Has anyone started reaching out for lab experiences in the fall?

[HopefulPsych2020]

Depending on where you are, have you been reaching out (and had success) to labs at your university in the fall?

I'm from Ontario, Canada (pandemic isn't so bad) at a stage 3 municipality and haven't had much response from PIs, despite news that research at my university is starting up again. Probably their major backlog.

[laura23]

I’m in Canada too. It’s possible that they might not be sure about accepting new volunteers/students yet. In my university, access is still pretty limited and labs have to request permission for certain people to enter for specific reasons. I’m guessing the focus is getting things up and running and current students back in the lab before they’re able to accept new people in. 

[PsychApplicant2]

I'm in America. I reached out to a PI waaaay too early (like a month ago) with no response because her research focus aligns perfectly with mine. I wonder if I should reach out again in August.

[Mickey26]

In Canada. Hearing lots of experiences where faculty don't even have enough tasks for current lab volunteers to do due to the shutdown of unis. I encourage you to reach out but also keep in mind many labs aren't taking new volunteers for that reason. 

[luna33]

I'm in the US, and I started reaching out to some faculty members mid-summer.  I just heard back from 2 profs/coordinators today - one who I had reached out to last week, and one who I reached out to yesterday. The first coordinator said that they are not taking new lab volunteers at the moment because they are still finalizing plans, but encouraged me to reach out in October. The second prof just flat out said they basically don't need any undergrads this fall at all. All of the profs I reached out to earlier in the summer have not responded, so I think it was too early and I will likely follow up in a couple weeks. My university might go to all online classes so I think plans are still in flux for research. Just hoping I can get into a lab this semester! I really need the experience. 

[PsyZei]

I'm in the USA. My graduate assistantship is as a research assistant to my PI this year and when we met a couple weeks ago and I asked him what to expect as far as the job and research went his answer was "That's a really good question... I will let you know as soon as I know" and a lot of nervous-cause-no-one-knows-what-is-going-on laughter ?

So, there's that?

[bubble_psych]

I'm a current doctoral student - at my university (in the U.S.) there were a few undergrad RA positions that were for online research, so that was an option at least in the beginning of the summer. I'm not sure if this will work, but be sure to mention that you could do tasks remotely for the lab or in person. For example they may need help with conducting literature reviews and may be able to assign you some articles to read and summarize for them in the meantime, while in-person activities are not available. Maybe they could even give you remote tasks to just become familiar with the lab/research for now. From what I am seeing from the professors at my university, most are taking this time to catch up on writing publications and writing grants, and putting less emphasis on running new studies. Just my n=1, lol

[t_ruth]

If you are looking for a volunteer position, this is an opportunity to expand beyond your local area. Many labs (mine included) are doing everything completely virtual, including running new studies that require RAs.