<p>I am a freshen mechanical engineering student. I am trying to figure out what to do with myself this summer. I want to get an internship but it's hard to find any that take freshmen. Ive looked online and through my school and havent come up with much. A research position at my school would be cool, but i dont really know how to go about finding one. There isn't exactly anything in my region I live either. I guess I could take some online classes or classes at the local community college. I just don't want to have a wasted summer, working the same minimum wage fast food job I work every summer...</p>
<p>So, what should I do with my summer? Should I try to get an internship? If so, how could I find one? Should I try to get a research job? How would I do that? Should I take some classes? Should I just work fast food? Any advice would be appreciated</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d try to do the following in this order. If you can’t do 1, then try to do 2, and so on.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Internship. It’s important to get experience. I understand that it’s hard to get one as a Freshman, but just apply to places. Put on your resume any mechanical engineering experience you’ve had, even if it’s just in the class room. Try to put down projects.</p></li>
<li><p>Research position. If there’s no word on companies, this might be a good option to get experience to build your resume. You can e-mail your professors and see if they’re interested in having you.</p></li>
<li><p>Summer classes. If possible, do both your research position AND summer classes together at your university. If you can’t get a research position, try to take as many summer classes as possible to stay ahead.</p></li>
<li><p>Fast Food, self-study, possible home project. While you’re working fast food, study ahead of time for classes you’re going to take. If not intensely, just read over the material so you have a feel for it. Maybe try to build something.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I agree with the above post. If you cannot do #1 or #2…find a low-cost community college where your home school will accept transfer credits and knock out some of those social science or arts/humanities general education courses.</p>
<p>Ok thanks for the advice. And I understand that I should enjoy my summer (and trust me I will) I just want to maybe gain some skills and get stuff to add to my resume.</p>
<p>I think skbryan is spot on. It’s really hard to find summer internships or research positions after freshman year, but some people do luck out. If you do, that’s awesome! If not, I highly, highly recommend getting some classes out of the way. I took Diff Eq and a science lab the summer after my freshman year, and having even those two classes out of the way really made a big difference in terms of having a challenging course load rather than a crushing course load, and just generally having more flexibility with my schedule. I was also able to work a little while I was taking classes (tutoring), which I hadn’t anticipated, but worked out nicely.</p>
<p>Generally, prospective employers won’t be too concerned with what you did freshman year summer. If you have a meaningful internship, that might be of interest, but if you couldn’t find anything, that’s probably not a huge concern.</p>
<p>Ok thanks! It would be nice if I could get an internship, I’ve had my share of fast food lol. but I guess if I can’t get one I might just take classes at my home community college, the credits transfer and it would be cheaper than taking summer classes at my university.</p>