internship (unpaid, although I didn’t mention that) and they said thanks, but sorry.
I have two friends that I have since drifted apart from, but one of them has developmental psychology professors and another has a brother with autism, whose parents study autism.
I was talking to a friend about how I didn’t get anything from my emails, and she mentioned that one of her friends (my classmate as well, but we aren’t friends) has a neighbor who is a biomedical engineer, and falsely assuming I was friends with aforementioned classmate, said I should just ask her for help.
Obviously I’m not friends with the biomedical engineers’ neighbor, but should I ask my other two now-distant friends for help? I’m loath to do so, especially since my two friends aren’t as close as I would like, especially with their other friends or a lack of shared classes, but I’m applying for a competitive state-wide humanities program soon, and I don’t really have much of a choice if I want an edge. I’m torn because I don’t want to take advantage of my friends, since they aren’t as motivated academically as me, but I need the experience for the application, as well as something to stop the bitterness I have from getting rejected by the other Tech professors.
For reference, the humanities program has partner programs in marine science, math/science/tech, engineering, visual/performing arts, and agriculture with a varying number of spots in each. The county I live in is only willing to pay for 8 spots, and I know of at least 12 others applying to one of these programs. This means that the county will select 8 with the best applications and trash the rest, and then the applications will compete for a spot at each individual program. This is why I need some sort of research experience soon - the application is due on the 22nd of Jan.
All help appreciated!