How early should I start asking professors for a summer position? I am a high school student and have several professors at colleges nearby who are conducting research I find very interesting. I am going to ask them to consider letting me work under them during the summer, and maybe afterward throughout the school year. When should I ask? Should I ask in the coming weeks, to give them time to respond, or should I wait a few months until the summer is closer?
I would look at https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/reu_search.jsp and https://cadrek12.org for programs at universities in your area that have open applications for the upcoming spring and summer semesters. These are likely to be low-paying internships that are part of ongoing research programs NSF already funds which are going to be looking for high-achieving high-school students to participate in research. The &quot;U&quot; in &quot;REU&quot; is for &quot;Undergraduates&quot;, so college students, but many of the programs have portions for late high-school students, too, so read carefully. Your ability to read about the program and follow instructions will help determine your acceptability to them.
Broader Impacts, including impacts on K-12 students are a big part of NSF grant funding, and so many NSF-funded organizations in the US have something to offer throughout the year. That being said, individual professors may not. I think you'd be better served by looking at organizations within academic institutions (museums, computing centers, laboratories, etc.) than trying to talk directly with a single professor. For the reasons noted in the comments about busy-ness, a single prof. might not have the resources to supervise a single high-school student or even assign that supervision to a grad student. Look for labs and institutions that have such programs.