Do colleges care about high school research internship?

Applying to College
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My son is in junior year of high school.
I notice that many of his friends are planning for some kind of research internship during summer. Do the highly selective colleges expect the student to do an internship in summer? Does it matter whether it is research internship or any summer job?

3.89 GPA, 1580 SAT, AP classes in Math, Science, History, Member of school orchestra team, leadership positions in a couple of clubs, region and state-level awards in Science olympiad, and Music.

Planning for Biology or Chemistry major with pre-med courses.

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Planning and getting are two different things ; )

Actually meaningful research internships are few and far between for HS students and I don’t think are expected at all. There are some pay to play type internships but they don’t move the needle for college admission.

IMO, a regular summer job goes a longer way in developing life skills.

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High level music opportunities during the summer are very highly regarded. They are not considered pay to play and if your child would enjoy that may be worth more than an internship that is being done just for an application.

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Thank you.
I agree, meaningful research internships are very few. Honestly, I feel that high school students are not yet academically ready for research.

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There was a thread several months ago about research “pay to play.” In the comments someone linked “I think” U Penn and an article extolling the accomplishments of some of their applicants/accepted students with substantial research experience. So, though I agree high school students are mostly not academically ready for research… as part of their resume universities may overlook that fact.

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Link to original article.

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I agree that families hoping a research internship will somehow set their kid apart or otherwise be an “impressive” credential are often disappointed.

On the other hand, I think sometimes the discussion might swing too far the other way. I think internships can sometimes be good ways for kids to explore interests, including possibly career interests, understanding they should be open-minded to learning they do NOT want to do something. I think sometimes they can be good learning experiences that will translate to classes. I think sometimes they can generate possible material for essays, or perhaps a recommendation (although again I think some families overestimate that sometimes). And so on.

My point is just that I think if your kid is really interested in an internship for the experience, and not as some sort of impressive achievement, then that is a very realistic goal. And that is one of many reasonable ways to spend some time in a summer.

But not at all required, just an option if their interests naturally lead that way.

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I note I think the full statement by the Penn’s Dean Soule is worth considering:

She did tout that nearly one-third (so like 30%?) engaged in research, but that means over two-thirds (70%?) did not.

And then she touted a lot more. Over 80% did some sort of community service. There was an increase in interest in sustainability and environmental studies. Almost 40% worked paying jobs, and many took on other significant home responsibilities.

As she said at the end, “These anecdotes represent just a small snapshot of the incredible individuals that have been admitted to the Class of 2026.”

So it was interesting to me that in various circles, it seemed to be just the research part that stood out to some people, even though it wasn’t as high a percentage as things like community service or just a normal paying job. I guess the community service thing is already known, but I wonder how many people do it just in a check-boxy way. And then at least in some circles, it seems like almost no one is talking about paying jobs being a good activity, even though Dean Soule featured them just as much as research.

Anyway, we all read into these sorts of statements what we want, but I personally just saw this as a pretty boilerplate statement that goes along with pretty much all the statements I have seen from AOs, which are very inclusive in terms of what can count as a good activity without suggesting anything in particular is required.

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Just to point out that some high schools incorporate research into their HS classes so “engaged in research” doesn’t necessarily translate to summer internship.

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Mostly agree with this, but would like to add some nuance. The majority of accepted STEM students at the level of Harvard and MIT don’t seem to have any well-known research internship. So it’s absolutely possible to get accepted without it.

That said, attending a well-known research program can help, in some cases substantially, but these tend to be highly competitive.

The research internship that has the most impact is RSI, but it’s quite frankly much easier for a STEM student to get into MIT or Harvard than to get into RSI. For a student that gets into RSI, getting into a majority of HYPSM colleges is likely. RSI happens to be free.

There are a number of STEM programs that are slightly less competitive but still well-respected by college admissions staff. Examples includes BU Rise, Simons Summer Research Program, Simons Garcia, NIH Research. Some, like BU Rise, are expensive. Others are free or even pay the student a small stipend. My observation is that students who attend these are routinely accepted into top-20 colleges, and quite often top-10 colleges.

There are a large number of programs that are at a lower level but still known, and may help round a student’s EC list. Examples include Michigan’s Math and Science Scholars, Michigan State’s HSHSP, and UC’s COSMOS. These are all pay-to-play and a family has to decide if it’s worthwhile.

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Expect? No.

But research (other than a pay to play program) is valued highly. OTOH I haven’t personally seen anyone with an internship get a boost.

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Thank you! This is super helpful

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Yes, and again a little context is helpful I think. Here is the full paragraph:

Nearly one-third of the admitted students engaged in academic research during their time in high school, many earning national and international accolades for research that is already pushing the boundaries of academic discovery. Admitted students worked alongside leading faculty and researchers in their fields of interest, co-authored publications included in leading journals, and displayed their ingenuity in making connections across complex and varied disciplines. Our faculty and fellow students across Penn’s schools and research centers are ready to welcome this latest generation of dynamic scholars who will continue to create new knowledge to benefit the world.

So if about 30% engage in research, but only “many” were “pushing the boundaries of academic discovery,” I think it is pretty clear the percentage actually doing meaningful research was way lower than 30%.

But I don’t want to make it sound like I think Dean Soule is being deceptive or cynical about this. I actually think she is basically promoting Penn in the sense described at the end–she knows that lots of kids these days are interested in research DURING college, and she is trying to tell kids like that Penn will be a great place to pursue such interests, which I am sure is true.

In that sense, I actually think this is really like the paragraph on sustainability and environmental studies, which basically has the exact same logical structure:

We saw an uptick in interests in sustainability and environmental studies among applicants this year, who channeled their passion into tangible action. We read about students who organized efforts to adopt more sustainable practices and policies, both at a local and national level. Students worked at the cutting-edge of sustainability and energy research and pursued and advocated for environmental equity to address one of the most challenging issues of our time. We look forward to the contributions these young scholars will make to Penn’s ongoing efforts to prioritize sustainability efforts and to promote environmentally conscious policies.

She knows that this is a hot area for a lot of kids, and she wants to communicate to such kids that Penn is a good place for them, which I am also sure is true.

Equally interesting to me is what is missing, which is a whole bunch of Whartony stuff. I think the explanation for that is obvious too–Penn doesn’t need to market Whartony stuff! But Dean Soule wants people to know Penn is also great for people into research, and green stuff, and public service stuff, and so on.

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THIS.

Nearly one-third of the admitted students engaged in academic research during their time in high school, many earning national and international accolades for research that is already pushing the boundaries of academic discovery. Admitted students worked alongside leading faculty and researchers in their fields of interest, co-authored publications included in leading journals, and displayed their ingenuity in making connections across complex and varied disciplines. Our faculty and fellow students across Penn’s schools and research centers are ready to welcome this latest generation of dynamic scholars who will continue to create new knowledge to benefit the world.

Future applicants will see this, and given how difficult it is to get accepted, will feel pressure to have a published paper, or impactful research. Therein lies the opportunity for “pay to research” programs. Is Penn or Harvard or (insert IVY league) going to really drill down on the research project per se? They do not have time. And, given that less weight is ascribed to standardized test scores students will be looking for the newest way to distinguish themselves. I am sure every single applicant to U Penn had substantial community service accolades on their resumes…

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My daughter was part of a research team (NOT pay to play) at a T5 university when she was a senior in high school. It was truly an excellent experience for her - she learned a ton (although she mainly did the dirty work of data scrubbing and analysis and such, not anything super sexy), she worked with a tippy top researcher in his field who became a mentor to her, worked with super sharp med and grad students who were also on the team, made a contribution to and got her name on a peer-reviewed publication in a respected academic journal, and finally was able to co-present the research at a national conference (with all her expenses paid by the PI). It was an all around fantastic experience for her.

Did it move the needle on admissions? Probably not in any significant way. By way of reference, she was waitlisted at Santa Clara - a fine university, but far from the selectivity of a T20 or something like that, and she wasn’t accepted. She did get a great acceptance at our state flagship, but I highly doubt the research was a major factor in that (she had a bunch of other ECs that I think were actually more helpful, including lots of community service, leadership, and volunteering and such).

However, as a freshman at state flagship she applied to a very competitive undergraduate research group and was accepted. Very few other freshman were. I do think having this research experience was a factor in her selection for that. So I guess it can be useful to have that experience, but maybe not in the immediately expected way.

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Our country is turning out an entire generation of gifted story-tellers, fiction writers, and spinmasters.

I know kids IRL who learned a TON during their internships in a research lab.

1- Don’t wear Birkenstocks or open toed shoes if you are around chemicals or heavy equipment.
2- Don’t eat a sandwich over an open petri dish.
3- If you don’t play online poker or similar at the beginning of your internship, you will once you are done.

I exaggerate of course- but honestly, you hear the kids in real time talk about what they did all day, and then you see the transformation into a college essay and all you can think of is “Cue the Pulitzer committee for creative fiction-writing”. Kids whose job it was to maintain the spreadsheets and do data entry; kids “in charge” of the supply/procurement forms; kids who were patiently taught by a grad student “this is statistical noise, this is a meaningful result” turn themselves into Jonas Salk or Galileo by the time they’ve pumped up their experiences.

Honestly, it takes a LOT for someone to be valuable on a research team. More stats than the typical HS student has taken. More sophisticated programming skills than the typical HS student. It’s not just heating up a bunsen burner and watching it glow. Documenting and analyzing results takes some actual knowledge!

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D22 found the expereince useful also, but I doubt it moved the needle in her college application. She did the research program thru UCSB, which is aimed at 1st time high school researchers. It was a good intro to college level research (there was a classroom component along with the research–I think it gave credit for “intro to STEM research” or something like that).

D22 had spent the summers before that doing CTY, but aged out of the system for that last summer. Research seemed like the thing all the CTY kids did next, so she was kind of following the herd. She applied to SSP and FermiLab and a couple other hard to get programs. I think the UCSB program is a fairly easy admit. So we weren’t thinking it was going to be a gold star on the app.

Instead, we were using the summer program to do a little reality testing: (1) to see if she liked research and the subject matter (i.e., would she want to do more of this in college, did she want to go into academia or industry), and (2) to see what it was like to balance college work and sports (i.e., did she want to be a NCAA athlete and a computer science major). On the weekends of the research program she travelled to compete nationally in her sport. As a result, she probably didn’t get us much academically out of the program as she would have if she was there all weekend, but she determined she could handle sport and school and confirmed she still liked computer science. And that was very useful info going into application season.

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Growing up near Duke, my brother and sister each got grunt-work jobs in labs (i think maybe literally by going door to door – it was the early 80s!) during high school. My brother was traumatized by his job, which required (I won’t get into details) animal research. But I think the thing that they also gained from those experiences was the ability to hustle and self-source (and get themselves to work, etc.) It was a different time…

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It’s the same thing today - it’s just done through email. That’s how my D got pretty much all of her internships during high school. She cold contacted people until she found someone willing to take her on. It’s electronic hustle, but it’s still hustle.

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According to my child’s admission file, the submitted research paper was sent to a faculty member for review. I suspect that’s only done if there is serious interest in admitting the student.

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