<p>I will be a sophmore at William and Mary. Last summer I did an internship at NIH in Bethesda. They've asked me back for another summer next year. Would two years at NIH be helpful in Med School admissions, or should I try something else? My Freshman GPA was 3.95.</p>
<p>that sounds pretty cool ; i'd do it again if i were you. speaking of which, im gonna be a freshman at college this year and i was reading through the site that talked about it. how was the program? did you learn a lot, or write a paper? and did they just look at your college grades?</p>
<p>I think 2 summers at the NIH would be great if you enjoyed the work you did this summer.</p>
<p>I'm actually planning on applying to their IRTA program for recent college graduates. Hopefully, I can get in and work there during my gap year b/w undergrad and med school.</p>
<p>what's the name of the internship...and is it usually competitive?</p>
<p>It depends on what you'll be doing. If you're working in the same lab on the same project, then I would very strongly recommend that you continue.</p>
<p>If you're working in a new lab on a new project, then I think it's neutral except that you don't have to look for a new thing.</p>
<p>If, however, this program was more like a class than an actual project of your own, and you'd be listening to the same lectures by the same people for another year, then I highly recommend you look for something else.</p>
<p>It's a great opportunity for you.......and it speaks highly of your performance otherwise they wouldn't have asked you back. After you finish, make sure you ask the person in charge to write you a recommendation letter, it will be helpful when you need it.</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, what's the average freshmen GPA of accepted applicants to the NIH program?</p>
<p>zabfam, that sounds awesome. Take it if you enjoyed it last year...if you didn't enjoy it, go for something else. From experience I know that working in a lab setting that you don't enjoy can make one miserable pretty quickly.</p>
<p>I think a lot of people are also curious to learn more about your experience both out of curiosity and to better help answer your question.
For example:
Where did you stay for the summer? Were there other kids where you stayed that were doing the NIH summer program? Did you do mostly setup/cleanup stuff or did you get to do a lot? Did you enjoy it?</p>