Rant: Tell Kids to Stop Bugging Professors for Internships

[Anonymous]

Just ignore the emails if they bother you. I don't know, my kid has super easy access to get to work (unpaid) in the area he wants through my brother, who is a research scientist in the field he wants to work in. But kids who don't have those connections have to try to get experience somehow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just ignore the emails if they bother you. I don't know, my kid has super easy access to get to work (unpaid) in the area he wants through my brother, who is a research scientist in the field he wants to work in. But kids who don't have those connections have to try to get experience somehow.

They don't in high school. The only reason they do it now is to look good to highly selective colleges.

If someone really only cares about the experience/career, then they would wait until they are at undergrad and then apply for research positions. I mean, at my kid's college they hand them out like candy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a professor and regularly get emails from high school students who ask for research internships. They haven't finished high school, much less basic undergraduate courses in my field. I don't know who encourages this, but obviously those kids didn't think up this idea independently.

"Dear Professor X:

I am very interested in your work after reading [one of my obscure papers from a web search]. I would like to help you with research because I want to have a career [making a lot of money by doing something I know nothing about]."

This is insulting to their high school teachers, who have a lot to teach them.

Blame the college admissions process fella! Talk to your peers/co-workers and have them change their stupid process. Colleges have questions along the lines of "Why XXX college?" and guess what, kids make up crap like "I love Crystal Meth Biology, love the work Professor Impatient is doing and would love to work in his lab. After lab, I want to grab late night pizza at Local Italianao's". Your idiot colleagues think the kid is genuine because he used a real prof's name and a real pizza place that is open late nights, and that the kid is really into your college. The kid does that for every college he applies to. Why are you now upset if the kid just follows the same playbook and contacts one of y'all in real life? You trained him after all..

Preach!

Professor, drop by your admissions office and show them that email and ask them who encourages this.

LOL exactly
Go to the admissions office at your school professor LMFAO

[Anonymous]

It's so nice to hear about kids showing initiative!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a professor and regularly get emails from high school students who ask for research internships. They haven't finished high school, much less basic undergraduate courses in my field. I don't know who encourages this, but obviously those kids didn't think up this idea independently.

"Dear Professor X:

I am very interested in your work after reading [one of my obscure papers from a web search]. I would like to help you with research because I want to have a career [making a lot of money by doing something I know nothing about]."

This is insulting to their high school teachers, who have a lot to teach them.

Blame the college admissions process fella! Talk to your peers/co-workers and have them change their stupid process. Colleges have questions along the lines of "Why XXX college?" and guess what, kids make up crap like "I love Crystal Meth Biology, love the work Professor Impatient is doing and would love to work in his lab. After lab, I want to grab late night pizza at Local Italianao's". Your idiot colleagues think the kid is genuine because he used a real prof's name and a real pizza place that is open late nights, and that the kid is really into your college. The kid does that for every college he applies to. Why are you now upset if the kid just follows the same playbook and contacts one of y'all in real life? You trained him after all..

Preach!

Professor, drop by your admissions office and show them that email and ask them who encourages this.

This! I hate every thread blaming students who are doing what any person in their position would do to be competitive. It's not their fault. Blame the system that set this up that YOU, OP, are much more a part of than any high school kid.

[Anonymous]

Just ignore the emails if they bother you. I don't know, my kid has super easy access to get to work (unpaid) in the area he wants through my brother, who is a research scientist in the field he wants to work in. But kids who don't have those connections have to try to get experience somehow.


They don't in high school. The only reason they do it now is to look good to highly selective colleges.

I agree that is why they do it, but the reality is that since my son has the advantage of having an uncle in the field, due to our family having money to send him to a good college, among other things, he walks into having that with zero effort. So I can't criticize someone trying to hustle to get the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know who encourages this

The college application process encourages this.

Correct. They could easily push back against internships! But they don’t, do they?

[Anonymous]

Just ignore it. It's smart to try and ask as much as possible for jobs/internships, especially since 99% lead nowhere. No harm in trying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was a lab manager and my boss (the principal investigator) would task me every summer with handholding some high school student. They were generally just some random who had emailed him and he would always put their name on a publication! I noticed that every single one was the same ethnicity he was.

You mean white? Yes, when I was in grad school the PI and all the students, postdocs and volunteers were all white as well. Luckily times are changing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just ignore the emails if they bother you. I don't know, has super easy access to get to work (unpaid) in the area he wants through my brother, who is a research scientist in the field he wants to work in. But kids who don't have those connections have to try to get experience somehow.

Another reason why test scores should be reinstated. Academically driven kids who are not athletes or fine arts stars get desperate to 'differentiate' themselves so they look for other quasi-academic options such as research. Colleges still give points for research (often published with obvious nepo connections but who cares? they just want a reason to differentiate as well) so kids who don't have parental connections start cold emailing. And no, summer jobs don't really differentiate in the eyes of the selective colleges. Appreciated but not celebrated.

[Anonymous]

Based on my experience, these responses are on target. Consultants urge their clients to do these things. Yes, the kids are trying to differentiate themselves, show an interest in a particular school, and suggest that they are serious scholars. As another poster stated, bring back the test scores and it will solve some of the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A common myth over on reddit is that teens need "research" experience to get admitted to highly selective colleges. I don't know where the myth started.

I heard - but haven’t verified - that this all started after Penn put out some stat about the percentage of its admitted (or enrolled) students who had done research in high school. After that, the story goes, counselors started telling kids to do research. And here we are.

[Anonymous]

OP you are a repulsive jerk, you need an internship in “being a better person”.

[Anonymous]

While we are on this topic, my child reached out to a professor connected to a high school research program. DC's varied interests are aligned with the professor and it shows in their experiences. This was one of among a few emails DC has sent to professors (we are completely unconnected people so this is the only way to get experience).

Surprisingly, this professor wrote back within 24 hours. They were not encouraging or discouraging but I thought it was encouraging that they wrote back at all.

DC responded with another nice email and again, professor responded very quickly but, again, very tersely, and in a non-committal way. Does it mean anything that they at least responding? Please give me a shred of hope!

I was also considering the idea that the professor was twisted and playing with DC. The way they answered was a bit odd. The OP makes me think there may be people out there who do this.

[Anonymous]

Luckily, not all professors are as closed-minded as OP. Some high school students ARE capable of producing publishable research. Just because you couldn't do it when you were young, doesn't others can't achieve it.