NIH SIP vs current lab, need advice?

Pre-College Issues Summer Programs
1

The situation:
Have NIH SIP acceptance.
Also have long-term project at a local UC lab.

The problem:
NIH SIP is pretty prestigious according to some people.
According to others, though, it’s the kind of program where most kids either got in through connections, or were recruited from a local school district. (No offense to anyone, but it is kind of what people say on this forum.)
Having never done this and having no friends who have participated in SIP in the past, I really have no clue what it’s actually like.

The even more problematic problem:
My UC prof is offering me a leadership position for this year’s summer program (I am the only intern who will be holding this position, the others are all grad students) and being Asian, that’s kind of a big deal for me (don’t wanna be a nerd, right?)
Plus, I’d get to continue my research if I went back, so I’d be able to submit a 2-year project to scifairs, as opposed to an 8-week NIH one.

The dilemma
In terms of value for college apps, which internship do you guys think I should do over the summer? Is NIH really as prestigious as people here are saying? Do the scifair projects from the research win anything? Also, how important would a leadership position be in this case? Lastly, NIH is a paid internship, the other is not - is it more worthwhile to have a “work” or “volunteer” experience?

Current stats (if at all relevant)
Asian female from competitive public school district in CA
SAT 2300+, PSAT 230+, 4.0 UW, 4.3+W (don’t want to be ID’d - thank cc’s no-delete policy)
2x AIME qualifier, multiple local scifair wins, one statewide scifair finalist award, various Science Olympiad/Speech and Debate medals and trophies, president at various clubs, the whole spiel, basically not that special. I feel like this summer is my last chance to do anything worthwhile before I graduate.

So yeah, thanks for reading this whole thing. If anyone has participated in SIP before, I’d love to hear what you thought about it. And if anyone’s been in this situation before and has some advice, feel free to drop me a PM, I really want to discuss this thoroughly with someone before making a decision.

2

Do you know what you’re doing in sip? Honestly I would stick with the local research

3

NIH lets you do end of the term poster. They have clauses which don’t always help you submit your research to science fairs or allow you to write an Intel paper. So you should read the fine print of the contract you receive from NIH.

I think you may be better off on the long run to stay with your current program just to have continuity and future publishable work.

4

I’m pretty sure they let high schoolers submit their research. I’m near DC so I know a lot of people in the past who have done NIH. Most of them I encountered at the state science fair. They usually have the most impressive projects.

@Pluvialis What kind of research will you do in the UC lab vs. NIH? It sucks that NIH is on the other side of the country for you…I feel like you might have a better project if you devote more time in the UC lab. You will develop a closer relationship with your UC prof if you do research with him/her for 2 years. If you can get a recommendation from them for college, its pretty impressive.

5

@swiftyfan13x, I’m doing comp chem. My UC research is more geared towards developing software for comp chem, and the NIH research focuses on investigating a particular receptor protein. The NIH project sounds a lot more technical; I can barely understand half of the terms in the project outline. It definitely sounds pretty impressive on the paper.
The UC project is more engineering, not investigative (as in, these are things we want X to do, do some programming until it happens, collect data that proves it works). It’s the kind of project I can explain pretty well in layman’s terms. However, I don’t see many of these kinds of projects winning at scifairs, the winners usually have projects that have a ton of jargon and seem really complex (more similar to the NIH project).

@texaspg, does research continuity from high school years matter that much? Some people have said that switching labs in high school may be more valuable in terms of new experiences (I imagine it’d be a lot harder to switch labs as a grad student). I’m not very familiar with the whole university research thing, so please correct me if I’m wrong.

@OneMata, ^ see my reply to swifty for your first question. It sounds like NIH projects in general are pretty impressive. I haven’t gone to that many scifairs yet, so I’m still not sure about the value of a project that’s mostly just writing software vs a project that’s very jargony. Also, is it really possible to have a college professor write a letter of rec for college admissions? I didn’t know you could do that :o I am on pretty good terms with my current PI and I think that might be a major factor in this decision.

6

You can’t do both, right?

NIH will be nice in that you can get a variety of experience, other than the lab you are in. Out of curiosity, is your current work with the local lab coming to an end or are there any publications that you were able to contribute to? If not I suggest you may wanna stick summer to put things to fruition.

This might not be too likely, but combining the two at all? Using computational chemistry tools to investigate docking/binding with ligand/receptor interaction lol

quick question: You say “I don’t want to be ID’d”, but what does ID mean?

7

If you are applying to college this year, you have to consider a variety of factors - are you close to publishing or presenting something due to a second summer at the same lab, will you miss out on that “great” recommendation by declining the current offer on table by going to NIH, would you be able to pursue other things during summer by staying closer to home that add to your application and so on.

Whether you continue the same research once you enter college is not really relevant. The opportunities at college level are different from high school in the sense that you can find working at a college lab much more convenient - you can go to lab anytime of the day based on your schedule of classes unlike high school where you need to wait until end of the day to get to a lab on a school day.

8

@BasedBioGod, my work from last year will be published regardless of whether I come back this summer or not. It would be pretty nice to extend the project though, but the paper for the extended work would likely be published after I graduate.

Heh, now that you mention it, it could be kind of cool to combine the two. Though I don’t think it would be very prudent to use a project for another lab’s research before it’s published. >.>

As for your last question, I meant “identified”. (I go to the kind of school where everyone prowls CC relentlessly so they can compare each other’s stats. It’s a little creepy.)

@texaspg, yeah, see above. The extended work might be good for science fair, though. For recs, I think it would probably be better if I stayed with the same professor for this. As for other activities over the summer, it doesn’t make too much of a difference for me location-wise.

Thanks for the insight on college research. Do you think NIH might be a better option as an undergrad, then?

9

yeah :stuck_out_tongue:
maybe even if you don’t use exact research but just computational chem in general? XD

wish you luck though, I do suggest talking to your school guidance counselor if he’s experienced with this kind of stuff, though that’s rare unless you go to a science specialized school.

and ID that is a bit creepy lol thanks for warning me

10

I think I would go with NIH it is pretty impressive and you have spent 2-years with your last research endeavor I don’t think the professor will suddenly turn on you if you explain to him why you won’t be there during the summer.

11

@Pluvialis So what have you decided?

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@OneMata I’ve still got about a week to think about it. :F

Overall, I think the 8 weeks vs 2 years project may not matter as much, as I will be a senior by next year (only really important scifairs I can get in by college app deadline will be Siemens). In addition, since I will be getting published whether I go back to the UC lab or not, that evens it out a little more.

I am wondering, though, how much a leadership position for the UC lab would matter in the context of college apps. Responsibilities include instruction of the new students, organization of program activities, and the offering of guidance when they get stuck on their projects, while simultaneously working on mine for another 8 weeks. As far as leadership goes, so far I have presidency of a few clubs at school, but that’s about it. I’m worried I’ll come off as one-dimensional if I don’t have any other leadership activities, and that I’ll just sink into the sea of Asian applicants with research experience and not much else… thoughts?