I also assumed this was a summer internship. I wouldn’t recommend that a kid do an internship during the school year.
To a kid who loves math and science, working on a supercomputer project is like Disneyland. (English major here so go figure…I’m taking her at her word)
If the kid can get to and from the internship site on her own, if it doesn’t interfere with schoolwork or sleep-- then encourage her to do the one that sounds like it’s the most fun or interesting.
If it involves a parent becoming a taxi service- I think it starts to be overkill.
My advice is for her to take the one that she is the most interested in and she feels she will get the most out of. To be honest, just the title of an internship on an application is not going to move the needle much, if any. What will matter is how she chooses to write about it in her application - in her essay, short answers or somewhere else appropriate. And, while it may be a great experience for her, if it is something that lots of kids do - like Capitol Hill interns - it may sound impressive (especially in some parts of the country) but really isn’t. So, tell her to take the one she will enjoy doing and hope that she can articulate it well in her applications.
If she doesn’t start until the school year, is she really going to have been doing it long enough to make it into a good essay, or to get a meaningful recommendation letter from her supervisor? Maybe for RD apps, but not for EA or ED. I don’t think this will make much of a bump for applications, but as others say, if she can do this without it interfering with school, or college apps then it could be a good experience. She should pick what she finds most interesting.
@JDCaliMom ,
College admissions officers take a very jaundiced view of anything that appears to look like “resume padding” or an attempt to “impress”.
An internship, done during the last year of HS, sure meets that smell test.
I can’t see that doing one will help her, and if her grades suffer, could in fact , end up hurting her.
Do NOT encourage her to do ANYTHING in order to “impress” ad coms. It wont work.
Then really, this whole conversation seems premature. It’s like a junior asking “Should I attend Stanford or Princeton?”
However it works out, I’m sure it will be fine.
Good point, @skieurope Not sure what the situation with the San Diego Zoo is, but at the two zoos I’m familiar with the line of would-be volunteers is a mile long. They seem to have to sort through the 3000 people who just volunteered to shovel the dung out of the elephant habitat or the 6000 who are dying to scrub the algae off the barrier moat/pond. (Slight exaggeration for effect, but not by as much as you’d think…)