<p>Is it accepted or frowned-upon to talk with different mentors about different projects at the same time and/or turn down a SURF project after talking with the mentor for a while?</p>
<p>I ask because a) there are multiple things I am interested in and b) there's no way to know which ones I'll get the chance to do. Internships should be more like college apps, find out from everywhere on a specific date and get the chance to think about them all. I don't like this "you have a week to accept our offer" deal that I'm seeing everywhere.</p>
<p>Anyways... thanks for your future help!
314seasons</p>
<p>Internships can't really be like college apps because usually there are a pretty specific number of spots to be filled. Colleges just accept a certain number of people assuming that there will be some yield that they have guessed--there are a certain number of controls, like using early action and waitlist, but the number is never exact. It's inconvenient for a company to give you extended periods of time to consider, unless they really, really want you.</p>
<p>As for SURFs, it's usually fine as long as you do all of this relatively early. I tended to try to have my SURF plans finalized by the middle of January.</p>
<p>314seasons, I'm also wondering about the same questions as you. I've heard before that when you apply to summer research programs, you should probably apply to more than one in case you don't get accepted, so I'm wondering if it's ok to apply to SURF if it's not my top choice.</p>
<p>I've had this dilemma in the past. Once you've had significant discussion with your professor, it might be a bit rude to pull out. After all, you only get to submit one application, so having multiple interests doesn't work as an excuse here. Applicants need to finalize plans well in advance of the proposal due date.</p>
<p>However, if you're still early in the search process, it's totally fine to tell them that you're still in search mode, or that you're not ready to commit to it and you just want to learn more about it.</p>
<p>Usually programs will say you have X many days to decide, but if you tell them you're waiting on another offer and should hear back very soon, they'll be understanding. They know there's probably other students that want to put off deciding on other fellowships to hear about the status of their SURF application, so I think there's a bit of unwritten courtesy between various programs.</p>
<p>Also, if you really want to find out if you stand a chance at getting another internship/fellowship after already being awarded one, don't be afraid of calling and asking how strong of a contender you are. They might have already gone through most of the pile and flagged you as a No but are just waiting to complete all of the applications before sending out rejections/acceptances.</p>