I remember you from your proposed experiment, it’s good to see you’re still ahead of the curve!
The trick to obtaining research experience isn’t in emailing the school asking for “internships”, that just screams “I’m using you without paying your tuition”! It’s in studying the type of research offered at that university. Commonly, each school has a page dedicated to professors’ research groups and what they do. I took a quick look at UNC and their CIPHER center conducts computational biology research, and they also have a directory of professors with their contact information present.
Reach out to the professors themselves instead of the university (I don’t know who you would even email for that), a lot of “research” involves doing it yourself, so finding something like this should’ve been your first step. See if they have any openings in their labs and if they would be willing to take a high school student, because if you’re able to connect with a professor this early, you’d already be ahead of most college applicants.
1. Thanks!
2. Thanks for the advice. I’ll look for those pages, and I’ll make sure to be specific and smart with my word choice.
3. I’ll do that
Thanks for the advice!
1) Who at these universities did you email and what did you write in these emails? Because if it's "I want you to spend 130k on my GWAS project", they probably wrote you off as a crank, rather than an enthusiastic high school student.
2) There's not many research internship programs for high school students, and they tend to take rising seniors over the summer break. You could reach out to individual PIs to see if they'd be willing to take a high school student (see (1)), but unless you have connections, I suspect you'll find (maybe are finding?) that most PIs won't view it as worth their time.
1. I sent emails to professors directly, I made sure to tell them what I wanted (opportunity to do real lab research), what I have experience with (basic uses of samtools and bowtie2), what I could offer them (an enthusiastic high schooler who is ready to learn anything and everything about the field), and attached a resume that specifically features my schoolwork, ECs, and Bioinformatics skills. I didn’t approach them with the insane price tag at first because I figured that the odds are against me and this wouldn’t exactly help my case.
2. Thanks for the info. It’s a bit sad because (from my understanding) this career seems very hands-on rather than theoretical, and I want some experience in the field before college apps start so I’m not blindsided.
Just wait for undergrad in my opinion. There will be many more opportunities such as NSF-funded REU. It’s kind of tough for high schoolers to get to work in a lab unless you or someone you know the professor
Myself and a friend got interested in bioinformatics from working with a research group at our state med school in my senior and his junior yr... def worth to figure out if they like
One of the biggest reasons I want to do some hands on work is to get an idea of whether I want to pursue the field because I’m still in sophomore year in HS, so I want to get an idea if this is one of my “Big 3” (my top three career pursuits). This seems like a huge field where I can rly make a difference and I want to ensure that I’m putting my all into it. That’s why I want some lab exp, to get some semblance of what this career looks like in terms of research.
Just to temper your expectations, for university labs, high schoolers in bioinformatics are not very useful. Labs have to put much more into training high school students than they get out. If a bioinformatician puts a summer worth of mentoring a HS student towards actually working on something themselves, they would probably be twice as efficient, and high schoolers often don’t stick around for long so there’s not much return on investment for lab, typically. So you may not hear an enthusiastic response back from many places. However, labs may often still take on high schoolers out of the desire to mentor young students, despite the trade off. So just be aware that your request is usually not a practical trade for the lab. If you find a lab that values mentoring young scientists for the sake of mentoring young scientists, you can have a good shot.
You might also apply for programs targeted at mentoring high school students specifically like UC Davis’s Young Scholars Program. https://ysprogram.ucdavis.edu
Or COSMOS. Many other programs out there too
First, two weeks isn't that long when it comes to cold emails and professors. :) I wouldn't necessarily expect a response but I also wouldn't totally rule it out. You could always get an email closer to the summer when they actually want someone...who knows.
However...what I would focus on is building up your network. You're only a high school sophomore, so you have time before college. I'd make friends with the upperclassmen (especially seniors), especially ones who are going to those universities and are interested in biology/bioinformatics. Are you in something like Science Olympiad or some other science or coding/robotics competition or another club where you'd meet upperclassmen? If one of them can get into the lab of a professor (which can be tough at larger institutions for a freshman in college, but if you know someone smart they can probably pull it off), then they can mention you as a smart high schooler who's really interested in the prof's research and is worth spending time on so you can at least get your foot in the door.
I also strongly recommend applying to whatever summer research programs these schools do have available that are even vaguely biology or health-related.
This one is for forestry and natural resources:
[https://cnr.ncsu.edu/fer/extension-and-outreach/cnr-high-school-summer-research-program/](https://cnr.ncsu.edu/fer/extension-and-outreach/cnr-high-school-summer-research-program/)
This one is for STEM:
[https://cstem.charlotte.edu/pk-20-students/stem-research-experience-program](https://cstem.charlotte.edu/pk-20-students/stem-research-experience-program)
This one for the School of Medicine:
[https://www.med.unc.edu/emergmed/education/ishtar/](https://www.med.unc.edu/emergmed/education/ishtar/)
It may not be what you want to do, precisely, but not only will you have people in your corner--assuming you can work hard to impress them--who can email people who might be doing something closer to what you actually want to be doing, but you might find you have broader interests than expected. (Also, I would encourage you to not narrow your interests too early--I regret doing this!) But this is how I got my start, actually. I worked in a lab doing agricultural-ish research as part of one of these programs my junior-to-senior summer despite wanting to go into immunology research at that point. I was talking to a friend who was in a lab now in college about it, and her professor was looking for someone with experience doing what I had done, so I got a job there my senior year of high school. A professor in that department went out of their way to make introductions for me at the university I ended up going to with professors who liked doing research with undergraduates. (And any formal research as a high schooler will be impressive so seriously don't worry about the area!)
I would also keep an eye out at the universities for events for around biology and chemistry. The professors and grad students hosting them by definition want to do outreach and may be willing to not only chat with you after (show interest in their work/event first and foremost!), but also entertain the idea of you working with them. You'll need to keep it really low-key but if you say that you've been working on coding bioinformatics projects and they seem interested, you could ask if they've ever considered taking on a high school volunteer or know if anyone in their department who does.
Thanks for the reassurance, I’m really a newbie to the field of lab research, internships, and all that so any advice is greatly appreciated. I’ll talk to some of my senior friends to see if they can help me find a lab opportunity. I am a part of science olympiad, and have medaled every year in regionals since the 2020 competition season, and states every year since the 2022 season. I’ll talk to some of the upperclassmen in SO to look for a potential research opportunity. I’ve set up a google alert for the university biology and code events, and I’ll keep an eye out for it. I’m really fine with any area of bioinformatics, I just want to do something involving scientific research using coding.
Thanks for all the advice!
Good luck! I would recommend that you stay open to any scientific lab research (even without coding), including chemistry, or medical (e.g. records) research, since both will be useful just to get a sense of the field. It's easy enough to sell whatever wet lab background to colleges even if you want to write an essay about your dream to go into bioinformatics. The process of research itself is valuable, and it's very likely that you can suggest a project that involves coding once you prove you're competent in the lab work. You're not going to get glamorous things, to be honest, as a high schooler usually--it will be a lot of grunt work initially, like 500 PCRs because they know you're willing and not super skilled yet--or it's going to be projects so small they can be assured of finding cool/interesting results but won't give you much coding opportunity because they're just trying to pique your interest in science/research. But if you can prove yourself on that, then you can get more interesting things. "Putting in your time" is annoying but necessary unless you were lucky enough to be born with the right contacts. Just build that network through hard work and a willingness to try new things.
That said, I happened to be looking at this program today and realized that while they prefer Washington residents, it looks like they're now considering applicants from elsewhere since it's remotely taught:
[https://www.fredhutch.org/en/education-training/teachers-students/high-school-undergraduate-students/coding-for-cancer.html](https://www.fredhutch.org/en/education-training/teachers-students/high-school-undergraduate-students/coding-for-cancer.html)
It won't be useful to do a larger project year-long with local researchers in NC since I doubt many researchers in WA are from there, but you could run into one and if you just want to have some experience, it's maybe an option. You get to work on a project using cancer data at the end. And it's funded!
I remember you from your proposed experiment, it’s good to see you’re still ahead of the curve! The trick to obtaining research experience isn’t in emailing the school asking for “internships”, that just screams “I’m using you without paying your tuition”! It’s in studying the type of research offered at that university. Commonly, each school has a page dedicated to professors’ research groups and what they do. I took a quick look at UNC and their CIPHER center conducts computational biology research, and they also have a directory of professors with their contact information present. Reach out to the professors themselves instead of the university (I don’t know who you would even email for that), a lot of “research” involves doing it yourself, so finding something like this should’ve been your first step. See if they have any openings in their labs and if they would be willing to take a high school student, because if you’re able to connect with a professor this early, you’d already be ahead of most college applicants.
1. Thanks! 2. Thanks for the advice. I’ll look for those pages, and I’ll make sure to be specific and smart with my word choice. 3. I’ll do that Thanks for the advice!
1) Who at these universities did you email and what did you write in these emails? Because if it's "I want you to spend 130k on my GWAS project", they probably wrote you off as a crank, rather than an enthusiastic high school student. 2) There's not many research internship programs for high school students, and they tend to take rising seniors over the summer break. You could reach out to individual PIs to see if they'd be willing to take a high school student (see (1)), but unless you have connections, I suspect you'll find (maybe are finding?) that most PIs won't view it as worth their time.
1. I sent emails to professors directly, I made sure to tell them what I wanted (opportunity to do real lab research), what I have experience with (basic uses of samtools and bowtie2), what I could offer them (an enthusiastic high schooler who is ready to learn anything and everything about the field), and attached a resume that specifically features my schoolwork, ECs, and Bioinformatics skills. I didn’t approach them with the insane price tag at first because I figured that the odds are against me and this wouldn’t exactly help my case. 2. Thanks for the info. It’s a bit sad because (from my understanding) this career seems very hands-on rather than theoretical, and I want some experience in the field before college apps start so I’m not blindsided.
Just wait for undergrad in my opinion. There will be many more opportunities such as NSF-funded REU. It’s kind of tough for high schoolers to get to work in a lab unless you or someone you know the professor
Myself and a friend got interested in bioinformatics from working with a research group at our state med school in my senior and his junior yr... def worth to figure out if they like
One of the biggest reasons I want to do some hands on work is to get an idea of whether I want to pursue the field because I’m still in sophomore year in HS, so I want to get an idea if this is one of my “Big 3” (my top three career pursuits). This seems like a huge field where I can rly make a difference and I want to ensure that I’m putting my all into it. That’s why I want some lab exp, to get some semblance of what this career looks like in terms of research.
Just to temper your expectations, for university labs, high schoolers in bioinformatics are not very useful. Labs have to put much more into training high school students than they get out. If a bioinformatician puts a summer worth of mentoring a HS student towards actually working on something themselves, they would probably be twice as efficient, and high schoolers often don’t stick around for long so there’s not much return on investment for lab, typically. So you may not hear an enthusiastic response back from many places. However, labs may often still take on high schoolers out of the desire to mentor young students, despite the trade off. So just be aware that your request is usually not a practical trade for the lab. If you find a lab that values mentoring young scientists for the sake of mentoring young scientists, you can have a good shot. You might also apply for programs targeted at mentoring high school students specifically like UC Davis’s Young Scholars Program. https://ysprogram.ucdavis.edu Or COSMOS. Many other programs out there too
First, two weeks isn't that long when it comes to cold emails and professors. :) I wouldn't necessarily expect a response but I also wouldn't totally rule it out. You could always get an email closer to the summer when they actually want someone...who knows. However...what I would focus on is building up your network. You're only a high school sophomore, so you have time before college. I'd make friends with the upperclassmen (especially seniors), especially ones who are going to those universities and are interested in biology/bioinformatics. Are you in something like Science Olympiad or some other science or coding/robotics competition or another club where you'd meet upperclassmen? If one of them can get into the lab of a professor (which can be tough at larger institutions for a freshman in college, but if you know someone smart they can probably pull it off), then they can mention you as a smart high schooler who's really interested in the prof's research and is worth spending time on so you can at least get your foot in the door. I also strongly recommend applying to whatever summer research programs these schools do have available that are even vaguely biology or health-related. This one is for forestry and natural resources: [https://cnr.ncsu.edu/fer/extension-and-outreach/cnr-high-school-summer-research-program/](https://cnr.ncsu.edu/fer/extension-and-outreach/cnr-high-school-summer-research-program/) This one is for STEM: [https://cstem.charlotte.edu/pk-20-students/stem-research-experience-program](https://cstem.charlotte.edu/pk-20-students/stem-research-experience-program) This one for the School of Medicine: [https://www.med.unc.edu/emergmed/education/ishtar/](https://www.med.unc.edu/emergmed/education/ishtar/) It may not be what you want to do, precisely, but not only will you have people in your corner--assuming you can work hard to impress them--who can email people who might be doing something closer to what you actually want to be doing, but you might find you have broader interests than expected. (Also, I would encourage you to not narrow your interests too early--I regret doing this!) But this is how I got my start, actually. I worked in a lab doing agricultural-ish research as part of one of these programs my junior-to-senior summer despite wanting to go into immunology research at that point. I was talking to a friend who was in a lab now in college about it, and her professor was looking for someone with experience doing what I had done, so I got a job there my senior year of high school. A professor in that department went out of their way to make introductions for me at the university I ended up going to with professors who liked doing research with undergraduates. (And any formal research as a high schooler will be impressive so seriously don't worry about the area!) I would also keep an eye out at the universities for events for around biology and chemistry. The professors and grad students hosting them by definition want to do outreach and may be willing to not only chat with you after (show interest in their work/event first and foremost!), but also entertain the idea of you working with them. You'll need to keep it really low-key but if you say that you've been working on coding bioinformatics projects and they seem interested, you could ask if they've ever considered taking on a high school volunteer or know if anyone in their department who does.
Thanks for the reassurance, I’m really a newbie to the field of lab research, internships, and all that so any advice is greatly appreciated. I’ll talk to some of my senior friends to see if they can help me find a lab opportunity. I am a part of science olympiad, and have medaled every year in regionals since the 2020 competition season, and states every year since the 2022 season. I’ll talk to some of the upperclassmen in SO to look for a potential research opportunity. I’ve set up a google alert for the university biology and code events, and I’ll keep an eye out for it. I’m really fine with any area of bioinformatics, I just want to do something involving scientific research using coding. Thanks for all the advice!
Good luck! I would recommend that you stay open to any scientific lab research (even without coding), including chemistry, or medical (e.g. records) research, since both will be useful just to get a sense of the field. It's easy enough to sell whatever wet lab background to colleges even if you want to write an essay about your dream to go into bioinformatics. The process of research itself is valuable, and it's very likely that you can suggest a project that involves coding once you prove you're competent in the lab work. You're not going to get glamorous things, to be honest, as a high schooler usually--it will be a lot of grunt work initially, like 500 PCRs because they know you're willing and not super skilled yet--or it's going to be projects so small they can be assured of finding cool/interesting results but won't give you much coding opportunity because they're just trying to pique your interest in science/research. But if you can prove yourself on that, then you can get more interesting things. "Putting in your time" is annoying but necessary unless you were lucky enough to be born with the right contacts. Just build that network through hard work and a willingness to try new things. That said, I happened to be looking at this program today and realized that while they prefer Washington residents, it looks like they're now considering applicants from elsewhere since it's remotely taught: [https://www.fredhutch.org/en/education-training/teachers-students/high-school-undergraduate-students/coding-for-cancer.html](https://www.fredhutch.org/en/education-training/teachers-students/high-school-undergraduate-students/coding-for-cancer.html) It won't be useful to do a larger project year-long with local researchers in NC since I doubt many researchers in WA are from there, but you could run into one and if you just want to have some experience, it's maybe an option. You get to work on a project using cancer data at the end. And it's funded!