4 ms·

One thing I would add is that if you have any interest in graduate school, it's important to become involved in research ASAP. Research experience is an importa

by gamble 16y ago

One thing I would add is that if you have any interest in graduate school, it's important to become involved in research ASAP. Research experience is an important differentiator on grad school applications and scholarships, but it's a rare school that will warn you about that before senior year, when it's already too late.

jimmyjim 16y ago
Any tips on landing a decent internship position in researches headed by different universities? I am currently attending an institution where the highest level of education offered is a masters... so there's no research going on here. But I do live nearby a univ. where there is. Do I just e-mail one of the professors there, speak a little about myself, and just sort of say "I'm interested in becoming involved in the research you head"? And actually, furthermore deciding what sort of research I should get myself involved in. Does it even matter? -- in line of what jseliger and pg said about choosing majors -- that it doesn't matter, because the more important skills are easily translatable into different fields.
- jseliger 16y ago
  "Do I just e-mail one of the professors there, speak a little about myself, and just sort of say "I'm interested in becoming involved in the research you head"?" Funny -- I actually wrote another essay called "How to Get Your Professors' Attention" on this subject. Some friends are reading it right now, and I wrote it in response to some of the things I've read on HN. In any event, if you're trying to get in another lab, I'd try something like this: 1) Find the list of the profs and/or their websites. 2) Look at their research. You might not understand a lot of it, but try to get a sense of what they're doing. 3) Try to read some of their recent papers. You might not understand a lot of them, either, so look at the bibliographies: figure out if there are any seminal papers in the field that are cited that you might have a better shot at understanding. Alternately, try to look for a more accessible source of information on the topic. Profs at your own university might be good for that. 4) Then send them an e-mail saying, "I'm interested in subject X and read Y and Z. I've done A and B to learn more about this subject. Can I drop by your office hours to talk it over with you?" Almost all profs will have office hours. 5) Part of your goal should be to signal that you're not going to waste the prof's time. One way you can do this is by showing that you've invested some amount of your own time. Profs quickly discover that most people who claim they want to learn don't and that most people who implicitly claim they won't waste their time will. If you want to see a draft of the essay I mentioned, send me an e-mail. Does it even matter? -- in line of what jseliger and pg said about choosing majors -- that it doesn't matter, because the more important skills are easily translatable into different fields. Look for what interests you, and do that. What you major in does matter somewhat -- if you want to be an economist, I wouldn't recommend that you single major in art history, and if you want to be a psychologist, electrical engineering might be less useful than some other fields. But people say things like, "You'll be unemployable if you major in X," or "smart people only major in Y," and in those senses what you major in doesn't always matter. When in doubt, build your reading/writing and math skills, since those are applicable to nearly everything.
  - jimmyjim 16y ago
    >If you want to see a draft of the essay I mentioned, send me an e-mail. Sure, I'd love to have a look at it. I've just sent you an e-mail (on your gmail address listed on your blog-site). Thanks!
    - jseliger 16y ago
      I sent it. Oh yeah -- also see pg's undergraduation: http://paulgraham.com/college.html http://paulgraham.com/college.html , which is on point here. I think in some essay he points out that if you want to work in a lab, you need to convince the prof that you'll be a net decrease in work. This is harder than it might appear.
  - _delirium 16y ago
    Emailing profs' grad students can also be a useful way of making contact, and especially a useful way of getting information about what the lab's like, what it does, if they're looking for more people, etc. It's the rare prof who'll write back more than a few sentences to a cold email from someone they don't recognize (unless it's someone important), but procrastinating grad students are often happy to give detailed answers to random inquiries.
- gamble 16y ago
  It never hurts to try. Check out the faculty website for the area you're interested in. Find out if anyone is recruiting grad students and ask them if they could use an undergrad. Lots of professors will hire undergrads to work in their lab over the summer. Also, try asking your instructors whether they know anyone at the university who might have an opening. Grad school is like entering a medieval guild apprenticeship. The main reason a master would take on apprentices is that they're cheaper than an equivalently motivated and skilled individual. So, your goal is to convince potential supervisors that you're motivated and skilled. The specific research doesn't matter so much as getting a good recommendation.
- javert 16y ago
  If you're interested in computer science, a lot of research groups have programming tasks that they need done that they are more than happy to hand off to people.

by gamble 16y ago

jimmyjim 16y ago

Any tips on landing a decent internship position in researches headed by different universities? I am currently attending an institution where the highest level of education offered is a masters... so there's no research going on here. But I do live nearby a univ. where there is. Do I just e-mail one of the professors there, speak a little about myself, and just sort of say "I'm interested in becoming involved in the research you head"? And actually, furthermore deciding what sort of research I should get myself involved in. Does it even matter? -- in line of what jseliger and pg said about choosing majors -- that it doesn't matter, because the more important skills are easily translatable into different fields.

jseliger 16y ago
"Do I just e-mail one of the professors there, speak a little about myself, and just sort of say "I'm interested in becoming involved in the research you head"?" Funny -- I actually wrote another essay called "How to Get Your Professors' Attention" on this subject. Some friends are reading it right now, and I wrote it in response to some of the things I've read on HN. In any event, if you're trying to get in another lab, I'd try something like this: 1) Find the list of the profs and/or their websites. 2) Look at their research. You might not understand a lot of it, but try to get a sense of what they're doing. 3) Try to read some of their recent papers. You might not understand a lot of them, either, so look at the bibliographies: figure out if there are any seminal papers in the field that are cited that you might have a better shot at understanding. Alternately, try to look for a more accessible source of information on the topic. Profs at your own university might be good for that. 4) Then send them an e-mail saying, "I'm interested in subject X and read Y and Z. I've done A and B to learn more about this subject. Can I drop by your office hours to talk it over with you?" Almost all profs will have office hours. 5) Part of your goal should be to signal that you're not going to waste the prof's time. One way you can do this is by showing that you've invested some amount of your own time. Profs quickly discover that most people who claim they want to learn don't and that most people who implicitly claim they won't waste their time will. If you want to see a draft of the essay I mentioned, send me an e-mail. Does it even matter? -- in line of what jseliger and pg said about choosing majors -- that it doesn't matter, because the more important skills are easily translatable into different fields. Look for what interests you, and do that. What you major in does matter somewhat -- if you want to be an economist, I wouldn't recommend that you single major in art history, and if you want to be a psychologist, electrical engineering might be less useful than some other fields. But people say things like, "You'll be unemployable if you major in X," or "smart people only major in Y," and in those senses what you major in doesn't always matter. When in doubt, build your reading/writing and math skills, since those are applicable to nearly everything.
- jimmyjim 16y ago
  >If you want to see a draft of the essay I mentioned, send me an e-mail. Sure, I'd love to have a look at it. I've just sent you an e-mail (on your gmail address listed on your blog-site). Thanks!
  - jseliger 16y ago
    I sent it. Oh yeah -- also see pg's undergraduation: http://paulgraham.com/college.html http://paulgraham.com/college.html , which is on point here. I think in some essay he points out that if you want to work in a lab, you need to convince the prof that you'll be a net decrease in work. This is harder than it might appear.
- _delirium 16y ago
  Emailing profs' grad students can also be a useful way of making contact, and especially a useful way of getting information about what the lab's like, what it does, if they're looking for more people, etc. It's the rare prof who'll write back more than a few sentences to a cold email from someone they don't recognize (unless it's someone important), but procrastinating grad students are often happy to give detailed answers to random inquiries.
gamble 16y ago
It never hurts to try. Check out the faculty website for the area you're interested in. Find out if anyone is recruiting grad students and ask them if they could use an undergrad. Lots of professors will hire undergrads to work in their lab over the summer. Also, try asking your instructors whether they know anyone at the university who might have an opening. Grad school is like entering a medieval guild apprenticeship. The main reason a master would take on apprentices is that they're cheaper than an equivalently motivated and skilled individual. So, your goal is to convince potential supervisors that you're motivated and skilled. The specific research doesn't matter so much as getting a good recommendation.
javert 16y ago
If you're interested in computer science, a lot of research groups have programming tasks that they need done that they are more than happy to hand off to people.