I don't want to be home over summer break- what are my options? (Internships, summer programs, etc)

Student Lounge College Life
1

I’m a freshman, and so far I’ve absolutely loved college. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier- I’ve made so many new friends, participated in so many new activities, and even finished out the semester with a 4.0. I’m super involved around campus as well. I was absolutely miserable in H.S., I had severe anxiety issues as a result, and unfortunately my grades ended up suffering a bit. While I like my house itself, I hate my town- everything is so cut-throat and fast-paced (I’m from southern NY), and many of the friendships I had here have dissipated. I settled into my new campus and new city extremely well (coastal New England) and overall I am significantly happier there than I am at home.

I’ve been looking for summer science research programs for undergrads, but unfortunately my university is small and the larger universities in the state have pretty expensive programs that are a bit unrealistic. I’m a psychology major in the honors program, I’ll be picking up a neuroscience or biology minor sophomore year, and eventually I hope to either work in clinical/health psychology or maybe even in psychiatry.

My parents are very offended by the fact that I don’t want to be in my hometown much, but I literally have nothing to look forward to at home- this is my second break and once again I’m ending up lonely and bored with little to nothing to do. I get to see my parents a bunch while I’m at school, but I’m an only child and don’t have any pets or anything, so all coming home means for me is coming home to a house, not getting to look forward to seeing siblings/pets/friends/etc. like most college kids do. I have a group of “friends”- we don’t hang out anymore, and then two pretty good friends but we don’t hang out all the time either. I am the kind of person who benefits from productivity and a busy schedule so having virtually nothing to do at home is a killer. For some reason being home brings me an instant reminder of all the awful times I had with anxiety/loneliness in MS and HS, and immediately creates a sense of angst once again. My class in particular was excessively catty, exclusive, and cliquey, and I don’t do well with any of those things.

What are my options here? I’m thinking about getting a part-time job when I get back to campus so I can pay for whatever I may have to do over the summer to not have to be in my hometown. I’ve outgrown the people and atmosphere here, there are so many other places and opportunities that prove to be more interesting for me. I love my parents but the town itself just isn’t for me anymore. Any suggestions on things I could do over the summer would be wonderful!! Thanks in advance.

2

Your parents want to see you, so that is why they are sad you dont’ want to spend time at home.
If you do come home, get a job even if it is at a fast food place or whatever. There will be people there and you can make friends. Maybe also get a volunteer job so you can keep very busy.

3

I agree, your parents will want to see you and spend time with you. No matter what you do please find a way to spend a good block of time with them. Remember they have supported you your whole life. If you do end up at home for the summer find work that will keep you busy.

In terms of summer jobs, it is unusual to be able to get any kind of meaningful research job as a rising sophomore. Perhaps you can find another job on campus for the summer (ex. with admissions). You want to try to find something where you will have housing on campus, preferably for free.

4

Might be hard to get an internship freshman summer. How about considering a summer camp counseling job? Some are about 10 weeks long in beautiful places. Lots of college students do this.

5

Many campuses have some students who work in admissions over the summers (tour guides, for example). Check with them. Also, you can’t usually stay in dorms on campus unless your job is with the college (and even then they may charge you a room fee – but most colleges set it up so you still make some money in spite of that). You may have to cook for yourself, too.

You should still spend a couple weeks at home. Your parents love you.

6

There are lots of alternatives to going home! I had a similar struggle, except in my case it was my parents that made it clear they did not want me at home. So I found a lot of alternatives!

The Duke Talent Identification Program is a summer program for 7th through 12th graders who scored highly on the SAT. Every summer, they hire college students (and other professionals) to come support the program through residential, teaching, and administrative positions. TIP has two sessions, and they take up most of the summer but not 100% of it. This may be a compromise position - allowing you to see your parents for a few weeks at the beginning and end of the summer but not having to stay home all throughout. (https://tip.duke.edu/about/employment-tip). And oh - while most of the Duke programs are in North Carolina, not all of them are, and some of them are international.

Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth is a very similar program, only run by JHU of course. There are more sites across the country and some of the students are quite a bit younger. https://cty.jhu.edu/jobs/

There are lots of other summer camps across the country that hire college students to work as counselors. For example, a friend of mind worked at a summer camp for disabled youth in upstate New York many summers in college. Since you are interested in psychology and neuroscience, there’s a similar summer camp I learned about called Camp Ramapo - it’s in Rhinebeck, NY - that is designed for kids who have problems forming connections with others (like kids on the autism spectrum). Find out more here: http://ramapoforchildren.org/about-ramapo/employment/summer-staff

Many fancy private schools have summer intern positions for college students, where you serve as a teaching assistant and live in the dorms. These tend to be shorter, though - just 1-2 months. Here’s Choate Rosemary Hall’s as an example: https://www.choate.edu/news/item/~post/summer-programs-teaching-internship-20171011. Wheaton College maintains a list of other schools that also have intern programs: http://wheatoncollege.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/internships-at-private-schools.pdf

Breakthrough Collaborative is a summer program that places college students in urban and rural areas across the country to teach underserved middle and early high school students. My husband did this one summer in college as a math teacher. It was a challenging but rewarding experience. https://www.breakthroughcollaborative.org/

Camp Adventure is a service-learning program for college students that places them all over the world to support children and youth. This is an opportunity to live and work internationally for the summer. https://uni.edu/campadv/prospectivestudents.html

There are tonnnnns of summer science research programs, especially for psychology and neuroscience. Most of the ones I know about do not take freshmen, though. Starting in your sophomore year, you will want to do at least one (if not two) of these to prepare for graduate school in clinical or health psychology. This is the solution to all your problems, because most of these programs give you free housing and a stipend every summer and they tend to last nearly the whole summer. Check out the National Science Foundation’s REU site (here for social, behavioral, anc economic sciences:https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/list_result.jsp?unitid=5054; here for biological sciences: https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/list_result.jsp?unitid=5047; here for education and human resources: https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/list_result.jsp?unitid=10021).

You can also just do an Internet search for “Summer undergraduate research” and find tons of programs. There are really a lot of these. If you are interested in international research and are from a group that is historically underrepresented in the sciences (think broadly), the Minority Health International Research Training programs may appeal. Here’s an example of one at Brown (https://www.brown.edu/initiatives/global-health/ghi-programs/mhirt-program) but there are lots more if you search for MHIRT.

And to beef up your quantitative skills, also necessary in your field (our shared field), check out this list of summer research programs at the Empirical Reasoning Center at Barnard College (https://erc.barnard.edu/student_resources). (I worked there in graduate school and started this list :D)

You could also try to study abroad. These programs are usually costly, but often you can get scholarships to cover the cost. Usually you can do this beginning your sophomore summer. Talk to your college’s study abroad adviser about ways to help cover the costs.

Also, visit your college’s career center. They will likely have a list of corporate internships you can do over the summer, too. Big companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have internships where they pay you and they give you free housing - but small companies do things like that, too. Even if you think you already know what you want to do, think about trying one of these out just to see.

7

FWIW, halfway through the summer between her freshman and sophomore year, my daughter declared, this is my LAST summer at home! She was like you: loved college, felt like she went back in time over the summer with mom & dad. So don’t feel bad… lots of kids go through this, and their parents come to accept it. Eventually :wink: