Trying to find research opportunities but I am doing something wrong

[Jark5455]

Hi,

I am currently a 2nd year undergraduate student and I graduate in a semester. I do want to go to grad school for physics but my overall gpa is really weak (~3.2). I am currently trying to supplement it with research experience but I haven't been able to join any groups so far. 2 semesters ago a few professors told me they wanted me to take other coursework before I could join the lab. This semester I joined a lab under the supervision of a grad student.

This might sound bad, but the issue was my supervisor kinda sucked as a supervisor. They never really told exactly what we were doing and why we were doing it, and just told us to do things in the lab and didn't allow us to ask questions. I know I sound kinda ungrateful but I really do want to learn things and I feel like I can't learn if I don't know the WHY behind the work I am doing. Midway through the semester the grad student ended up dropping out of the program and the professor didn't have anything else for us to do.

I have applied to REUs and a few national lab positions and I haven't gotten any responses. I have tried cold emailing a few professors around the department and I haven't gotten any responses. Im kinda autistic so I don't know if I am being rude or too direct with my emails and was looking for some feedback.

Good afternoon,
I am currently an undergraduate physics student working in an indium selenide manufacturing lab using MBE. One of our groups is currently working on an exfoliation technique using a roller described in this paper.
I looked at some of your labs recent work and saw that you used to work on growing hBN on epigraphene using MOVPE. I was wondering if you had any space in the lab and would consider a project using transfer techniques to develop hBN-graphene heterostructures? I am curious if we can achieve lower interface defects using transfer techniques rather than direct growth. I am also curious to hear about any other active projects in your lab that haven't been published yet.
Best regards,
[My name]

Good morning,
I am an undergrad physics major here at [My University] and I have been reading some of your recent groups work on quantum sensing. I was wondering if you had any openings for undergrads? I see that your group is using NV center probing, I have worked with AFM scanning probes before, and I was wondering if there’s a project where I could help out and learn the system. I am also curious to hear about any other active projects in your lab that haven't been published yet.
Best Regards,
[My name]

Also, is it okay to email professors at different universities for research opportunities? I am luckily blessed with wealthy parents who are okay with me traveling anywhere I want around the country, but I don't know if I can just randomly email professors about the paper they wrote and try to develop a relationship over email?

 

[berkeman]

Welcome to PF.

I am currently a 2nd year undergraduate student and I graduate in a semester.

Do you mean you are a 4th year undergraduate student? How can you graduate from a 4-year university in 2 years?

 

[Jark5455]

Welcome to PF.


Do you mean you are a 4th year undergraduate student? How can you graduate from a 4-year university in 2 years?

I don't know if I classify as a 4th year student or 2nd year student. This is my 2nd year of actually being in university. All my gen eds were covered by AP classes and dual enrollment, so I didn't have to complete them.

 

[Choppy]

Also, is it okay to email professors at different universities for research opportunities?

Yes.
For what it's worth professors tend to favour students from their own institutions, but that's not always the case. It's okay to ask.
Keep trying.