<p>Hi, I'm currently a second-year chemical engineering major right now in my fall quarter. Deadlines for things to do over the summer are coming up and I'm undecided on everything. I'm currently working in a research lab with a professor on a subject (biofuels) I really like and will hopefully work on that for the next three years, so I got the research experience down.</p>
<p>Now, what do you think is the best thing I can do this summer:
1) Do research at my school and get paid for it during the summer.
I think this would be a cool experience but not one unknown to me.</p>
<p>2) Do an REU at another university.
This sounds very cool but I'm kind of scared about adjusting to another climate and I'm not sure if many other schools have research on biofuels.</p>
<p>3) Do an internship.
This sounds cool but I have no idea where to start and how I'm going to get there since I have no car.</p>
<p>4) Have a fun summer job+relax a bit.
This sounds like the laziest option but it appeals to me most. I kind of want to have an easy job over the summer such as being an orientation leader, tour guide, or work the front desk at the student center, and then hang out at the beach all day. I mean, my course load over the school year is tough because I do chemical engineering work along with doing biology courses, as well as having three jobs over the school year, so a lax summer might be good for me.</p>
<p>Anyways, what are your inputs? :D What option is most useful? Which one have y'all experienced and recommend most?</p>
<p>Don’t do nothing. Get experience relevant to your degree somehow. It may not be as fun now but the payoff will come when you are looking for a full time job. You’ll have more options, better companies, better money, etc. You just gotta go hard for 3.5 years man.</p>
<p>Do an internship if you can. It will help you decide what sort of industry you would be interested in pursuing (or not pursuing) and help decide industry versus graduate school. The nice money is a plus, too.</p>
<p>In college, at least according to the juniors and seniors, experience is really the only thing that matters after freshman year as long as you have at least a 3.0 GPA. </p>
<p>Employers like to see resumes filled with internships and co-ops where the applicants actually did stuff instead of fetching coffee.</p>
<p>Our S was able to have a research job after 2nd year at a U where they allowed him to take a month off to go on a student trip to Taiwan. After JR year, he worked at NASA, who allowed him 3 weeks off to travel with classmates. S didn’t have a car when working for NASA but carpooled with others who did. Don’t use no car as an excuse–start looking and ask your profs and career counsrling about engineering internships. </p>
<p>When he applied for jobs, recruiters said one of the reasons they considered him a top applicant was those 2 summers in engineering ( more than the two school years he did research and the journal articles he helped write). He was happy to combine fun with work. He turned down one internship which wouldn’t allow him to take time off in the middle of it to travel. We were amazed his two summer positions were fine with him taking a break, as long as he did all his work and put in the right # of weeks and hours. </p>
<p>He was a very desirable candidate and had 3 written engineering job offers by Feb SD year!</p>
<p>DS did REU last summer in another state after sophomore year. Just landed an internship for this coming summer. Building a great resume for hiring when he graduates.</p>