<p>Son has been looking at a few places he'd like to apply for summer research internships at, some at colleges that he may have an interest in attending grad school.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, son is a white male, and therefore, does not meet the minority requirement that many of these programs have?</p>
<p>He's a good student, but not a genius, so he'll likely not qualify for the really competitive nonminority programs, and without the minority "hook", I wonder if he'll be able to qualify for any summer research programs.</p>
<p>Can anyone help us as to a link or a suggestion as to where to look for summer research programs that are open to the smart, but not genius, nonminority student?</p>
<p>Also, if a program says, Preferrably minority or underrepresented or low income groups, can you even apply for them if you are not one of these groups?</p>
<p>Okay. I tried to be as PC as I could in asking the question. Sorry if I offended anyone. It’s very frustrating to do google searches and see the same requirements over and over again.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure son wants to go outside his home university for these summer programs. He’s always got the attitude, I already saw that, did that, I want to do something else, even in the most cursory experience.</p>
<p>If it says preferably, than that’s what it means. Your son can apply, but won’t be given preference. </p>
<p>And I’m sorry, but this thread comes off as rather ridiculous, IMO. Of course there are plenty of programs for non-minority engineering students. Most are very competitive, yes. But so is grad school. </p>
<p>The assumption that minority students have access to all these wonderful research opportunities simply because of a “minority hook” is simply ludicrous. </p>
<p>I’m not saying that there aren’t a number of programs out there for minority students, or certain research programs that specify they prefer minority students, but let’s get real - there are plenty of opportunities out there for everyone, and there is no need to create threads in such bad taste, IMO.</p>
<p>^^^Again, I apologize for offending anyone. I came here for help from people in the field that may know about opportunities that are not publicized on the internet or at career centers. There may very well be thousands of opportunities out there for any student, regardless of “hook”, but unfortunately, the ones that get the most publicity are the ones that are open only to minorities.</p>
<p>We’ve raised our son to be generous and not get greedy, so I think he would probably not want to apply for a program that was targeted more for underprivileged kids. He would not want to take a spot away from a more needy candidate. After he got a full scholarship to his college, he stopped applying for more scholarships, even though he qualified for many. He felt that would be greedy. His costs were paid. Let the money go to a more needy candidate. He would feel more comfortable applying for an internship or research position where the playing field was equal, applicants were judged more for their ability than their socio-economic background. Unfortunately, he’s having a hard time finding such opportunities.</p>
Does he not have any research experience at all? If not, he needs to get over himself.</p>
<p>Nearly every single person I know that did/ is doing an outside research program like your son wants was able to put prior experience in their application.</p>
<p>In other words, they did research at our school first, or at another school where the process of getting the spot was simply shooting the professor an email.</p>
<p>There are hundreds of professors who’d be more than willing to let him work in their lab for the summer, even if it’s not a formal program. All it takes is a brief search.</p>
<p>[Of note, I got work in a bme lab back home last summer by simply going to the university website, seeing what professors were doing, and emailing the prof who looked like she had interesting work going on]</p>
<p>Thanks, johnson. By home university, I meant the university he attends all year, which is away from home. I’m probably blowing this whole thing out of proportion and making it harder than it is. I didn’t mean to imply that he was demanding and picky. I’m being my usual helicopter self, wanting him to explore new things, but be in a safe, supervised environment. My son is not the super competitive type, and doesn’t enjoy being around that type, either. He would prefer a noncompetitive, Hey, can I help in your lab, type scenario over something that involves letters of recommendations and interviews and prima donnas. Since such “anonymous” opportunities are not advertised on the internet, I was hoping to get some inside information on this forum.</p>
<p>There are plenty research programs out there for everyone. If a program listed only for minority, either because it’s a specialized program, or it’s simply a bad program. </p>
<p>
If a program is targeted for the minorities, and if the program still accept non-minorities then I don’t see any problem with applying and getting accepted by the program. I don’t really buy the idea of “minorities”. If you are qualified for something, and you are picked, the committee is placing trust on you. Furthermore, having a group of just “underrepresented” is not helping the underrepresented kids. It is hurting them because they are labeled as “minorities”. If the committee decided to accept a white male to a program that encourages Native Americans, your son should join and be friends with them; show them the good manner that he has learned from his parents and his community. Show to the “minorities” that there are decent people out there. The relationship he establishes with these “underrepresented” people is unpredictable. </p>
<p>I will encourage him to think in a different perceptive. Just because someone is so-called “underrepresented”, you should still compete for your own benefits. If we were going to help each other, we would be living in harmony. We help each other by meeting and doing things with each other.</p>
<p>^^^Thank you, jwxie. That’s the way we feel, too. The research program my son participated in a couple of years ago at the local university was not advertised as for only minorities, but my son was the only white (male or female) there. What a great experience. They became fast friends, and did not care who was purple, black, blue or green. They took classes, did research, and presented projects together. </p>
<p>Thank you for your insight. Maybe my son will not shy away from some of these programs. A few of them were working on things he’s very, very interested, and I was disappointed when I saw the words, “for minorities”, that he would be excluded from them because of his race. Like many of you said, perhaps I should encourage him to apply and point out that both he and the kids he’s working with would benefit from the diversity he would bring to the program.</p>
<p>He should get ready for LoRs and interviews if he wants to go to grad school.</p>
<p>Also, while many programs do say they’re targeted at minorities they often take a number of non-minority students. I know most fellowships for grad school have some sort of minority mission, yet many of my white friends managed to snag fully funded fellowships (I only wound up as an alternate as one aimed at minorities, even though I’m a white male). I also had spent a summer in a research program that was also aimed at minorities, and I’d say about 1/4-1/3 of the people in that were white.</p>
<p>Anybody who doesn’t believe that minorities have clear advantages in getting research positions, scholarships and fellowships, extra help with coursework, etc. is just fooling themselves.</p>
<p>I get e-mails with opportunities pretty regularly… and would anybody care to guess how many say “Women and minorities are encouraged to apply” at the bottom? Anybody care to hypothesize what they are really trying to say?</p>
<p>That being said, if you are good and you try hard, you can do good for yourself. I’m not unhappy with what I’ve been given and with where I’m at. However, I don’t think I’d have done any worse as a minority… indeed, I believe I’d have received more for the same talent and work.</p>
<p>aegrisomnia writes “I get e-mails with opportunities pretty regularly… and would anybody care to guess how many say “Women and minorities are encouraged to apply” at the bottom? Anybody care to hypothesize what they are really trying to say?”</p>
<p>IMO you are over-thinking that statement. Most universities try to encourage women and minorities to apply to the engineering schools (and related programs) because so few actually apply. So, instead of women and minorities saying that it’s not worth it to apply for this research position because they believe they have a low chance of being selected now you have white males saying it’s not worth applying because the slots must be reserved for women and minorities. Just apply.</p>
<p>As to the OP, definitely the easiest low key way to getting a research position is with his current college. Ask the college profs what research they are doing and if they are interested in him assisting. Easy peasy. Once DS has research projects under his belt it’s easier to apply for research positions at other universities.</p>
<p>Thanks for the words of encouragement. I’ll tell son to not be scared off by those minority target words, or to feel bad that he’s taking a space away from someone. If it looks like something he’s interested in, he should apply for it. Like someone said above, the worst that could happen is that he’d be rejected.</p>
<p>Thanks again for all your help, and for your patience with my lack of verbal skills in asking my question.</p>