<p>What kind of internship?</p>
<p>A Research related internship …</p>
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<p>FWIW, you didn’t offend me…my message was a poor attempt to convey what somemom told you… you have managed to annoy a number of long time posters who have “been there and done that”…I wasn’t as successful as somemom was in getting my point across…I too was trying to tell you to lose the attitude for your own good because if it comes across in an interview it won’t matter how hard you have worked to rectify your current situation. Again, I wish you the very best.</p>
<p>Anything available at your school? Mine (big state public) has a summer research internship program for undergraduates. See if your school has something that functions like an “office” of undergraduate research (ours is housed in the big science research center with other administrative stuff).</p>
<p>Next place to try: various advisors at your school</p>
<p>Next place to try: professors of classes you like (for labs to get involved with, not necessarily internships)</p>
<p>You don’t have to have an internship for your work to be meaningful, and you don’t have to be paid in order to get research experience. In my experience, offering free help (by way of basically volunteering/interning at a lab) has rarely been met with “No room available.” It gets tough when you want to get paid. So a good start might be…don’t get paid. Just stick around for a semester or so (or maybe just half a semester). Sit in on meetings, get familiar with your lab’s business, learn basic techniques, etc–so that way, when they need to hire again, or when you find a great internship you’d like to apply for, you’re already a shoo in.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks kristin, I will look into that, and already have some amount of experience doing that, I was looking for an official REU type experience that I could apply for …but as you said, it is probably tough and I probably wouldn’t get in.</p>
<p>Its not so much that its competitive and you are unsure of your candidacy–it’s a bigger thing of if you really want to do research (and likey, the genuine candidates are the most successful anyway) then it won’t really matter where (unless you have a specific topic in mind thats sparsely available). I just meant that if you try your university first youll likely have more success and then you can actually start doing research as opposed to having to wait until your program starts.</p>
<p>Your best chance of getting a position is to try a professor at your own university. In the end, it doesn’t matter whether you’re in a formal summer research program or not. It’s about getting the research experience and/or publications.</p>
<p>Your second best bet is to apply for internships in areas that are not highly desirable to applicants. Everyone and their grandmother is going to be applying to Genetech or NIH. There are good research programs available in the south and midwest that don’t receive quite as many applicants.</p>
<p>Any good programs in the Northeast that I could apply too?</p>
<p>I might transfer to UBC for the next semester if I get in, if that happens, is there anything I could do around that area?</p>
<p>UBC has tons of research, find some profs and apply for their lab.</p>
<p>Right but is it the same thing like in the States (see if they have openings, talk to them, and work) or is it different? What exactly do you mean by “apply” to their labs?</p>
<p>It works exactly like it does in the US. By apply, somemom means contact the PI, see if he/she has openings and ask if you can volunteer in their lab. </p>
<p>(Note I said volunteer. Don’t expect to be paid, esp if you’re not currently attending the institution the PI is associated with or are not part of a sponsored program like REU. Profs are always short of $$ and like to save their funding for more important things than paying a summer student from another school.)</p>
<p>How much does the fact that he’s attending Penn help him?</p>
<p>Pretty much not at all unless he can get his GPA up.</p>
<p>If anyone from here can give me advice on my first year mess as well, I’d really appreciate your help.
I’m mjle06, and I just started a thread called “low GPA from first year”</p>