<p>If have you, someone in your family, or friends have had experience with Summer research, please post your experiences. </p>
<p>Please add info on following points -</p>
<p>*institution where they did the research
* year when the research was conducted
* how you procured this research internship
*Experience - good or bad
*Paid/not paid
*area of research
*any other comments - such as housing/commute to and fro, social life, safety, any other pointers</p>
<p>Many thanks!</p>
<p>Most research is done either at the NIH in Bethesda or at your home school. Very few premeds have the luxury of going home for the summer.</p>
<p>What do you mean by premeds not having the luxury of going home for the summer?</p>
<p>Meaning that
[quote]
Most research is done either at the NIH in Bethesda or at your home school.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>*NIH's National Eye Institute (NEI) in Bethesda, MD
* June 2007-May 2008
* It's part of the HHMI/NIH/MCPS program that selects ~20 students from montgomery county public schools. I applied and got accepted.
* So far: very good. Everybody here is well-qualified and chances are you'll be in a lab with people from all around the world. My mentor is from Russia, my preceptor is from Ireland, another person is half Swiss, another is from Taiwan, and an undergrad student at UMD from Pakistan.</p>
<p>On-campus resources are amazing and everything seems pretty relaxed. It is something like how I imagined Stanford to be: relaxed but teeming with intelligence. There are no timesheets and lunch is an hour long.</p>
<p>The equipment you use is very up-to-date and there's so much equipment that the most scarce resource here is countertop space.
*$1600 stipend in 2 installments of $800
*eye; sorry I don't want to be ID'd, but I'll just say a certain protein
*I'm in high school right now, but the person in my lab at UMD is doing much of the same things I'm doing albeit more independently since he's come here for several summers. </p>
<p>Bethesda is a very safe area, has good nightlife for college students, has expensive housing, and great public transportation if you work at NIH (there's a metro station with rail and bus right at the front entrance).</p>
<p>NIH will cover your public transportation costs completely, but I believe there is an unwritten limit of $100 per month.</p>
<p>Getting work at NIH is not hard, but from my experience most people here get in by some connections.</p>
<p>Yea I'm working at NIH now as a high school senior (but I live here, so I will be able to go home for the summer and do research :). Working at the NIH is great, I agree with everything afruff said, especially the part about having connections- if you don't have any, its very hard to get a job.</p>