Hi there! I am a sophomore at Duke and applying for summer internships. I have done good amount of research in the past, including Duke, but haven’t been paid nor worked for a company. When I look around, most of my friends are applying for jobs and working in companies. I have only been doing voluntary research and not paid. So, I was wondering what would be valued most for graduate admissions or when I apply for jobs in future? : 1) Paid research internships or whether even voluntary research with a good recommendation letter from the lab is equally valued? 2) Jobs in companies are more valued? 3) GPA is most valued and if so, should I be taking more summer classes to pull my GPA up? I would greatly appreciate your advice. Thank you.
For graduate admissions, academic research is more important. For industry related jobs, working in a real company is more important. Check out the Duke Career services people. They can offer a lot of good advice. I’ve worked with them in the past and they are a good group of folks.
Thank you very much Gopal. Are you Duke Alumni? Very nice to know you… , you have been supportive many times.
Yes I’m an alum. I’ve also worked with the career services people a lot. They are very good at helping with questions like this. Feel free to drop in or call, I’m sure they’d be happy to help. We also have an extensive alumni network who can help answer questions like this. Ask them to get you into the alumni directory. You’ll be able to find alumni in the job/company that you’re interested in.
Awesome! Thank you for your kindness. Yes, I got the link to the alumni directory and am in the process of requesting if any of the alumni may be kind enough to help provide a chance to work during summer in their companies. Also, if you come across any openings in your company or any other ones you may know of in the area of BME, would you please kindly let me know. Thanks a lot again!
Actually I work for a large Fortune 500 company. We hire lots of engineering students for summer internships. Please contact me offline via PM and I can send you the details. I don’t work in BME, but I know how to get your resume to the hiring managers. I’m in the Duke Alumni directory as well, its fairly easy to find me.