<p>I've been invited to conduct research at the National Institutes of Health as well as with a professor at MIT. I'd be paid in either setting. The NIH research opportunity is a formal internship, whereas I wouldn't be entering any specific program at MIT--I'd just be working under a professor.</p>
<p>Which should I choose? I'd love either opportunity, but I don't know which would be more beneficial in admissions.</p>
<p>Also, I've already completed one summer at NIH. I don't know how this would affect anything, but I thought I'd throw it in.</p>
<p>For admissions purposes, I would go with whichever one is more likely to lead to a publication in a scientific journal with you as a co-author. That would be a nice thing to put on an application. </p>
<p>Also, I'd be looking for the one where you get to do the more hands-on experiments in the lab rather than just washing glassware for the grad students and post-docs.</p>
<p>It depends more on the research you would be conducting at each institution. Perhaps one field interests you more than the other? Maybe you might consider majoring in one of them? Also, I agree with the above threads; you should go with the one that will lead to a possible publication, or at least, gives you more hands-on experience. A lab I volunteered at only allowed me to do DNA work the whole summer, and rarely allowed me to actually participate in their work (which was Diabetes I). So pick the one you would get more "action" in.</p>
<p>You said, "Also, I've already completed one summer at NIH." Did you like your work at NIH? Were you allowed to actively participate in the research or were you stuck with washing flasks/refilling buffers? If you liked your last place, is it possible for you to continue research in the same lab under the same PI on the same project? That way, your path to getting a publication seems more likely, since one summer is rarely enough to learn the basic skills needed to do the research and get some publishable results at the same time.</p>
<p>Frankly, I'd be more impressed with a candidate who stuck around the same lab (of coure, if he/she liked its people and his/her research project). But it is just me, college adcoms might think differently.</p>