Advice needed: which one of these summer programs to consider?

Pre-College Issues Summer Programs
1

Hi,
Our child is a junior and has the following options for summer 2015

  • RISE at Boston University
  • Research internship with a professor at Johns Hopkins
  • UPenn SAAST program (complex engineering networks)
  • internship (unpaid) at a small startup (networking)

Which of these would look best on the college app? I know that most people would comment “what would
your child like to do”? Ideally child would like to do research internship (choice 1 or 2) but we are all confused
about which one would be better - RISE at BU because it is well known or at JHU since it is higher rated college?
Both the projects look very promising and are in the area of bioinformatics/computational biology/computer science.
Or would an internship at an actual startup look better on the college app?

Any feedback/comments are much appreciated. We probably need to decide by the end of this week.

2

choose between the two internships depending on your prefrences but an internship would definitely be better than a summer school.

3

Thanks! I probably should have clarified that the RISE program is also a research internship. So, between the research internships at BU and JHU, any idea as to which one would look better?

4

Are you local to one of the internships so that the research could continue after the summer?

5

Yes, we are local to one of the internships and the profs involved have mentioned that they would like to continue beyond the 6 weeks program. The other program also has scope for continuing beyond the 6 weeks but could become a challenge as it isn’t within commuting distance. Should this be a consideration in deciding ?
Child is very focused and into research but all of us are confused about picking one vs the other.
Does the University where you do research matters (BU vs JHU) or is it more the quality of work one does ?