should i intern, work, or volunteer abroad over the summer?

<p>Hey,</p>

<p>I have decent grades and test scores. My extracurriculars however are far from spectacular. i am applying to several top tier colleges in the fall.</p>

<p>I would like to do something meaningful and worthwhile over the summer. My interests are medicine, environmental stewardship, and journalism. I have a couple of options that I really need help deciding between. Thanks for your time!=)</p>

<p>Option 1: So I just got accepted to a Mecklenburn Biological Field Station Internship at SUNY Oneonta where I would probably help with research at Lake Otsego monitoring water quality, managing fisheries, conducting biological control studies and surveys. (I copied this all from the website, I have no idea where Oneonta or Lake Otsego is, I live on the west coast).</p>

<p>They will pay me $1500 for 9 weeks of work, but they won't provide housing/food/transportation, and I have no idea where this place is or who else might be going.</p>

<p>Option 2: I got a job at a local tutoring facility (dealing with paperwork, not actually tutoring) which is literally a five minute drive away from my home. I would be in a very academic environment, probably working 20-30 hours per week for minimum wage ($8ish/hour). But I'd have time to hang out with friends, work on college essays, and do SAT prep. Plus my employers said I could help the math tutors after I'd been working for a while.</p>

<p>Option 3: Spend a couple thousand dollars on airfare to travel abroad to the Indian subcontinent and volunteer at a hospital where I have a couple of doctor relatives. They will help me arrange job shadows and volunteer work so its kind of like an internship abroad i guess but without any actual title or program to go with it. it's definitely what i'm interested in (medicine) and it would be great to go to a third-world country and just help out. but i probably won't be there for more than two to three weeks and it would be my first time ever traveling alone by plane, and internationally too.</p>

<p>If I do option 2 or 3, I can attend journalism camp for three days and a local aerospace camp for a week in addition to the option. doing option 1 means giving up everything. do you think it could be worth it?</p>

<p>thanks again for your time!</p>

<p>I think that #1 would give you the best opportunity to learn about a field that interests you, and to practice living in a college environment without having your family around. Your experience doing research also could help you with medicine and with environmental journalism. </p>

<p>It sounds like a fabulous opportunity. I'm sure they also would help you find housing. </p>

<p>To help make up your mind, contact them and ask them to connect you with others who've done the internship. Also ask them about where you'd find housing. Also talk to the researchers. </p>

<p>Google to find out more info about the location and the scientists whom you'll work with. </p>

<p>You can do your college essays and SAT prep like most people do -- in the fall. Your summer experience also would make a nice essay. </p>

<p>I'd rank option 3 next because it would give you a chance to go abroad, to learn more about your family and culture and to learn more about medicine. </p>

<p>It's also good that you'd have time to go to journalism camp and an aerospace camp.</p>

<p>I think that option 3 would not be as good as the others because it wouldn't give you as much of a chance to explore some new things.</p>

<p>Go with #1</p>

<h1>1 sounds the most "impressive" to me, but these all sound like solid options for how to spend a summer. If you truly have no preference, go with option #1, but if you find yourself leaning one way or another, do that instead. Holding a job would give you some valuable experiences and going to India sounds amazing. You can't go wrong.</h1>

<p>thank you all for your responses. they are very helpful! i actually just heard back from the program and they told me that meals "are your own responsibilty" and i need to contact the college itself to find housing.</p>

<p>haha so if it all works out, i will definitely go!</p>

<p>^what will you do during the weekends, or even after work? you won't know anyone and will have nowhere to go without a car. and you're only one of two accepted (i got rejected and i asked them how many got in, haha).</p>

<p>can you really be alone by yourself all summer in the middle of nowhere?</p>

<p>^Those are good points. There's nobody planning activities, meals, or transportation for you, and trust me, you can't walk very far in Oneonta (well, you CAN, but it'll take you hours and it's uphill every way. We're also called "The City of The Hills" with reason). Unless something extraordinary happened, you'd probably be holed up in wherever you can find to stay. </p>

<p>(And my estimated guess was right)</p>