<p>Hi!
I'm a freshman looking to major in math+econ and getting a phd in econ, and as the title implies I was trying to find the best thing to do for the summer.
I found a bunch of REU's in math, but all except for one require US citizenship, and I am an international student. I assume internships are even harder to get.</p>
<p>(I will talk to my advisor and career center as soon as I arrive on campus)
but I wanted to know, from people who are already in/applying to grad school some insight regarding this first summer of college... what have you been doing?</p>
<p>I think getting an internship/job somewhere would probably be your best bet. You might not have enough background after only one year for academic research, and like you said most REUs require US citizenship as they are funded by the NSF (or other government branches). There are some REUs out there that don't require US citizenship (like UCLAs REU in applied math, I believe), and some programs say they will attempt to accomodate international students through other methods of funding (though I'm guessing that's very rare).</p>
<p>As has been previously stated, there aren't a whole lot of opportunities for first year students in the area of research. I knew someone who did a REU after their first year, but I think that is very rare instance. A lot of industrial internship opportunities only require one year of education, so I would look into that if there were any companies you might want to work for. Just thumb through the Fortune 500 looking for companies that either do logistical/banking/financial work or whatever area you might be particularly interested in. Usually when you go to their "Careers" or "Jobs" section of their website you can search for job postings. The only thing you need to be careful of is to make sure you have the right to work in the US.</p>
<p>One of the most important things you can do (outside of actual research) is to take some kind of statistics class over the summer or to self-study for a class in the fall. Once you learn statistics you'll have a better grasp of economics literature/research literature in general.</p>