/sci/ - Science & Math

>research as an undergrad without supervision
dude, you need to talk to people in your field, and having an experienced researcher on your side makes a fucking world of difference.

>>9537577
What's a good way of doing research in a field if no profs in it are at my school? I've heard of undergrads researching under profs from outside their school but I'm not really sure how it's set up.

I remember seeing Zena Cardman, the new astronaut, say she just sent a few dozen profs from around the US emails saying "pls take me to antarctica" when she was an undergrad. While she didn't get to antarctica as an undergrad, she did get some interesting field research outside of her school that later turned in to opportunities to get to antarctica.

Is a similar approach a good idea? Like finding profs whose research is interesting to me and sending an email saying something like
"Hello Dr. XYZ,

I'm an undergrad at Brainlet University and I've read some of your publications on blah blah blah. This is a topic I'm interested in researching and I was wondering if you had any opportunities for an undergrad to help remotely.

Thank You,
Anon"

with a copy of my CV.

Is this a solid approach?

>>9537534
Yes, I have. Though there's kind of a caveat. I had worked at the NIH for several years in high school and at Harvard Med during the summers in college, and so I was pretty exposed to research.

By the time I started my own project, I felt like I had been exposed for several years to research practices. It was just a matter of convincing some faculty that I was worth the effort of letting me use their space (it was a project of my design, funding and the like). I brought in my own people, trained them and such, I just got the space and faculty support for publishing.

>>9537606
Hmm, your case seems pretty unique.

My only research experience is a few years back at a different college (I transferred and took a break because of shitty mental health), I did some atmospheric stuff in R. I analyzed weather station data to understand which times of the year had conditions most conducive to the spread of hoof and mouth disease. Fun stuff. I guess it's something to bring up on my CV.

>>9537597
>>9537606

The way I got the gig at Harvard was by emailing a Nobel laureate and literally just saying "Hi I read your shit. I liked this psecific paper. I want to do this when I graduate. Would you have the space to take me on as a summer student."

You'll find that most professors admire work ethic and drive in students that are not at top universities because it means they're not just coasting. It's easy for someone at MIT or Stanford to get a research gig because it's expected of them.

The same expectation does not hold true if you're at a land grant state university or some small private school. And I've found that esteemed faculty see that as a special thing.

>>9537612
I will just say this. You need to convince the professor reading your email within the first few sentences that what you have to say is worth their time.

Saying "I like your work hur dur" and not being able to say anything intelligent about the research is not helpful to you because any half ass lazy retard can send a generic email to 40 reserach faculty at once. Very few people will take the time to make an informed opinion about research in a niche field of study.

Basically, ACTUALLY FUCKING READ THEIR WORK and then say something like "I like this paper because this thing. I thought it is an interesting way to apply Y concept to X problem."

You will sound infinitely more intelligent than some asshole who doesn't know anything about the research and just wants a job. Ultimately, you need to convince them that you are asking for a job because you're interested in the field and it's pertinent to your career goals, not just because it would be nice to have on a resume.

>>9537620
>Basically, ACTUALLY FUCKING READ THEIR WORK and then say something like "I like this paper because this thing. I thought it is an interesting way to apply Y concept to X problem."
Okay, so would this be a good example?

"I really liked your approach of looking at redox stratification in Gale Crater. I think that's a really creative way of investigating historical climate conditions considering the lack of data on Mars and how techniques like ice cores can't be used there like on Earth."

>>9537647
Yes, now you're getting it. Do that, and time your email appropriately (faculty get a fuck ton of emails a day, so try to time it so you can maximize the chance that they will see it).

For instance, send an email at like 8:30am or so, after they might do all their daily email deleting/sweeps for spam and you can catch them at a good time.

And be persistent is the last thing I can add. If they don't respond after a week, just send a follow up "Hi I sent you an email last week and didn't know if you got it. I would like to speak with you about your work if you have a chance. I look forward to hearing from you" something liek that.

Your best way to end an email like this is "I look forward to hearing with you." It fucks them up mentally because if they don't respond then they feel like they're assholes. No one likes to be an asshole.

>>9537657
>Your best way to end an email like this is "I look forward to hearing with you." It fucks them up mentally because if they don't respond then they feel like they're assholes. No one likes to be an asshole.
Savage.

>>9537669
Good luck, Anon. I have taught you everything I've learned.

Go and succeed.

>>9537680
Wasn't me actually. Now it's me.

Seriously, thanks for all the advice. I never thought of it that way and I think I'll have a lot more luck. There's one prof at a nearby university who I corresponded with before briefly, just about what skills she looks for in grad students, so I might try her since I know she'll probably respond.

>>9537706
All you need is one chance. That's it.

>>9537711
You have no idea how much this means. I've been really depressed for a while and it's been seriously affecting my performance and grades. Seeing this new path towards starting some research has kinda "woken me up" now and I feel a lot more motivated to take action and move forwards in my goals.

>>9537762
I feel you, anon. I've been depressed for the better part of a decade. At some point you have to determine if you want to kill yourself in a shithole apartment or be outwardly perceived as successful and kill yourself in a nicer apartment.

Your call. Good luck, kid. You have what it takes. You have the tools. You can do it. Don't let the Chads take this from you.

I'm gonna go to sleep. I have shit to do. Best of luck to you, my friend. I hope what I said helps.

wholesome thread

Thanks again everyone.

I woke up feeling happy and optimistic about my future for the first time since October.

It just started to feel like my life was going nowhere since I couldn't find research and now I feel like having a path towards that gave me the strength to move on in all aspects of my life.

In the past few weeks, things were getting REALLY bad. Missing class, missing assignments, etc. Now I'm honestly in pretty deep shit in terms of passing the semester. At best I'm probably getting Bs and Cs. But it's still relatively early in the semester, there's ample opportunity to pass.

I also think that there's a silver lining to that, too. The fact that I'm pretty far behind right now means I'll have to go out and approach my professors. I probably have some type of social anxiety, and I think this is just the thing that will force me to face my fears. I have to go out there, admit and own my shortcomings and weaknesses, be transparent, and address them. Going into an office and saying "hello professor, sorry that I have been absent a lot and have missed a lot of assignments, my mental health has been very poor lately and cased me to fall behind but I'd like to catch up and have some questions" will be a very important and necessary exercise in going into an intimidating situation. If I want to go into grad school and have a career in research, I'll have MANY more hurdles like this to jump over.

I'm not saying this thread magically fixed my problem overnight or anything, but I do think that just seeing a road map towards one thing (research) gave me the strength and clear-headedness to fix other areas of my life. I guess having a real path to research made grad school look more like a close opportunity again and gave me a push to fix the other problems.

I got this.