<p>I thought I would ask this question here, since the parents on this forum seem really helpful.</p>
<p>I currently go to a top-25 school that uses its undergraduate research program as one of the major selling points of the university. I tried looking around, but there are no listings for math projects (I’m a math major), and everyone I talk to, including the secretaries in the math department and my adviser told me to e-mail professors directly instead of waiting for a project, and even gave a few recommendations of who to e-mail.</p>
<p>The problem is that no one seems to be responding to my e-mails, and I don’t know why. I tried looking around on the internet for reasons why professors normally don’t respond to e-mails, but none of the explanations seem to apply to me. I have a descriptive subject line, I use correct grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, etc., I start off with “Dear Professor X,” I try to keep everything short and to the point. But still, no one replies, and I don’t know what to do. I also send messages again to check if they received it if they don’t respond after about a week too. I’m starting to get really worried - I’m not sure if I’m disliked among the math department, or how to deal with these professors when I have to take their classes, or how I will get into grad school if I’m not even able to do research. I’m at the point where I’m thinking about changing majors, which would suck since I love math a lot and really want to become a professor. But I don’t want to have to take these classes if I know that I’m not going to be able to do math once I graduate.</p>
<p>The math department probably has a faculty member who is in charge of the undergraduate program – a “director of undergraduate studies” or something like that. I suggest going to the department office and making an appointment with this person. Bring a few samples of your e-mails in case you get an appointment immediately. </p>
<p>When you speak to this person, you can express your interest in doing research and you can ask whether there are research opportunities available, whether you should be attempting to find out about them in a different way, whether you should be putting different information in your e-mails, and how long you should expect to wait before receiving replies to your e-mails. It’s part of this person’s job to answer questions of this sort.</p>
<p>Professors are very busy people. They get a lot of emails from a lot of students, they serve on committees, they grade papers, and they do their own research. I’m not saying this is an excuse for ignoring emails, but it’s just the reality. They probably have 100s of emails from students who need help with their math assignments for the next class, and they probably give those priority over your emails about research projects that may or may not currently be underway, or may or may not be of interest to them. </p>
<p>If they haven’t responded to your emails, the best thing to do is to find out when their office hours are and go and see them in person. Tell them you’re looking for an opportunity to do math research in x, y, and z area, adn you weren’t sure if there were any projects going on currently so X professor suggested you talk to them. If you’re interested in doing your own research that they monitor or mentor, come prepared to discuss your topic of interest. It’s also a good idea to read up on what the university’s research guidelines are. Depending on what year you are, you may be restricted from some research opportunities. Find out what the opportunities and rules are surrounding special studies or independent research projects as well. This can be a great way to conduct your own research with the guidance of a professor. It can sometimes lead to presenting at conferences, which can go on your resume.</p>
<p>1) They aren’t receiving them (do you send it “receipt confirmation” or “receipt when read”)
2) They thinks it spam and discarded it or didn’t take time to read it .
3) No idea of how to help you
4) No idea who you are and why you are emailing them – you don’t have a goofy email name instead of something simple and professional like your name?</p>
<p>5) Don’t think it’s an appropriate method to communicate such information and would prefer face to face during office hours?
6) Lazy and don’t care
7) Worst case – they know who you are and are avoiding you.</p>
<p>8) Could be they are responding and some problem on your end is sending the return mail to the spam/trash can.</p>
<p>I concur with others. Try going to office hours. Math strikes me as a subject where undergraduate research would be difficult - do you really know enough to be helpful?</p>
<p>I’m a professor. I try to answer all my emails but I really get swamped. I have a ton of priorities going on so l get normally over 200 emails PER DAY. That is not an exaggeration. I try to respond, but priority goes to current students, my coauthors, my dean, the chairs of committees on which I sit.</p>
<p>I might get requests for help from someone who is not my student. I might not respond for these reasons (on top of being swamped and not being able to answer every request):</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The student is a freshman and I may not have any existing projects they can take on that matches their skill level. It would require more work on my part than they can ever possibly give back. </p></li>
<li><p>The email reads like it was sent to 20 people. It’s generic. Like spam. Someone else can answer it. So do your homework, be genuine, and be selective. If you can’t be bothered to do your homework, and convey that you actually know of my research and see a good fit, and convey that fit, why should I bother? (I’m not saying you do this I’m just saying how it comes across when one gets such emails).</p></li>
<li><p>The student wants something from me, but does not in any way suggest why I should want them to join my work. Perspective take-- you are ‘selling yourself’ in a sense so rather than focus on why it’s good for you, try to convey why they should want to respond or meet you. </p></li>
<li><p>Work on impressing your profs. first and building a relationship with them THEN look to work with them. We SEEK OUT the amazing students- those that have something to say (even in large lectures), that come to talk ideas with us, that go beyond the course material, that involve themselves in the department. We want those that show true intellectual curiosity, motivation, and a love of learning, not those that read on the internet they are supposed to do research if they want to go to grad school. </p></li>
<li><p>Stop emailing. We are drowning in email. We can’t even respond to important emails from colleagues half the time. Show up at office hours, or ask the admin when they are usually around and camp at their door if you have to. Or try a quieter time: fall when classes are in session is a crazy-busy time.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>How long ago did you email? From mid-November to the end of the semester faculty are extremely busy. You should send another email right before the spring semester starts-- you will be more likely to get an answer then. Or go by faculty offices right before next semester starts-- professors would have time to talk to you then</p>
<p>I probably would not respond to such an email if I did not know you. How could I determine whether you have the ability to be helpful? How could I be assured by an email that you would be reliable and otherwise good to work with?</p>
<p>I suggest going to office hours as well. I also suggest that you have a plan for making a strongly positive impression. Are you doing really well in a math class now? Try that professor. </p>
<p>I agree^. Email is too easy. And, impersonal. The prof’s reaction may include: if this kid is truly interested, he/she will show up for a face-to-face. Or, at the very least, pick up a phone and ask when we can meet.</p>
<p>One thing I would add to starbright’s post is that you should look up some of each professor’s published works before you contact them. Normally a university will have a bio page under the math department faculty listing that tells you what sort of work the professor does, along with some of their recent publications. Make sure you have both a clue and genuine interest in that area before you ask to be included in it. Look first at professors whose classes you have taken and done well in. And an in-person visit is always better than a cold-call e-mail.</p>
<p>When I was a grad student in chemistry my advisor got a lot of undergraduate research requests. He often accepted them and then assigned some unfortunate grad student (me) to play mother hen. Of all the undergrads I worked with, only one actually contributed anything positive to the lab – the rest were a drain on time and resources. This is what most professors expect when they get an undergraduate research request, especially via e-mail from someone they never heard of. If you can provide a reason to make them think you will be different, that will help your case.</p>
<p>OP, you seem to be taking this very personally. Don’t. If you later find yourself in a class taught by one of the profs who didn’t respond to your emails, don’t worry about this being an awkward situation–they won’t even remember that you ever contacted them. </p>
<p>Instead of looking for someone to hand you a research project, any research project, explore your field by taking classes until you find one that you really love and do exceptionally well in and go talk to that prof with some of your own ideas.</p>
<p>You’ve gotten many excellent replies on this thread. I’m also a prof and starbright and spdf in particular are spot on.</p>
<p>Some folks, by nature, look far down the road. Others concentrate on the very near future. If you are a freshman and you are researching what might be a senior project, then you are clearly in the first group. </p>
<p>I have one friend who loves to explore all the options. She is a bright, creative person – but she can burn up a ton of time as she explores even something simple – like where to go to lunch. All possible restaurants will be listed. The merits of Indian curry will be dissected and compared and contrasted with Ethopian foods , etc. It is through but exhausting to be around her (on some days). </p>
<p>So, if you are the sort that loves, loves, loves to explore many possible paths in detail, you may be advertising yourself as “a complete time sink.” A professor might be concerned that if she/he responds, then you will be camping on the doorstep every day for the next three years. </p>
<p>The solution might be to take some senior math students to coffee (you buy). You can tap into their expertise and experience and have some fun exploring paths with them. They may enjoy sharing their expertise and have (some) time to indulge in your brainstorming. Then you can move from there to contacting a single professor who you have identified as being most suited for the next phase of developing your project.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice everyone. I just have a few questions though - is it fine to go without an appointment to a professor’s office hours for a class I’m not a part of? I feel like I’d be wasting other people’s time who would need it more than I do, so that’s why I’ve been e-mailing instead of just showing up. And I can’t really make an appointment with anyone without somehow contacting them.</p>
<p>Also, how do I show interest in professors research when talking to them? I can see how my e-mails could seem kind of generic, but I am only e-mailing those whose research I think is interesting and approachable for me, but I’m not really sure what to say besides “I’m e-mailing you specifically because you do research in x field,” which still doesn’t seem very genuine and like it could be sent to a whole bunch of people (just change whatever the x is).</p>
<p>Sorry about all the questions. I guess it’s just hard to see literally everyone else start doing something in high school and I’m a college sophomore and I still haven’t done anything yet. I feel like I’m really behind and like I might as well give up on doing math now.</p>
<p>I have many colleagues who are renaming their office hours as “student hours” in an effort to get more people to come visit them during that time. If you show up and there’s a line of people looking for help about the recent midterm or something, just come back the next week…when it will probably be completely deserted.</p>
<p>In regards to your other question, starting a conversation can feel awkward. But it sounds like you’ve done some preliminary digging to find out what kinds of research they do, so you could always come up with a few questions based on that data. Ask them how they got started. Tell them your plans for the future and ask their advice on what you should be doing now. See if they’ll let you shadow someone in their lab for a day or something. If they can’t offer you something, ask them to recommend another prof for you to contact. Smile.</p>
<p>Even if they end up declining to give you a research position, send a nice thank-you email afterwards. The academic world is very, very small, and politeness never hurts.</p>
<p>Okay, is like not responding to things normal, even outside colleges? I’m doing an internship during January, and the person in charge e-mailed me and told me to call her if I had any questions. I had questions, so I called her, but she wasn’t there so I left a message (that was clear, I stated my name, why I was calling, asked my questions, and left a phone number even though they should already have my phone number) and she never got back to me. I had to call her again a few days later, and when she picked up, she never even acknowledged that I had left her a message.</p>
<p>Regrettably, people aren’t always punctilious about messages. They forget; they are busy; they get distracted. Maybe they are even rude. Maybe they have three hundred other messages and something due tomorrow. </p>
<p>The question for you, though, is this: do you want to dwell on your superiority in the etiquette of messaging, do you want to nurse grudges and remember perceived slights–or do you actually want to get something done?</p>
<p>If the latter, you will ignore or forgive these missteps and patiently continue to seek what you want to get done. Was it so terrible to call her again? Was it so hard to forbear telling her off for not acknowledging your earlier message? Did you actually get something accomplished in the call, and if so wasn’t that, in itself, sufficiently satisfying and useful?</p>