Hi, I’m a rising senior and I’m really struggling to make a decision on my summer plans and I was hoping someone could offer me their perspective.
I was accepted into my state’s governor’s school which is very prestigious and only 15% of applicants get accepted. I had committed and was extremely happy to attend, but then I was contacted by an individual from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab ASPIRE program that I had applied to early on, asking if I would be interested in interning there over the summer. The Gov. School would take 3 weeks while the internship would take 6 weeks and the internship would mean that I would be individually mentored by someone working in my prospective field on a project that would be used by the US government. I just don’t know what to chose because in past years, people that have gotten into the Gov. school have gotten into Princeton, Yale, etc. and some people that take part in the internship get accepted into MIT but most go to UMD-CP which is also a great school for STEM.
Also, I was also accepted into the MOSTEC program, an online program by MIT that I would be doing over the summer in conjunction with one of these programs. With governor’s school, it’s a very structured program with very minimal free time (except the weekends) and I’m just worried I might not be able to do both because MOSTEC requires 25 hours a week and I feel like I wouldn’t have any fun while in the program. As for the internship, there’s less of a time commitment during the day so doing MOSTEC with it would be more feasible, but I wouldn’t have that collaborative and group experience living in dorms together experience that I would get at the Gov. school.
I just feel like I would miss an incredible opportunity if I pass either of them up and I just don’t know what to do. Please help!