Undergrad Research: Can I Start Late in Semester?

[jesuslovesu]

I'm a sophomore attending university and I'm wondering about undergrad research.
It's currently like the 7th or 8th week out of a 15 week semester. Is it too late for me to try to get a professor/grad student to let me help research with them? Now that I've got my schedule a little more open, I could spare 10 hours per week doing something, but now I am feeling that it's a little too late for me to pursue anything.

After spring break there will only be a week left in March and then it's just April and May, so that's not really a whole lot of time.

P.S. I definitely can't afford to stay in the city during the summer, so unfortunately research during the summer seems to be out of the question.

 

[jhicks]

Research tends to be a slow process. I found that even doing 6 months of research part time as an undergrad gave me barely enough content to submit 1 paper for publication, granted one thing I did for 6 weeks didn't turn out well.

 

[FrogPad]

I'm a sophomore attending university and I'm wondering about undergrad research.
It's currently like the 7th or 8th week out of a 15 week semester. Is it too late for me to try to get a professor/grad student to let me help research with them? Now that I've got my schedule a little more open, I could spare 10 hours per week doing something, but now I am feeling that it's a little too late for me to pursue anything.

After spring break there will only be a week left in March and then it's just April and May, so that's not really a whole lot of time.

P.S. I definitely can't afford to stay in the city during the summer, so unfortunately research during the summer seems to be out of the question.

Doesn't hurt to ask does it? Maybe you could even research at home during the summer.

 

[Poop-Loops]

Go ask. Doing research should be completely on the side, so it doesn't matter when you start.

I worked for one of my professors in fall quarter, and continued working in winter quarter, with the caveat being "Give me some time to adjust to the new quarter. Like a week or so."

He was very understanding, so you shouldn't be afraid to ask that to your professors, too.

 

[G01]

I agree with the other posters here. I can't hurt to ask. Plus, you may secure yourself a spot helping in the lab for next semester.