What do you include in research interest e-mails?

[I Love Cats]

I'm looking to get more research, but the only way I can do this is by writing emails to past professors and researchers I find online on my school's website to express my interest and offer my paid or unpaid services. Im 99% expecting to be a volunteer, so that's probably what any advice should keep in mind. Would y'all be so generous as to give me pointers about specific things I should make note of in the email I will be sending out to the researchers I eventually find interest in joining? What specific things should be mentioned, what to avoid and how specific I need to be for each researcher are good starting points for this thread I believe.

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[Mr Avante]

I'm looking to get more research, but the only way I can do this is by writing emails to past professors and researchers I find online on my school's website to express my interest and offer my paid or unpaid services. Im 99% expecting to be a volunteer, so that's probably what any advice should keep in mind. Would y'all be so generous as to give me pointers about specific things I should make note of in the email I will be sending out to the researchers I eventually find interest in joining? What specific things should be mentioned, what to avoid and how specific I need to be for each researcher are good starting points for this thread I believe.

Things to mention:
"I am interested in your research"
"I will be waiting for your REPLY"

Things to avoid: The following words:
"Ya'll"
"Y'all"
"Yall"

 

[I Love Cats]

Things to mention:
"I am interested in your research"
"I will be waiting for your REPLY"

Things to avoid: The following words:
"Ya'll"
"Y'all"
"Yall"

Productive start. Let's keep it coming!

 

[chenzt]

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[jeghaber]

I always found it useful to mention what you want to get out of the experience; do you want to stay as a volunteer lab grunt or do you see yourself doing an independent study or even a thesis with this person? Being upfront about your expectations usually make for smoother experiences. On a related note, be sure to also include your availability; are you going to be a summer student? What can you commit during the school year?

Here's a more or less stripped down version of what I might write:


Dear Prof. Awesome,

My name is Jeghaber, and I am a freshman/sophomore/etc at ABC University majoring in Blahblah. So far, I have taken classes in Subjectcool, Subjectneat and Subjectexciting, and have found Awesomeness to be especially interesting. I have been looking to become more involved in Awesomeness work, and I recently found that you were currently working on Awesomeness as well!

I would love the opportunity to work with you this semester/summer/etc and would be glad to start as volunteer if you have an available position. As I have found XX and YY to be of particular interest, I would also be interested in pursuing an independent study project examining XY in the future.

Attached to this email is my resume in case it may be of interest. If you would like to discuss any further details, I would be happy to stop by your office.

Thank you so much for your time, and I look forward to hearing back from you!
Sincerely,
Jeghaber

 

[Jennyfishy]

Dear Prof. Awesome,

My name is Jeghaber, and I am a freshman/sophomore/etc at ABC University majoring in Blahblah. So far, I have taken classes in Subjectcool, Subjectneat and Subjectexciting, and have found Awesomeness to be especially interesting. I have been looking to become more involved in Awesomeness work, and I recently found that you were currently working on Awesomeness as well!

I would love the opportunity to work with you this semester/summer/etc and would be glad to start as volunteer if you have an available position. As I have found XX and YY to be of particular interest, I would also be interested in pursuing an independent study project examining XY in the future.

Attached to this email is my resume in case it may be of interest. If you would like to discuss any further details, I would be happy to stop by your office.

Thank you so much for your time, and I look forward to hearing back from you!
Sincerely,
Jeghaber

+1. Pretty similar to what I wrote to dozens of labs before I joined the one I'm in now.

1) Introduce yourself
2) How you heard about the PI/their lab/their projects
3) Why you are interested in this/what you would like to learn more about
4) Is there any possible way to meet up to discuss more in person about the research + I would like to get involved if there are openings/spots available in the lab.
5) Thank you

I didn't send any resumes to labs I was "cold calling," but I did send them to ones that actually posted openings on our school's job/hiring page. Good luck

 

[Arkaine]

I believe I was "hired" by my lab as a volunteer researcher because I mentioned I was ready and willing to read literature relevant to the lab and the field. Considering how much of research is dedicated to reading through papers in order to look for data to in support of your conclusions and adapt new methods, your interest in reading and learning independently go a long way when swaying graduate students or PIs who do this on a daily basis.

 

[siliconchins]

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[I Love Cats]

Your responses are all fantastic. Thank you for giving me great insight! Anyone else is welcome, but this is tremendously helpful so far.

 

[911 Turbo]

I always found it useful to mention what you want to get out of the experience; do you want to stay as a volunteer lab grunt or do you see yourself doing an independent study or even a thesis with this person? Being upfront about your expectations usually make for smoother experiences. On a related note, be sure to also include your availability; are you going to be a summer student? What can you commit during the school year?

Here's a more or less stripped down version of what I might write:


Dear Prof. Awesome,

My name is Jeghaber, and I am a freshman/sophomore/etc at ABC University majoring in Blahblah. So far, I have taken classes in Subjectcool, Subjectneat and Subjectexciting, and have found Awesomeness to be especially interesting. I have been looking to become more involved in Awesomeness work, and I recently found that you were currently working on Awesomeness as well!

I would love the opportunity to work with you this semester/summer/etc and would be glad to start as volunteer if you have an available position. As I have found XX and YY to be of particular interest, I would also be interested in pursuing an independent study project examining XY in the future.

Attached to this email is my resume in case it may be of interest. If you would like to discuss any further details, I would be happy to stop by your office.

Thank you so much for your time, and I look forward to hearing back from you!
Sincerely,
Jeghaber

How is this good? Borderline awful IMO (srs). Waaay too presumptuous.

 

[jdfamily]

Honestly if you can call the office of whoever you wish to do research with and tell them you are interested it might be helpful as well. You can't call them all, but you should consider calling the ones whose research you are very interested in.

 

[jeghaber]

How is this good? Borderline awful IMO (srs). Waaay too presumptuous.

Which part was so bad?

Take it as you will, but I've used variations of what I wrote above to get positive responses from 4/10 emails when I first wanted to get a taste of research. After that, when I found that I wasn't as interested in that research, it was a 1/1 success rate for the new lab I found (and ended up doing an independent study, undergraduate grant project and senior thesis with). My friends have also used my email as guides when writing their own emails and have been successful in getting responses.

 

[estanton]

Also it's always good to include how long you hope to work with the lab. I stressed that since I was a freshman at the time I would be able to spend years with them if everything worked out. People don't like to train students and then have them disappear.