<p>I'm trying to decide whether I should do a summer internship somewhere else in the country (Maryland, etc) or stay in my current lab over the summer.</p>
<p>Is there anything tangible/useful to be gained from this?</p>
<p>I would be excited about getting to see a new place, but not sure if this helps much in terms of research experience.</p>
<p>If you have the choice to stay in a lab over the summer, I'd recommend that over doing a summer internship somewhere else -- you can't do much over the course of one summer, but staying in a lab you've already been working in means you can contribute more deeply to a project you've already begun.</p>
<p>I think it depends-- what year are you in school? I worked in new places over the summer my freshman and sophomore year so that I could get exposed to new things/people/places. Depending on where you go to school, it may be boring to hang around for the whole summer. I already knew that I would have to spend my junior year summer working in a lab at my school, and I didn't really want to do that more than once. </p>
<p>The useful things are working in different labs to try to find out what sort of lab you like being in (small, big, postdoc heavy, lots/little PI involvement, etc). I thought that it was interesting to see the different ways that labs were run. Also, working with different PIs gives you more people to ask for rec letters, and just more people to know in your future career, which could be helpful. And if you work on something unrelated to what you are doing now, then you get exposed to new science/techniques so that you can figure out what you are interested in.</p>
<p>That being said, I think that you need 1, preferably 2, serious research experiences, meaning longer than just a summers worth of work.</p>
<p>I normally realize that when I disagree with Mollie about these matters, I am wrong. However, as somebody who worked all three summers in the same lab that I worked during the year, I would highly recommend taking advantage of the opportunities for summer research elsewhere. I say this because 1)you can make connections at a place that you might end up doing grad school, whereas if you stay in your undergrad institution for the summer, the connections won't be ones that you could end up doing your thesis with. 2)This would break up the monotony of being in the same lab and working on the same projects. 3)It might expose you to areas of research not available at your undergrad institution. 4)Would you really turn your nose up at paid travel and a summer in a cool spot (does U of Hawaii have summer research programs?)</p>
<p>Even third-year graduate students are wrong sometimes. :)</p>
<p>I should perhaps clarify a bit -- I actually did the NIH internship program the summer after my freshman year, and I loved it, and I very strongly considered returning for the summer after my sophomore year. I come down more on ec1234's side, where I think it makes sense to do summer internships in science early, but to bloom where you're planted and make a more long-term commitment to a term-time lab later.</p>
<p>If you think you can get a pub by staying in your current lab, I would consider that. Otherwise I am a fan of going away. As others mentioned it is a good way to figure out what you want in a future lab (e.g. young vs old PI, big vs small lab, etc). It is also a good way to make connections with faculty at a potential graduate school, and a group of students that will eventually attend graduate school all over the country. I wish I would have been able to do summer programs at all schools I interviewed at, because doing this gives you a very good view of what the school is really like.</p>
<p>I would suggest that you go to a school over NIH for a summer program (did both).</p>
<p>I wish I had known about this forum sooner...</p>
<p>I chose to go to Genentech for a summer internship in Process R&D the summer after my junior year (this past summer). My reasoning was that I had never had biotech industry experience, and the opportunity was too good for me to ignore. Also, I wanted to make some connections and TALK to more people in biotech, especially to get more of an idea on what the industry is like in the San Diego area, which I heard is very good for biotech. I stayed for the minimum 10 weeks, then hurried back to my lab at school for the remaining month of my summer break. However, I was also switching between projects in my lab at school, so I didn't feel as torn from my research as one might otherwise. In retrospect, I think my resume is stronger with the summer internship, and it opened my eyes about the opportunities out there... although it really depends on weighing the pros and cons of your particular situation.</p>
<p>"what the industry is like in the San Diego area, which I heard is very good for biotech"</p>
<p>well that's quite the understatement. San Diego is one of the international hubs for biotech, of which there are maybe three or four.</p>
<p>I gathered it was something like that... What are the other three or four?</p>
<p>Hi! I'm a junior at Georgetown. I'm looking for internships for the upcoming summer. I'm looking to apply for the NIH summer program. Do you have any extra suggestions on the application process? Did you contact any researchers at the NIH after you submitted your application?</p>
<p>other than san diego: boston and the san francisco bay area</p>
<p>
[quote]
Did you contact any researchers at the NIH after you submitted your application?
[/quote]
Yes, and this is effectively a requirement -- all of the applications go into a big pool, so a given lab chief is not likely to see your application at all unless you contact him/her and he looks up your application after the contact.</p>
<p>You should write a short cover email explaining why you're interested in that particular laboratory, and include a PDF copy of your CV. I contacted about ten labs, although you don't need to contact that many unless there are that many with whom you're really interested in working.</p>
<p>The biotech hubs are located in Southern California, Boston and Research Triangle. There are other blips on the radar including Philadelphia, New York, Seattle but for the most part these three places are heads and shoulders above anywhere else in the number and size of biotechs. This is moot but I wanted to point out that 11% of the workforce in the city of Madison is employed by biotech. Just a fun fact.</p>