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I'm only a undergrad freshman but I'm looking at possible research opportunities...does anyone know of any good competitive research programs (preferably summer programs)?
Research opportunities
- Thread starter Karim
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Most likely you aren't going to get an opportunity through a program for this summer. Most of the deadlines are in Feb-March for the upcoming summer. Do some searches and get your stuff together so you can apply for next year.
Another alternative is just to email multiple professors from the department of interest and see if they would be willing to take on some FREE labor. That is a good way to get your foot in the door particularly if you don't have any marketable lab skills.
Another alternative is just to email multiple professors from the department of interest and see if they would be willing to take on some FREE labor. That is a good way to get your foot in the door particularly if you don't have any marketable lab skills.
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Also I getting into any is pretty tough, so apply to a lot of places. I barely came up with mine for this summer.
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Avalanche21 said:
I cannot agree more. Apply to a lot of different places and do it early. Talk to your profs and get your LORs and send in everything the first day possible. This past year there were over 7000 applicants for ~200 spots at Pfizer so definitely apply to a lot of different places. It also depends on what you want to do because publishing in the pharm industry is hard when you are only around for 3 months and most of the stuff you work on is proprietary.
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The NIH has summer research programs for college students - don't know how competetive it is. Their one year IRTA program requires more lab experience since it's for college grads, but for the summer program you may not need experience since it's for current college studs. It's too late to find something for this summer, but apply early for next summer.
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Karim said:
As another poster mentioned previously, they aren't easy to get into. They usually have only a few spots with often times hundreds of people applying for them. They may say no previous lab experience required, but they want it. You will want to first do something at your undergrad institution to get your feet wet. You probably will not get paid for it. After you've done this, you should be more competitive for the summer fellowships. I had a hard time finding one after my sophmore year because I had only a couple months of experience. The next year after I had worked some more I didn't have any trouble getting one.
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You can go to the NIH website and look at different laboratories and then email them about whether they have any positions in the lab for even volunteer work. Someone will say yes. You should definitely do that.
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Brain said:
A good way to get some experience if you are lacking it is to ask some profs if they need any assistance for some projects. They might need someone to make media, clean tubes, etc. but eventually they'll start teaching you how to count colonies, inocculate, etc. These positions are usually unpaid but its a good way to start and show an early interest in research. You never know if they might have a summer position open or can place a phone call to someone else they know. Just have an open mind and work hard.
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get a volunteer position with a professor at your school, you might be doing some scut work at first but generally your professor will gradually see that your interested in doing more and he'll probably let you do more later...expect some patience and some journal reading and ask alot of questions!
most summer research programs deadlines have passed (usually Feb 1st or March 1-15) but heres a good link to find some programs for next summer
http://www.rit.edu/~gtfsbi/Symp/summer.htm
good luck!
most summer research programs deadlines have passed (usually Feb 1st or March 1-15) but heres a good link to find some programs for next summer
http://www.rit.edu/~gtfsbi/Symp/summer.htm
good luck!
