4

I have read that interning under a professor can not only help you gain a better understanding of a subject but also it can look good on your college resume. I was wondering how I could possibly do this in ninth grade. Do I email the professor I want to research under or does he have to ask me or can it be both?

teerth
  • 49
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
    Where are you in the world? – Frames Catherine White Jul 28 '17 at 02:55
  • 7
    What do you expect the professor to gain from this? Supervising someone can take significant time, which professors are short of, and in many fields even a late undergraduate may not be able to provide any meaningful contribution to research. – Jessica B Jul 28 '17 at 05:56
  • 6
    Where you live and your age are important information because there might be relevant youth protection legislation that makes it even less likely that a professor would take you as an intern. There might be limitations on the hours you are allowed to work, the kind of work you can do and on your liability. –  Jul 28 '17 at 10:36
  • You may want to look into maths, physics and chemistry Olympiads, who is in charge of organizing them nearby you. These are events for high school students which provide links to universities. When I attended the national Spanish Olympiad there were a few participants that had been training with college professors. This would open up the possibility of doing research to you. It goes without saying that you must be really smart for a professor to be interested in mentoring you at this stage. – Miguel Aug 02 '17 at 01:29

4 Answers4

9

Your goals are laudable and do not be discouraged by naysayers who say high schoolers should not get research experience. I had research experience in high school working with biologists at an army base and National Wildlife Refuge when I was in high school.

Now, to answer your question. The short answer is do legwork and research nearby universities. Here are examples I know about:

  • Some universities have formal outreach programs for high school students such as this archaeologist program.
  • Some professor will take high school students as interns. For example, my advisor lists his high school interns on his CV. Note that CV is basically an academic resume.

Here are suggestions for finding these opportunities:

  • Try to find a "mentor" who is doing research. Ask them for an informational interview. This could be someone who works as a scientist or maybe one of our high school science teachers. You probably know someone who knows a scientist even if your personally do not. Ask your parents, high school teachers, family friends, scout leaders, people from church, etc. if they know anyone. Basically, tell them "I think I want to be a scientist. Do you know anyone who is one that I could ask about their job?" Do not hound this person about their job or expect to get an internship with them. Instead, ask them how they would get an internship if they were in your shoes.

  • Browse and search homepages of universities and their academic departments and faculty. This will let you see what type of research exists at the school and might help

  • Look at the "Continuing education" or "public outreach" or similar programs such as Upward Bound.
  • Expand your search beyond universities. Look for internships at nearby industries or government facilities (e.g., government labs, state parks, wildlife reservoirs, fisheries centers, etc). All of these places employ scientists including chemists, geneticists, biologists, ecologists, and more.

Note in case you live in a rural area: Even if you are in a rural area or small town, people do research. You county likely has an extension agent (For example, Wisconsin has UW-Extension and your state if in the US likely has one too). Some people wrongly think of farmers as backwards people, but they are wrong. Modern farming uses lots of science. In addition to extension, look to ag for other scientific applications such as genetics and self driving cars. These companies have representation in rural areas. Even if you do not want to study these fields, seeing what they do would still help you to better understand research.

Richard Erickson
  • 15,076
  • 3
  • 43
  • 70
5

In the field of life sciences, I've seen five methods:

1. Research programs for high school students

Most research programs are for undergraduates, but there are occasional listings for research programs for high school students. Examples in Canada include:

2. Science competitions

You can either participate in a competition that place you in a laboratory, or win a competition to earn a laboratory position (either as a direct prize, or to strengthen your applications to future research positions). Examples in Canada include:

  • The Sanofi Biogenius Competition. You apply to enter a competition, and the organization connects you with a lab to manifest your research proposal.
  • The Canadian Brain Bee. It's a written neuroscience competition, and the national champion wins a research placement at a neuroscience lab.

3. Cold emailing

This was my path. Below is a plan based on what worked for me:

  1. Develop a theoretical background to the level of a first-year undergrad. The most popular intro book in biology is called Campbell Biology.
  2. Find a list of labs you wish to apply to. Go to the websites of local universities, and create a short list of professors whose work interests you.
  3. Read the description of each professor's research, then read their recent publications (often listed on their website). You can look copies of their papers on a website called PubMed.
  4. At the same time, train yourself in wet and dry lab techniques. Familiarity with Excel is a must. You can try to train yourself in wet lab techniques at your high school (I entered a biology competition and trained myself in lab techniques after school), and learn software at home.
  5. Email the professors. Be courteous, keep each email relatively short, and don't expect a response. You'll likely have to email a large number before you get a reply. If you actually familiarize yourself with their research, this should take a long time before you earn an acceptance (if at all). Don't spam a copy-pasted email.

4. Connections

If your parent or relative is a researcher (or knows someone who is), you can ask them. Many high school interns work in the lab of a parent or relative.

The bottom line

If you're interested in becoming a scientist, research experience is a great way to see if the field is right for you. To become a strong applicant for a research position, you'll need high grades, strong reference letters, and an advanced theoretical background. You can earn these by studying efficiently in school, and getting involved in extracurriculars.

But above all, take some time to enjoy high school. Go on dates, explore your interests in areas irrelevant to research or career, and spend time with your friends. It helps prevent burnout, and the most productive life sciences researchers in the world balance their time, even those who lack genius-level IQ.

Best of luck with whatever path you wish to travel.

Community
  • 1
elan.em
  • 550
  • 5
  • 17
3

As others have pointed, the response to this question highly depends on your location. Your best chance is probably to look for some program that encourages high school-university partnerships.

For instance, I've advised one high school student as a part of the STARS program in Missouri (Students and Teachers As Research Staff), which encourages faculty in Missouri to advise high school students during the summer. This kind of experience is usually far more profitable for the student and the faculty than randomly sending out emails as there's already a predefined project on which the student will work, usually advised by a graduate student. Those students usually work by developing a piece of software or assisting assembling experimental set-ups that are not very critical to the project. The student I supervised even managed to publish as first author in a very reputable journal.

In Brazil, for instance, I know that there are junior scientific initiation scholarships that are granted to exceptional high school students (often regional/national olympiad medalists) to spend time working in a reputable university lab and taking courses.

I encourage you to look for such programs in your state/country, as they will strongly facilitate your entry and your time as a junior researcher. Ask your high school councelor or teachers if they are aware of programs in your area.

2

As enthusiastic as I'm sure you are about working in a research lab, it really wouldn't be in the best interests of any academic to bring a high school student into their lab.

Undergraduate degrees in the sciences, as much as anything else, teach students how to behave appropriately in a lab setting as well as chemical handling et cetera.

Working research labs are busy places with the work never being done for PhD students right up to the group leader, as such, I doubt that there would be many out there willing to take on such a big commitment.

I think, for now, the best you can do is to keep working hard at school, ask the lab technicians at your school if you can help out and see if you can build up some lab experience that way but maybe wait till you get to university for the research labs.

Derek
  • 1,251
  • 6
  • 11
  • 2
    Good answer. Just one small point to add: Some colleges offer visits to highschool students, like "get to know the university/the lab/etc." These can range from a short guided tour up to a whole week being introduced to the beauty of the field, and might be a good chance for an interested highschool student to get a first impression and maybe even increase chanced to get into this college later. – Dirk Jul 28 '17 at 08:49
  • 6
    Not all labs are this complicated. CS labs, in general, don't really have any technical skills as pre-requisite... I don't disagree with your general conclusion, but we have no idea the location or the field, it might be doable. – Fábio Dias Jul 28 '17 at 12:28
  • That's a very fair point, my background means I automatically always assume science when I see lab but you're right. – Derek Jul 28 '17 at 12:37
  • 1
    When I was in grad school, 2 or 3 professors regularly had high school students as interns in their toxicology wet labs. The students functioned as well as undergrads at doing lab work. – Richard Erickson Jul 28 '17 at 12:43
  • The OP didn't specifically mention research labs. There is a lot of research not done in labs. My own field of mathematics is an example! – Jim Conant Jul 31 '17 at 17:25