What do you do with your summers?

merman2983 · 05-09-2007, 08:58 PM

I'm just wondering what a typical engineering path looks like. I know most people don't get internships immediately after their freshman year, so I'm taking a few classes this summer both to catch up and get ahead. What do you guys do with your other 2-3 summers? Intern for the same company, or at different ones? ALSO, I want to go to grad school. How much research should I put in? Is a co-op thus unnecessary if I'm going to get my masters? Thanks

_dc · 05-09-2007, 09:45 PM

Hi merman2983,

One of the great things about being an engineer is there are LOTS of summer opportunities. These opportunities vary between schools and majors, and it can be very hard to choose. I would ask your adviser and any upperclassmen within your major.

Tiberius · 05-10-2007, 12:24 AM

party with da b!tches

auscguy · 05-10-2007, 12:32 AM

I am taking a class and doing research at my school

Zorz · 05-10-2007, 12:35 AM

I need to work, if I don't work I don't live, I'm not spoiled, nobody gives me ****.

RETHEEM · 05-10-2007, 11:51 AM

well....for ur sophomore yr,do research at ur school or REU.For ur junior,do an internship.For me,am a sophomore.This summer,i will be doing an REU...diffusion in polymers and nanocomposite membranes.

lkf725 · 05-10-2007, 01:08 PM

Engineering internships pay pretty well; you could probably make $8-10K over the summer. Many students get these after sophomore year.

RETHEEM · 05-10-2007, 02:21 PM

My advice is,start with research,then go to internships,it will give u great skills across the board

merman2983 · 05-12-2007, 10:13 PM

thanks for all the responses.. retheem, would I have to do research all summer, or could I do it for half and an internship the other half? I'm just wondering because I know some research opportunities are more limited in duration.
although I am somewhat familiar with internships, I have no idea what people involved in undergraduate research do. to me, it seems strange that sophomores possess the training to be on the forefront of discovery. then again, I have no idea what they do.

GatorEng23 · 05-12-2007, 10:27 PM

Doing a research/internship during one summer probably isn't possible. Most internships are for 10 weeks in summer, which doesn't give you any time to do a full-scale research project.

live- · 05-12-2007, 11:40 PM

Like Gator said I don't think anyone does research for half the summer and an internship for the other half. Maybe work at a place like MIT Lincoln Lab, though. That would be an internship that would probably be research-oriented.

Anyway, after my freshman year, I had a couple "internship" offers but they were going to be a lot of ***** work (for lack of a better term) so I turned them down; I'll be back working as a manager at the country club I've worked at for the past 3 years.

And in my free time, I'll read books on whatever interests me. You can seriously become as knowledgeable as any (insert non-quantitative subject here) major with nothing more than a library card (free). Even things like business or finance you can learn on your own pretty easily (hell, it's become standard for kids to self-study for AP Economics exams), and that's a subject where there is just tons and tons of interesting books available.

I'll also see tons of live music, party my ass off and enjoy my last "free" summer (pretty much in my entire life until I retire, which is a bit frightening when you think about it).

To those that have done REUs: How difficult was it getting accepted into one? I've heard they can get pretty competitive...

ecnerwalc3321 · 05-13-2007, 04:08 PM

Reu's are fairly competitive. I am a current sophomore (entering junior) and applied to 6 REUs at various places in material science and chemistry fields and got turned down in all six (even my home state). I am definitely above average (GPA-wise) and therefore asked for a reason why I was rejected. The answers that I got for most of the programs were: 1. either the program was under-funded this year (the reason my home state university gave) and therefore reserved spots for seniority. 2. The program tends to give acceptances to students who come from schools with less research opportunities (therefore when you look at past participants, you see they mostly come from no-name universities, for a lack of a better term, or 3. Seniority matters. Most of the REU's are geared towards recruiting rising seniors who are considering applying to graduate schools later that year. Schools want the participants to come to their school for grad school. When schools say that they accept qualified sophomores and freshmen, they mean exceptionally well qualified sophomores and freshmen (unless their applicant pool sucks that year). hope this helps.

kwtortoise · 05-14-2007, 08:31 AM

Around my school lots of people are opting to stay summers, like me. This has ensured I will graduate in 4 years. I haven't heard of any internships that really interested me, or else I would have done that. I've already done a couple research projects, NASA Space Grant, etc. REUs are hard to find around here as we're not a big research University.