Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Internship to professor for high schooler?

I’m a junior in high school and does anyone have information on professors in college and universities who offer internships or something like that for research and/or assisting them? I would like to intern for something related to science(chemistry, physics,etc) I live close to UC Berkeley.

While this is a great way to stand out for colleges, it’s also very difficult to accomplish - summer internship programs for college undergrads are very competitive, and getting an internship otherwise is also hard to do - college professors would much rather take on grad students than undergrads, because they have more time and more knowledge of the subject - they require less training. It’s hard enough for an undergrad to get an internship, let alone a high school student with no background in the field. You’d be competing against much more qualified people. The people who manage to get these positions either have connections or applied for programs specifically for high school students. Here are a few you could look into.

http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/before/summer_programs/
http://education.gsfc.nasa.gov/pages/placement.html
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Education/Students/Research/sharp.html

2 Responses to “Internship to professor for high schooler?”

eri Says:

While this is a great way to stand out for colleges, it’s also very difficult to accomplish - summer internship programs for college undergrads are very competitive, and getting an internship otherwise is also hard to do - college professors would much rather take on grad students than undergrads, because they have more time and more knowledge of the subject - they require less training. It’s hard enough for an undergrad to get an internship, let alone a high school student with no background in the field. You’d be competing against much more qualified people. The people who manage to get these positions either have connections or applied for programs specifically for high school students. Here are a few you could look into.

http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/before/summer_programs/
http://education.gsfc.nasa.gov/pages/placement.html
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Education/Students/Research/sharp.html
References :

AMF Says:

I’m a UC Berkeley graduate student, and I am not aware of any University-sponsored programs like this. As the previous poster said, professors want graduate students to assist their research and rarely even take on undergraduate students — nevermind high school students.

However, Lawrence Labs up the hill has a summer program specifically for high school students (you must apply your junior year). The application is open right now. Here is the description:

"LIPS is a seven-week internship which provides high school juniors with the opportunity to work with world class scientists or engineers on projects related to the Laboratory’s research programs. Assignments cover a wide range of laboratory tasks and assistance in basic research."

Link: http://www.lbl.gov/Education/CSEE/Programs/BLIPS/index.html
References :

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