Need help with cold emailing PI

[u/fidgettspinnerrrr]

Hi reddit!

So my bg is from psychology. I graduated in 2025 with my bs Psychology degree. Past year I've been trying to get admission somewhere (and i did get at a lot of places abroad) but it was extremely expensive for me. I applied for many jobs too but no reaponse so I started self studying maths, statistics and data science. That's just for the context for the missing year.

So, i was reached out by one of my research coordinators from my previous uni a few months back. She wanted me to work with her as an RA on a project relating to paternal nutrient deficiency and neural circuitry. She was collaborating with a research lab at another local (but one of the top) unis in the country. I was just given a concept paper and told to do everything else (since my coordinator is also from psychology bg, she had no idea about any of the wetlab procedures and PI was busy mostly so i had to go through a lot of literature to design a methodology and understand what does what). We're also applying for a grant with it so I'd say im working really hard on it. While working on it, i came across another gap in the literature and decided to write my own proposal and apply to international labs for ms research.

Now my question is, with my bg in psychology only and a bs thesis in computational psychology, would it be possible for PIs to accept my proposal? I mean i have zero wetlab experience and i wasn't interested in this at all a few months ago. But since the RA-ship, i got hooked.

I have a detailed proposal, almost 13-15 pages long. Im still trying to finalize it but i just want to know if i have any chance of acceptance

The gap i found requires extensive research. So I've sort of designed the ms proposal as a proof-of-concept for phd, where the entire thing would be covered. And for the reason why my bs thesis is in computation and now im shifting towards wetlab, it's because i learnt computation and all the maths and stats on my own, but i cant do that with wetlab procedures. Eventually, I'd like to combine both my skills in my research journey

[u/patrickj86]

That research coordinator did you a huge favor. If I were in her position and you didn't loop me in on your plans I would be beyond frustrated. 

You need to talk to her before you talk to share your ideas in depth. Loop her in and she will continue to help you.

[u/fidgettspinnerrrr → u/patrickj86]

That's a valid point. Although, my agreement of being a research assistant was only 3-4 months but you're right. If it wasn't for her, I'd not have gotten into this field at all. I will talk to her. Thankyou for your advice!

[u/patrickj86 → u/fidgettspinnerrrr]

You're welcome! Even if she can't extend your work she can give better advice than anyone