Has anyone done an NIH internship?

<p>What did you think of it? What kinds of hours did you have to work? How did housing work out? Would you do it again? What type of lab did you work in?</p>

<p>my mom used to have a high school and college student doing intern for her lab at nih, basically, it's a great opportunity, you learn a lot, and you'll have teh absoutely most modern technology out there. pay is pretty good too, depends on the lab i guess. but in general, it was 10-12 dollars an hour 5 yrs ago!!!</p>

<p>Crazyforee, how are the high school students chosen for the internships? What would define a competitive applicant?
If an applicant will be 16 a month after the june 1st deadline, would they still consider your application?</p>

<p>sorry, i'm afraid that i'm not the right person to ask this. in my past experience, i've looked through some of NIH internship programs. 1st of all, it depends where u live. NIH has a sub-division here in research triangle park North carolina, it's called NIEHS, it's probably the most-funded division within NIH, and they have a lot of applicants every year coz UNC chapel hill and duke are pretty close, and wake forest too. in general, i would doubt they'll take someone who does not meet the basic requirement, coz it's already compteitive enough for those who are eligible and applied early. good luck tho, u might wanna look at some other universities, i know duke has a very good bio-lab summer intern, the pay is pretty good too!</p>

<p>forgot one thing, i think they choose based on the standard stuff, u know, GPA, SAT, teachers' recommendation (science teachers) and it'll help even more if u know someone who works for nih and have them write you a recommendation</p>

<p>I live in Massachusetts. NIH probably doesn't have a sub-division here. Alright then, thanx for your response. I'll look into Duke and other internships.</p>

<p>actually, i think they do, a big one actually, coz my mom's boss moved to the NIH in massachusetts</p>

<p>Wow, I have to look into that. I know that you said your not an expert on NiH, but do you think they might have internships for high school students here?</p>

<p>they do, when i was looking for internship 1 or 2 yrs ago, i looked at their main page, and they have those internship in every sub-division, it just happens that NIEHS (one of the sub division) here is one of the main sites, and has a lot of funding. the program is within the NIH, not just the one in north carolina. go to their website and search for summer programs/intership, i'm pretty sure they have it, i have friends who did it</p>

<p>Thanx, buddy. This is really helpful information.</p>

<p>what is NIH?</p>

<p>NIH is the National Institute of Health.</p>

<p>I'm currently interning at NIH. I love my lab, it's an AWESOME place to do research :) The only hard thing is to get in, especially if you don't have prior experience. I'm doing a long term internship during the school year. If you have specific questions you can PM me.</p>

<p>Manchu Princess, I just sent you a PM. ;) Two other questions -- what's your work schedule like? What type of department are you doing research in?</p>

<p>What is the typical GPA of an accepted student? Will a 2-3 B's in Science classes hurt? Thanks.</p>

<p>hey: about the NIH internships. I did one over the summer, and based on my experience, the key to getting a position is contacting the principal investigators or chiefs. Tell them what you're interested in, and why you want to work in their lab. This is essentially how applicants get selected; if that PI decides to let you work in their lab, they'll have their secretary take care of all your paperwork, and the actual online application becomes a formality. I don't really know if they look at your GPA and stuff like that; mine was perfect so I didn't really worry about it. </p>

<p>btw: the summer internship is full-time (40 hrs/week). The (non-taxed) stipend depends on your education level...check out the web page for more information.</p>

<p>Hi! I'm working at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) currently through a county wide internship program, and I worked at the NIH through a different program over the summer, so if anyone has any questions, please feel free to PM me. </p>

<p>Here is my general advice for those of you who would like to intern at the NIH over the summer (or anytime):</p>

<p>1) start making connections! one of the most important factors that they consider when selecting students for their labs is whether the student seems dedicated and committed to the work. Start researching the different Institutes and where you might like to work, what you would like to research, etc. What I did was email the scientists whose work interested me, and inquired if they would be willing to take me in as an intern. On the online application (located on the NIH website) you can indicate that you talked to so-and-so scientist or such-and-such laboratory, and it will be much easier for them to place you into a lab. </p>

<p>2) don't worry a whole lot about grades, etc. Since most students have similar grades, its alot like college acceptance-- they look for something beyond just the standard GPA, teacher recs, etc. If you show enthusiasm for a particular institute or lab, it will be much more important. </p>

<p>I live close to the NIH's main campus in Bethesda, MD, so I couldn't give you advice on programs in other states. However, I do know that they sometimes do take students who live outside of the Washington, DC area (one of my friends was accepted from Florida). I'm not exactly sure how that works, though, so you might want to go to the website for more information.</p>

<p>I hope that helped, and if anyone has more questions, let me know!</p>

<p>do u know if they have any intern for computer related work? i'm not into bio, med, or chemistry, but i'd love to fix their computers :-p hehe.. just wondering</p>

<p>actually, one of my friends who works at the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) does a bunch of computer stuff...I don't know what exactly it involves, but her work basically consists of working on the computer analyzing the data, updating files, etc. You might want to check out their website for more information (I think its <a href="http://www.nimh.nih.gov%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.nimh.nih.gov&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p>

<p>Do you need any previous experience in research before you apply?</p>