I haven’t really seen many people talking about this fantastic program for some reason, so I decided to share my experience for anyone who isn’t sure if they’d like to go or not.
So first. My application. I consider myself to be a pretty good student, but I’m no where near amazing. I even had a B+ (in history) on the report card I sent. I’ve also never had any research experience prior to this, but my application definitely showed a large interest in STEM. There’s definitely competition, but it’s not too competitive relative to other research summer programs out there. However, depending on what lab you pick (some are only accepting 2 students, others accepted 14) your competition definitely varies. The professors of each of the labs you are applying to will be reading your application and deciding whether or not they want you in the lab.
Now, if you’re close enough to UMass Amherst, you’ll probably be making this tough decision: commuter vs. residential. I attended as a commuter student. It saved my family around 3 or 4k. The majority of kids there, though, are residential. If I had to make a rough guess, I’d say in the whole Research Intensives program there were only about 4-5 commuter students. The total amount of kids accepted was around 40 or 50. I found that even as a commuter student I was able to befriend a lot of people, but if you really want to hang out with everyone 24/7 and really form a tight bond, residential might be for you. I still had an awesome experience though.
The environment: the kids that attend are all bright and hardworking. Many of them also come from REALLY good schools (Exeter, Phillips Andover, etc.). These people come from all over the world, which was really an interesting and fun experience for me. There were kids from Spain, England, China, and all over the U.S. They all had different cultural backgrounds and it was fun bonding with them and learning how they grew up in their respective environments.
As for my personal lab experience: I was in a psychology lab. I’ve heard of other psych students who had to work in a classroom environment, where they were given work to do every day. As for the wet lab kids, I’ve heard that they got to do very cool things (one of my friends dissected a lot of frogs – like, an insane amount). So your experience will definitely vary based on what lab you’re put into. The one I was placed in was very small and very hands-on, which was perfect for me. We got to work in actual experiments alongside the graduate students (who were just so great, they were extremely funny, patient, and kind with us) and got to collect and analyze our own data. I definitely learned a lot – about the equipment used, how to work with research participants, and just about the daily lives of grad students in general.
The research poster you make at the end of the program honestly sounds like a huge task but it’s not that bad. You’re given a long time to work on it, and your graduate students and professor will look after you. I remember being very anxious two weeks before the presentation date, but the few days before it I felt really excited to show what I learned in the past 6 weeks. All of us gathered in this giant space and set up our posters there to present to whoever decided to stop and take a look at our poster.
If you have any questions about my experience, please ask! Even though I was a commuter, I also know a bit about the residential experience from my friends so I might be able to answer any questions about that. This is definitely one of those “hidden” programs out there that not a lot of people seem to know about, but is a highly valuable experience that everyone should definitely look into!