I know it’s a little late to just create this. But is anyone else applying this year? Has anyone gotten any offers yet? How many PI’s have you emailed?
I’m thinking of applying but how much lab experience are you supposed to have already had? Do some people get in without previous experience?
From what I hear most high school students who get in don’t have high school experience. But I’ve had some lab experience, through the research I conducted this summer at a local university. I think they just want to see that you are dedicated to science. Whether that be through actual lab work experience or just science related EC’s
I still haven’t recieved any response from 7 Principal Investigators I emailed. This is so frustrating, because I took hours constructing each email. ~X(
I’ve only heard from one of about ten that I’ve emailed (and that one person said that they weren’t taking any interns at all). I’m just going to keep sending out emails. I have research experience, I’ve taken advanced classes, and I’ve done science ECs, so it might just be that they don’t really want high schoolers if they can have graduate students. Let me know if you hear anything!
@WCEdmonds What type of research do you want to do? I’m really trying to do diabetes related research.
bump :-"
@Tobster18
Heard back from a PI a few days ago, and I have a phone interview scheduled for Feb. I’ll email a couple more, but I’m hopeful…
Anyway, I’m looking for labs researching molecular gerontology (esp. in sirtuins), neuro-related topics (neurodegenerative diseases, mostly), and a couple other fields.
I’ve emailed about ten.
@WCEdmonds I just got two responses. One said he is already full. The other said he doesn’t decide but his staff does and he is forwarding my email to them. So let’s hope I get it. [-O< So far I’ve emailed like 30 PI’s, the first 10 were really detailed and specific then I just started putting the same thing for all the other ones. I’m probably going to expand into other fields, maybe cancer, or neuro.
@Tobster18 Well, it’s great that you’re at least under consideration at a lab! What stats are you applying with (are you providing PSAT/SAT? I didn’t.) and what grade are you in? (I’m assuming high school given your previous reply on this thread).
@WCEdmonds I put my GPA, science-related EC’s (discussed about how I created the science olympiad team and how I was an International Semi-Finalist for the HOSA Pathophysiology event), and I’m in a magnet program for health sciences. I didn’t put my SAT, because its not really impressive. I also attached my research paper that I completed this past summer. Oh and I’m junior in high school.
I’m also applying and I was just wondering, “Are you guys just email PIs from the NIH website or are you guys looking at the past SIPs list of the mentors?”
Also, how fast did you guys get a response? Like how many days after you sent the email did you get a reply?
@csunshine91 I did both. I looked at the past two years of SIPs list of mentors and looked through the NIH website. I sent like 20 generic emails today and got 3 responses. Two rejections and one maybe. The more detailed emails I sent out last week I still haven’t received any responses from.
Maybe I should send out generic emails tomorrow. This specific emails are taking a lot of time for no results.
@csunshine91 Yeah, I was taking a lot of time reading their research paper, and crafting really detailed emails, but no one responded. So I just started spamming a bunch of generic emails. So I would recommend at least trying to get like 5-10 specific emails done. Then just start spamming if you don’t get results.
I live in CA… Will high school interns live with each other somewhere off-campus???.. because my parents will not me live by myself for 8 weeks in Maryland.
@Calipg I live in Cali too!!! They don’t think they provide housing so everyone has to find their own places to live. It really sucks too because literally no one is going to let 16-17 year olds live in apartments.
LOL same thing about the parents. My parents said they are going to live with me… 
If somehow I pass my interview and get a spot, I’m renting an AirBnB house in Research Triangle Park (where my potential internship is) with my stipend. :))
I just sent out 50 emails to potential PIs. Thats what you call spamming!
Ive only planned to send emails to 3 PI’s is that bad X_X