Huh.

[garlikmongere]

So I've been contacted by a slightly confused student in India, who is pursuing his bachelor degree. Apparently he came across one of my papers, and wants to pursue a summer project under my guidance. He's assuming I've got a PhD and my own lab. Granted the names on the paper don't say who's got their PhD (every one except me), and I am listed

Comments

[ricevermicelli]

It is very normal for students, some of them from foreign countries, to contact professors and ask to pursue projects under their guidance. It is not normal for bachelor's level students from India to travel to the US to do so, because it is pretty rare for professors to want to take them on. Given the length of stay, he could probably do it on a business or tourist visitor visa, but since India doesn't participate in the Visa Waiver Program, he'd have to apply for one, and the red tape can be awful (the last short-term non-eminent-professor visitor visa I dealt with involved writing pleading letters to U.S. Senators to pull strings to get the applicant an interview at the U.S. embassy in Dubai sometime in the next three weeks, rather than six months from Tuesday at a time conflicting with his high school exams). He'd have to apply basically now. He'd have to be self-supporting, because you wouldn't be legally able to pay him (although you could pay or reimburse his living expenses

[amoken]

I'd probably forward it and let my advisor decide.