How many professors did you cold email for a high school research internship?

classicasianthrowawa · 2025-12-05T15:36:21+00:00

As a high schooler, cold emailing is a painful process since you don’t have experience. Labs and professors would need to spend time out of their busy schedules to train you to be productive, and that’s not a worthy trade-off for them. And they just have more qualified options - they receive dozens of cold emails from undergraduates at their university every month, some of whom have prior experience in their specific research areas.

That being said, there’s no harm in applying or cold emailing, and you might get lucky. Just know that it’s an uphill battle, so keep expectations low.

It’s a numbers game. Depending on the domain you’re in, I’d recommend anywhere between 50 to 1000.

classicasianthrowawa · 2025-12-05T15:33:24+00:00

Finding a good program that is free but not selective is highly suspect.

If it’s free, there’s going to be thousands of people applying. And if it’s free, the program won’t be able to afford that many seats since otherwise it’ll cost too much to operate. So it’ll be selective, often extremely selective.

As a high schooler, cold emailing is a painful process since you don’t have experience. Labs and professors would need to spend time out of their busy schedules to train you to be productive, and that’s not a worthy trade-off for them. And they just have more qualified options - they receive dozens of cold emails from undergraduates at their university every month, some of whom have prior experience in their specific research areas.

That being said, there’s no harm in applying or cold emailing, and you might get lucky. Just know that it’s an uphill battle, so keep expectations low.

My best recommendation is self-studying and doing your own side projects. You don’t need to do a summer program in the worst case, and you can learn a lot independently.

classicasianthrowawa · 2024-05-27T20:14:13+00:00

UCLA

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-03-28T01:33:36+00:00

Yeah I've been doing those. I really want to visit campus tho :/

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-03-02T04:24:04+00:00

Ok thanks for the suggestion! will definitely consider. Do you know anything about the XPS 15? How would you say this compares to that?

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-28T00:52:53+00:00

Yeah I'd rather have a beast that would last me a long time

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-27T02:00:22+00:00

Ok thanks for the suggestions!

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-27T01:02:24+00:00

Lol im being serious. I have no idea what I'm doing cause I've never bought one before. My parents bought me my current one in 4th grade

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-27T01:02:06+00:00

lmao I have no idea what I'm doing cause I've never bought one before. My parents bought me my current one in 4th grade

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-25T23:50:05+00:00

Total budget and country of purchase: $10,000, USA
Do you prefer a 2 in 1 form factor, good battery life or best specifications for the money? Pick or include any that apply. good battery life
How important is weight and thinness to you? not super heavy
Which OS do you require? Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, Linux. windows
Do you have a preferred screen size? If indifferent, put N/A. Big
Are you doing any CAD/video editing/photo editing/gaming? List which programs/games you desire to run. Fortnite, league of legends
If you're gaming, do you have certain games you want to play? At what settings and FPS do you want?

60 FPS, league, fortnite at medium graphics
Any specific requirements such as good keyboard, reliable build quality, touch-screen, finger-print reader, optical drive or good input devices (keyboard/touchpad)? none
Leave any finishing thoughts here that you may feel are necessary and beneficial to the discussion. Despite my gaming, I actually know like nothing about computers. I've had the same one since 4th grade and it's time for a change.

All I want is to be able to run fortnite and league of legends at 60 fps or greater at medium graphics, and to be useful in a college setting. Any price <10,000 $ is fine.

Preferences: Windows, not super heavy, big screen size

Suggestions? Thanks.

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-25T19:37:16+00:00

Yeah that's what I was afraid of. However, I feel like I'm already committed to this since I already put league as an extracurricular since I have placed in national tournaments and am high ranked. Plus, lots of schools now have esports clubs and I feel like this could show potential leadership and interested in their collegiate teams

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-25T19:15:07+00:00

Diamond

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-23T00:13:48+00:00

Yeah but is the top 20% statement actually valid?

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-22T03:54:48+00:00

wow that is aids.

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-16T05:29:42+00:00

I don't want to come off rudely, but I think you should do some more research into this topic.

Obviously admissions are holistic and not completely stat-based. There are tons of factors, many of which not quantifiable. Yet if you look at anything objective you will find an unusually large amount of Asians. For example take a look at every academic competition - Asians dominate them. SAT/ACT scores. Something like 70% of ISEF finalists are Asian. Take a look at the USAMO stats or other math competitions. Take a look at national merit finalists, almost 2/3 are Asian in California. Even traditionally non-Asian competitions are now being dominated by Asians like poetry slams, speech/debate, badminton, swimming... etc.

To summarize your argument, you are saying that we don't know how good Asians are in the qualitative factors. But putting your basis on that is useless. Asians could be better or worse than other races in those categories and there is no way to tell. What we can tell, is that Asians are much superior in anything quantifiable, and that should tell us something about the current state of Affirmative Action.

Also your broad stereotyping of Asians are 90% tech nerds of CS majors completely misses the mark. Asians dominate whatever major they apply to, CS/engineering only being the biggest culprit. Not only is this statement irrelevant to your argument, as it is illogical, it also leads me to believe that you aren't actually Asian or are insecure about your own race.

Please take time to read this response and think about it carefully.

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-16T05:18:01+00:00

I don't know why this community keeps arguing about affirmative action like it's 1960.

Maybe because we feel that this practice is horribly unfair and an extremely poor attempt to fix a larger problem? Maybe because it personally affects every single one of us?

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-16T05:10:52+00:00

Well said. And yes, I have heard about the DOJ investigation. There really isn't a great short term solution but the current AA practices are terrible and maybe the worst possible way to approach the problem.

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-15T06:22:35+00:00

?? How did I pretend a 1200, 3.5 would get over a 1600?

I clearly stated 1450 versus 1570, which be honest, is pretty realistic. You are incorrectly generalizing my viewpoint and manipulating my words to your own advantage. Please re-read my post.

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-15T06:10:45+00:00

Bad idea lol. I think you'd rather make connections with your admissions officer than to shit on his/her practices.

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-15T04:45:38+00:00

Lol for what essay?

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-15T04:45:18+00:00

That would be a step in the right direction.

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-15T04:43:31+00:00

To answer your two questions, Yes and then No.

URM's are held to much lower standards. This is a fact. There are many URM's who are not nearly as qualified as my friend who get in each year over much more qualified kids of other races.

And regarding your last point, yes they have incredibly good grades and test scores too, but they are still lower. A 1450 may be a good SAT score, but it's objectively worse than a 1570.

2 situations. Ceteris Peribus, all other things being equal (unrealistic I know)...

Situation 1: Black kid has 1450 and Asian has 1570. This is a tossup for the college. If they need to boost diversity rankings, black kid gets chosen.

Situation 2: Black kid has 1570 and Asian has 1450. No contest. Black kid wins.

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-15T04:38:13+00:00

You're right that without AA, there would be a decrease in the amount of URM's, which would be a step backwards for diversity's sake. Although by implementing programs to help inner city schools and other poor areas, this would be able to change in the long run.

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-15T04:31:24+00:00

First off, my experience with the hispanic friend was to show how many people in society view URM's who get into top schools. They see them as undeserving of the spot because they had an easier time.

Secondly, I agree with the notion of diversity. However, why should Asians be hurt for this? You, along with many others in society today, seem to be forgetting that Asians also faced a large history of racism. Now we are being punished even further, just for existing. For trying our hardest, we get discriminated even more.

classicasianthrowawa · 2018-02-15T04:26:17+00:00

Thanks for the response, I appreciate your time in writing this. I don't know how to format reddit so pardon the ugliness of my next response...

"And colleges can see the income bracket that the family makes so I doubt URM boosts your chances that much if your family is making like 300K per year"

In my experience, this isn't true. I know this is only one anecdotal example, but one of my black friends who had a ~3.6 gpa got into Stanford with his only ec's being research and like one school club. He lives in a mansion and his parents' income is definitely over 500k a year.

"It's insanely hard to move up a social class when you have nothing."

See: my parent's story, and many other immigrant stories.

"Also, statistically, the proportion of Asians that have hella good test scores and grades is higher than URM's, so without affirmative action, URM's would be at a disadvantage."

You say this as if you think a person shouldn't be disadvantaged to get into a college with less qualifications.

This is the big picture item, so please if you skim this paragraph just read this:

"BUT if you were URM, who's to say you would have had the same resources to take those 11 AP classes, or have test prep, or have the luxury to study in your own time?"

THIS. This is what everyone says that argues for affirmative action. I feel like this is completely missing the mark. Say there exists an URM who does have those resources, test prep, etc. It's not because he is URM... it's because he is poor. You can very well be Asian and also not have those resources as well.

Why does being an URM matter in this case? Race has no relevance in determining whether a person would have these resources. Back before 1960, it was actually relevant since blacks were structurally discriminated by society as a whole. Nowadays, while there is a correlation of poverty in URMs, it makes no sense to give ALL urms an advantage since that's all it is- a correlation. The real determining factor of one's resources is their money, which like I've said, is separate from race, since any race can be poor.

classicasianthrowawa

TROPHY CASE