<p>In the summer of 2012, I'm going to need a summer science research internship for my science research class. I was wondering, what are some good ways to get positions in labs. I want to request internships at universities like Columbia, Stony Brook, and anything else in new York city or Long Island. How do I go about doing it? Sadly, I don't have any family connections at labs...=(</p>
<p>How are you doing academically? Perhaps consider joining an established summer camp that will provide you with a research experience. The legit programs cover almost all the costs, but are highly selective. </p>
<p>Or, you can try coming up with a project that can be completed outside of a lab—Yes, that is highly possible, and even more fun because of the greater autonomy, IMO.</p>
<p>Or, try emailing individual professors at different universities to see if there’s an opening position. You can go to the Student Job website of different universities to see if you can find a lab that’s looking for research assistant. Those are definitely in need of more people doing work. Offer to work for free, in exchange for the mentorship.</p>
<p>This past summer I did an internship at Rockefeller University in NYC. Rockefeller University is a highly distinguished research institution. I think they may have the highest concentration of nobel laureates or something like that, they have quite a few.</p>
<p>They have a great summer program specially designed for high school students that lasts 7 weeks. You work in the lab all day conducting your own research project under a mentor. This research is very meaningful and not just some side project. My mentor for instance will continue my research and will hopefully end up publishing a paper on it with me as a coauthor. At the end you create a poster to present your research to everyone. In addition, you participate in a couple weekly classes with fellow students and they have social get together for the high school interns. They also offer need based stipends if you need it.</p>
<p>I loved it and wouldn’t mind answering more questions you have about the program. Just google Rockefeller University Science Outreach Program and you will find more information too. Good luck in your search!</p>
<p>@ ender94… I was wondering, did you actually come up with the idea of the research topic and created the whole experiment from your own head, or did you just help out your mentor with her idea and her research and then present that. Dw be honest, I’m not saying ur fake or anything like that, I’m just curious as to how the system works with research work when you do an internship. Do you come up with an idea thats entirely your own, or do you do whatever your mentor is doing, and then present that?</p>
<p>When I applied I ranked their departments (they were fairly broad departments since they only have six for all their research). They then assigned me to a lab after I was accepted. I worked under a graduate student (others worked under many levels of people including lab heads but that lab was much smaller, ie under 5 lab members) who assigned me the project. To give you an idea, my mentor was looking at the genetic cause of something. He assigned me a family and my job was to try finding what mutation in the family caused the condition. He explained to me how to do the tests necessary and since my project could only really be designed one way, I just followed the usual design for genetic testing.</p>
<p>Looking at my original post I see how this could have been confusing. By “own research project” I meant that you are not doing the pippetting or washing beakers for someone else who designs everything. The research is able to stand on its own but falls under what the mentor is studying. Also, since I did not completely finish my project, my mentor will finish it and then publish a paper on it with me as a coauthor. That said, I made enough progress to probably write my own paper talking about how far I came.</p>
<p>Most internships are like this I think where the research is assigned. To be honest, I would have no idea what to research on my own. I know some programs allow you to research whatever you like though (RSI and Clark are two I can think of).</p>