Is it too late for me to start interning? (Rising senior)

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

I was just wondering if you guys think it’s too late to do an internship / research? I was thinking of applying for a competitive BS/MD program, and would like to get some medical experience in in the few months I have until I apply for college.

Thanks!

2

Internships for high school students are usually only in the summer so those opportunities have passed. Research is always possible but it would probably need to be independent. You could still try to contact local professors and see if you could do some research but they don’t always want high school kids. Try to volunteer at a local hospital or clinic for experience.

3

@virsha24 For independent research, would I need my own proposal?

4

I’ve never done research so I’m not sure about that. Sorry

5

Internships are always good whether or not you can include them on your college apps. From what it sounds like, you’re asking if its too late to intern and have it show up in your applications, and if so, you’re interning for the wrong reasons. Do it for some life experience! It’ll help either way once you get to college.

6

I have to say when I read the title of this thread, I thought you were a rising college senior, and I was all set to say no, it’s not too late to intern. But then I realized you meant high school.

So, no, it’s not to late. It may be hard to do a formal program (especially if you were planning on doing something this summer), but that doesn’t mean it’s too late to find something useful. Apply for anything you are interested in that is taking applications. Don’t be picky. There is no harm in applying, so apply as soon as you can if it’s something you want.

You might want to consider things that you can do during the school year as well. Things like volunteering in a hospital, shadowing doctors, etc. There are also a lot of things you can do that are valuable experiences, like tutoring, volunteering in after school programs with younger kids, volunteering in senior homes, fundraising for charities, etc, that you can look into. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t do a formal internship or research experience. Those are hard to find and hard to get for high school students in general. There are lots of other things that you could do, if you can’t get something like that.