<p>At the school I plan to attend, the program is five years long because it has 6 three month stints of co-op added to the ordinary 4 year program. However, each or all of the co-ops can be replaced with research. I can get research opportunities the ordinary way, through professors during the academic year, too.
But- with the AP credit that I've acquired I should be able to graduate in 4 years instead of 5. For financial reasons I will do so. So, I'll have less time to go for normal research opportunities.
So, what should I do? What combination would result in the best looking resume?</p>
<p>As a side question, if I have my heart set on one college for graduate school, when should I start emailing the professor in charge of the research I am interested in? I don't want to come off creepy if I do it too early or a procrastinator if I do it too late.</p>
<p>As a note, there was an awards ceremony for co-ops at this university and one person who had done all co-ops in electrical engineering was heading to Stanford. Is this a rare case?</p>
<p>What do you plan to major in, and which subject would you like to pursue a PhD in?</p>
<p>I am only an undergraduate student myself but I would assume that actual research is preferred over internships in many fields. But there might be exceptions and engineering might be one of them. I don’t know if this is actually true or not, but I would expect that industrial work in engineering is not all that different from research work. The only difference is where your funding comes from and how much ownership you can claim for your discoveries and inventions. Or maybe a better way to rephrase my initial statement is that “relevant experience” is what counts, and internships might be very relevant for engineering graduate work but not quite so much for math. </p>
<p>By the way, do you know if that student is heading to Stanford for a M.S. or a PhD program? There’s a big difference in terms of research expectations.</p>
<p>Hahaha, I gave up on Artificial Intelligence after my first summer of “artificial intelligence” research. Kind of shocking what is considered “intelligent” by some professors…</p>