<p>I am sure amongst all of you supportive parents, there might be a great deal of experience and insight on your/your childrens' experiences at NIH Summer research programs or you might be one of the mentors at NIH yourself. If so, please do post your experiences, good, bad, or so-so.</p>
<p>Please post the following.</p>
<ul>
<li>the year your S or D was involved in NIH research</li>
<li>area of research/division of NIH</li>
<li>comment about their experience</li>
<li>advice of room/board/tips for short term stay in Bethesda</li>
</ul>
<p>Pharmagal, I would suggest you post this in the summer programs forum. You would probably get greater input there.</p>
<p>I don't have firsthand experience with NIH internship, but I do have a friend who attended the program. </p>
<p>From what I hear from her, NIH internships are basically rigged. She told me that because her parents had connections, she got into the program. She informed me that it is extremely difficult for an unconnected person to get accepted to the program while it's relatively easy for those who are connected. Furthermore (and perhaps more important), she told me that she did not enjoy her stay there very much since she bascially did a bunch of paper work and ended up not doing very much research (afterall, good research occurs during many months, not a few weeks). Some people may also get professors who are not very receptive to their needs. </p>
<p>In any case, it is anecdotal evidence so take it with a grain of salt, and know that I am biased in that I am completely against programs like these that fosters inequality based on factors the participants can't control. ;)</p>
<p>I participated in the program the summer after my freshman year in college, at the NIAAA in Rockville.</p>
<p>I had a blast -- it was my first research job, and I was very excited about doing even the smallest things. :)</p>
<p>I stayed in the dorms at George Washington University, which was fun because there were a lot of other college students around to socialize with.</p>
<p>I don't have first hand experience, but a friend of my son's did an internship there last summer and was very happy with the experience. He is returning to NIH again this summer so I have to assume it was a positive experience. I can't help with the housing issue, this kid sublet through some friends. My son interned in DC last summer and lived at the dorms at George Washington University and that worked out well for him.</p>
<p>
[quote]
From what I hear from her, NIH internships are basically rigged. She told me that because her parents had connections, she got into the program. She informed me that it is extremely difficult for an unconnected person to get accepted to the program while it's relatively easy for those who are connected. Furthermore (and perhaps more important), she told me that she did not enjoy her stay there very much since she bascially did a bunch of paper work and ended up not doing very much research (afterall, good research occurs during many months, not a few weeks). Some people may also get professors who are not very receptive to their needs.
[/quote]
My sentiments exactly.</p>
<p>I actually was offered a position at NIH without connections, but I declined to do it because, as Mintie said, the interns who work there are generally under "slave positions," in that their job is less about research than it is about the tedious tasks researchers themselves would prefer not to do.</p>
<p>Don't get me wrong.. some people are lucky and land themselves a real research opportunity with very supportive mentors (including a friend of mine who later became an Intel winner), and NIH offers some actual research programs for high school students (namely HHMI, though that is severely limited to just schools in this area), but a vast majority (which I see among my friends, many of which have parents at NIH since we all live in the area where NIH headquarters are located) is not this case at all.</p>
<p>I'm surprised to hear about the students staying at GWU because GWU has it's own high school program (GWSEAP), which is specifically research-oriented and so probably better than just finding some mentor at NIH.</p>
<p>I think that it makes a big difference whether you are doing this in high school or in college, I feel that PIs will give more complicated tasks to college students, even if they are only a year apart. I had a great time at NIH, and did some real research, even if it was only a small part of someone else's project. My PI forced me to come up with the experimental protocol, and I was very much under my own direction. I also stayed at GW</p>
<p>ec1234, My S starts his first year of Bach/MD 7 year program with TCNJ/UMDNJ this year. So, I was wondering about research opps at NIH post freshman year.</p>
<p>I would agree that a large portion of people at the NIH got in with connections but there are still many many positions for those w/o connections (like me). </p>
<p>I think it is also important to separate the experience of high schoolers from those of college students and college graduates. No offense to high schoolers, but I'd be a little nervous too, if I were a PI, with trusting a HSer with an expensive project.</p>
<p>I was wondering if anyone who has been in the NIH SIP (or even just accepted) could please share about that. I am going to have a phone interview with a PI, and I was wondering if other people have been interviewed. How did it go? How long after the interview were you notified if you got the position? And how were you notified (e-mail, phone)?</p>