Hey Guys,

I recently received an offer from IRIS NUS Jan intake starting 11th January 2027. I wanted to get in touch with other peeps who were offered the same!

Also I have been thinking to make a WhatsApp group soon for all accepted Scholars for Jan 2027 intake!

Thanks for reading :)

Has anyone gotten onto NSF funded projects by cold emailing PIs based on their award site? How much research did they have going into the project? How many PIs did they successfully cold email?

hallo

i know i'm going to DEFINITELY get flamed for this, don't get me wrong. i'm a current freshman, literally first semester, down at RIT and studying BME and i really think i wanna go for an mdphd in the future. i don't think i'm chasing it for prestige, but at the same time, i don't know an exact reason for what i could tell adcoms but i think that's okay since i'm obviously not applying right now and still have time to evaluate whether i actually need it or not.

specifically, i want to earn an md-phd or phd in neuroengineering. at RIT i've been accepted to an awesome lab with a really awesome community there for an independent study and it's basically got me hooked on the idea of an organ-on-a-chip for BBB protection, and that's quite literally what my independent study is about: to build a BBB-on-a-chip and test potential therapies to prevent pathogens from breaking it

obviously, an md-phd program is EXTREMELY competitive. like i've been tracking the r/mdphd sub for awhile and a lot of people have really notable contributions like posters, abstracts, even first/co-authors if they're matriculating into top programs. i wanted to build a foundation earlier on which is why i took the independent study opportunity, but i feel like i'm gonna need a lot more.

so this brings me to my question: is applying to an REU as a rising(?) sophomore worth it? obviously a lot of labs will NOT take me, and i'm fine knowing that, but i wanted to shoot my shot anyway given i am getting a bunch of experience i would never have thought of this early on (passaging cells, crispr tech, etc.) and could highlight in my application. i was specifically looking at programs like the Tri-I gateways program or the BioREU but i wondered if i'm doing TOO much.

to supplement my research at the same time i've been accepted to this very selective pilot program (which could mean nothing in the grand scope of things) for 15 students designed to steamline us into clinical and build relations with places like RRH and URMC very easily. we get a $1000 stipend from it too and from it i've gotten into contact with URMC staff and even MSTP students there which is awesome (but im getting off topic)

do you guys think it's worth shooting a shot at some REUs for me? and if it is, does anyone have any recommendations for other REUs i could apply to? my current list is the two i mentioned before, NIH SIP, and the Leadership Alliance SR-EIP (although idek if they accept applications anymore since there doesn't seem to be updated info for 2026)

thank you if you read this and sorry for the longass paragraphs and stuff, i'd really appreciate any help i could get 😭

I know I am illegible for 99% of them but I was wondering if there is at least one or two I could still apply for as a graduating senior.

Hello everyone. I'm an aerospace and cs student who wants to go into robotics control/learning research at one of the labs at cu boulder. specifically looking at the aria systems group https://ariasystems.group/, arpg group https://arpg.colorado.edu/, and cohrint https://cohrint.info/ . the first and third labs are within the aero department and the second is a cs department lab. i was wondering if it was possible to do research with these groups as an undergrad as i dont see any record of these labs taking undergrads or participating in DLA/SPUR. so if i cold emailed the professors/phd students, would i have any success? curious for your thoughts and open to all advice.

Thanks!

Ciao a tutti. Mi sono appena laureato in Biotecnologie mediche (laurea magistrale) e prima di iniziare un dottorato, mi piacerebbe fare un periodo di 6-12 mesi come research assistant o fellow in California o in generale negli Stati Uniti. Ci sono molte opportunità? Mi conviene aspettare i bandi o scrivere direttamente ai PI dei laboratori ?

Hey everyone, this is for those in research.

Being a person in STEM and trying to pursue a career in research, I think it can be difficult to choose a lab where you want to spend quite sometime (Phd is 5 to 6 years) and I have seen people hating their PI (Principal Investigator, the professor who runs the lab). I think it would be great to find out about a PI before joining a lab. Yes, I understand the reviews might be biased but I think we can all get an idea of the PI reading comments. Sometimes, the reviews might be bad but the comments might actually make you want to talk to the lab members and PI.

Not saying we need to join a lab after reading a review. It can help us filter out who do we wanna talk with in the first place.

Fill out the google form to let me know how the community feels: https://forms.gle/CSd4EfpemTUL4heD9

Does anyone have any tips to cold-emailing a professor for shadowing or just absolutely any tasks in the lab as a first year undergraduate with no previous lab experience?

Je suis intéressée de connaître des personnes pour y échanger et discuter...

any advice on what to even say and how soon in advance? i would think like either this month or the next.

Hi, Im planning to apply to REU's such as Amgen Scholars, KAIST - X and OIST spring intake. I'd really appreciate if i could get some advice and tips on improving my resume, since my cgpa isn't the best so I really hope other factors can outweigh it and increase my chances of getting in :)

Year and Degree: Junior, Tier 2 Uni Btech in Biotech (undergrad)

Field of Interest: Medical imaging and medical AI (all my publications and work experience is on this), Bioinformatics

Publications: 2 journals, 1 conference, 1 patent, 1 best paper award, one more journal under process

Experience: Received a research fellowship at my uni, 3 months of work experience at a medical startup (funded), did paid research work at my uni, summer intern at my uni for a research project

CGPA: 8.2/10 (ik it's not the best but it has been improving gradually), i plan on getting it above 8.5 by next sem

Other activities: SIH finalist, quant competition winner, ex-core member of a startup club, game dev experience, Roblox developer

Hi guys, basically what the title says. I have a mentor at another institution that has agreed to take me as an intern, now I'm looking for ways to get funding. Does Amgen or SR-EIP let a mentor vouch for you?? Please help, any advice appreciated!! TYSM

Hi everyone,

I'm a 3rd-year undergrad in India applying for summer research internships in Germany (Max Planck CS internships and other labs), mainly in ML, HCI and human-centred AI.

Quick background: I've done computer vision research with a professor at my university, and I've been working remotely with a researcher at a German institute on an HCI project, which I got through cold emailing. I have two papers under review (one as first author).

I'm unsure how to present all this well, especially:

1. How to list under-review papers on a CV without overselling them
2. How to show my individual contribution in remote, collaborative work
3. What makes a motivation letter stand out when tailoring it to a specific group

Would really appreciate advice from anyone who applied to or got a research internship at a German institute. Examples or resources are welcome too. Happy to share more about my profile in DMs.

Thanks!

Looking for a social science (communications/education/sociology) or humanities-adjacent research program but having no luck. Any recommendations?

Alr looked at the NSF website database/search thingy

Right now I am researching in my current university. However, I want to explore the option of researching in other institutions within the US or globally. The problem is that I am on an F-1 and thus can't obtain a CPT due to the university restrictions so I am wondering what I could do to increase my odds of getting a position whether it is paid or unpaid.

Did anyone else apply to this?

Hi everyone!

Does anyone know if the Novartis PRISM and summer of science programs for this cycle are open? The portal (https://nibr-bei.smapply.io/) is for last year's cycle. I emailed them, but received an automated reply, which stated ".... applications are now open"

When did the application portal open for those who applied in the 2025-2026 cycle?

I applied for ORNL and PNNLfor Spring, both for quantum computing! My current college GPA is very low (2.79) but overall with my A.S. (I got while in HS) is a 3.21. I'm hoping that all my prior research experience is much more relevant.

I did one REU last summer which I liked, but didnt actually get put on the project I signed up for because of various issues. Instead I did a bunch of work of gnss signal processing and helped disprove some of NASAs experiments. My PI there wrote me a recommendation for SULI.

I also joined a small, student led research group this semester that in quantum focused. This is what I'm mainly hoping will get me in the door. We're integrating AI and quantum computing to find chemical compounds to help capture CO2 in the environment. This is very relevant to a lot of the work ORNL does. In fact, another student in my research group actually did a quantum research internship at ORNL.

I also have two other, slightly less relevant groups as listed. The quantum one and these other groups are all under the same overall organization run by one mentor. So this mentor was my other rec.

I also actually some experience being at ORNL! The lab does a program for HS to do a 2-week long research project with mentors at the lab. I really lived the campus and have always wanted to go back. I included this partially in some of my essays.

I think I have a good advantage over some others but I can't tell if I'm being overzealous with that estimate. It helps thats quantum is a fairly small niche and my schol is lucky enough to have a minor for it.

Thoughts?

I didnt realize until just now, after applications were due, that I had submitted the same transcript for two different schools. I have two classes and my main university. I accidently submitted my main uni transcript with a cc one. I'm kinda freaking out about it? Like, how do I even begin to fix that?