Hi guys,
I am really interested in medicine and have been my entire life! I really want to find a prestigious summer premed program and/or research internship/research program that I can do for next summer. I will be 15 by next summer so can any of you please help me out and tell me of any of these types of programs that I can apply to for next summer. I would really appreciate your help.
Thanks!
If you live in the Palo Alto area, SIMR is a great place to look into! Really competitive though, but if you start early you’ll have a good chance.
Hi, I live in Los Altos actually so Stanford is very close for me. The only thing is that they only offer engineering summer camps and stuff for people that are younger than 16. SIMR’s minimum age requirement is 16 years old. Have any other ideas for me? I’m willing to travel. @NicolasCageAf
How much are you willing to pay? There are some amazing (but pricey) programs in Massachusetts that you might want to look into such as the Boston Leadership Institute and taking classes at Harvard.
Well I want to do a BSMD program, and I am looking into doing the UCI summer premed program or the UCSB Research Mentorship program. Are those good? I know its not all about prestige, but I hear that plays a big role on applications as well. These programs are well reputed.
I haven’t heard of either (but I haven’t actively looked at premed programs ever, nevermind ones on the other side of the country, but a quick google search makes me feel as if they both are good things to do, especially the UCSB one.
However, I’m not super knowledgeable here.
It’s hard to find programs for rising juniors (which I assume you will be next summer, since you’ll be 15 and not 16). You can always try COSMOS, however–they have some great medicine clusters (that can be quite competitive: one of the UCSD ones had a 3% acceptance rate this year).
I’m actually about to be a freshman in high school. I will be 15 in February, so I will be eligible for some summer programs. I feel like COSMOS is overdone, and I would really like to do something that would stand out. Have any other ideas for me? @topaz1116
DOes anyone have any other advice???
My daughter, a rising junior, is currently enrolled in the High School and Pre-medical Student Stanford Summer Internship, a four week program at Stanford School of Medicine.
Well, it’s especially hard to find medical things for rising sophomores, and COSMOS is relatively cheap (and offers excellent financial aid, I’ve heard). I’ve never heard a bad thing about it (a lot of people I know are going through withdrawal right now, actually). There are more things one can do if they aren’t interested in exclusively medical activities, but finding one that looks good on an application is a lot more difficult. Ones that aren’t selective aren’t necessarily the best. I mean, you can always volunteer at a hospital, but still.
A program you can look into for the summer before junior year (by which time you’ll be 16) is NIH. SIMR is only for rising seniors and rising college freshmen, I believe, so you’d have to wait for that. There are plenty of other programs for rising seniors, though.
One last thing you could try is to find people who work on medical research and bombard them with emails about working in their lab for the summer; one is bound to respond.
Research is set for me actually. I am starting next summer at the Stanford labs with a project in genetics for the Siemens competition so research is going to be all set. The only program in this COUNTRY that will allow a 15 year old to conduct research is the UCSB Research mentorship program. Anyone have any thoughts on this? @topaz1116 @uppereastsider
There’s actually another–look into UCSC SIP. It may be a far commute for you, but they have residential options (albeit expensive ones lol).
Also, the UCSC one is almost 10k residential (and it’ll probably go over once you factor in travel and other extra money you might spend), which is crazy for a six-week program. In my opinion, even YSP (which is a super-selective (aka everyone from my school who’s gone there has ended up at an Ivy) one at UC Davis for rising seniors that costs 6k for six weeks) is pushing it with its price.
What are your thoughts on COSMOS? @topaz1116
I didn’t go this year (I had another program that was free, so, well, I chose that one; it’s not medicine though), but I have many friends who did, and every single one of them said it was the best experience of their lives. It’s a very good program that looks pretty great on college apps, since it’s actually selective. Some clusters (particularly those in biomed) are very, very selective though. SD had the most selective cluster this year, but Davis is pretty competitive as well. All of them have a decent bio selection except maybe Santa Cruz (which has two marine bio clusters, if you’re into that kind of thing). Honestly, I think it’s an awesome program, but it’s not easy to get into by any means. Make sure you get great teacher recs and write good essays, because I hear that they base a lot of their selection off of them (good grades don’t hurt, though; I mean, they aren’t going to accept someone with a 3.0 GPA and/or no advanced classes if available). Sometimes, I kind of wish I had gone this year, since everyone seems to have had such a great time.
But to the kinds of colleges I want to get into, BSMD programs, they don’t really want programs as much as they want research programs and such. So do you think the UCI Premed Program and the UCSB Research Mentorship program would look rly great on my application as well? @topaz1116
For those kinds of things, it’s not so much the program as the research you do. In my opinion, doing COSMOS will not hurt you in the least. UCSB doesn’t actually seem quite competitive, because frankly, who has the money for that when there are far less expensive research programs as well (UCI is quite expensive for two weeks as well)? However, if you complete meaningful research, it would certainly be to your benefit. Note that nobody expects a rising sophomore to do research; hell, nobody expects a rising senior to do research. If they want you to do research, they mean for it to be when you’re more experienced.
One thing to note is that colleges don’t really think that unselective (is that a word?) programs where you pay a lot are good, because all they show is that your family has a lot of money.
Look into UCSC for perhaps the summer after sophomore year (because I highly, highly doubt they accept rising sophomores; the program is meant for rising seniors).
Actually I already talked to the director and they will definitely let rising sophomores in based on their application. And you can compete with the research done there. That’s big! atleast compared to the hundreds of other research programs out there in this country. They say its super competitive and I just want to get in beceause it will also make my application even more competitive for a couple of Stanford Summer research program/internships I want to get into. as well as NIH. What do you think? @topaz1116