Internship or Research at school

chrisw
Mon, 22 Feb 2016 18:13:31 +0000

If there is no hard deadline on the offer for research for your professor, then wait it out to see if something better comes along; once you accept something, you should drop out of consideration for all other opportunities. A question for you is whether the research needs to be done in person and during regular hours - I did research in political science during my rising senior summer but it was all electronic, so I did that while also waiting tables full time.

Regarding your resume, a more pressing question is why you want to go to grad school. If you plan to get into government work, are you looking to grad school just so that you will be able to start out at a higher pay band? If so, there’s nothing wrong with that, but if you are looking to grad school so you can get a foot in the door with the federal government, you may be wise to explore options straight out of undergrad - you may find ways to ease the financial burden of graduate school by looking for entry level jobs out of college. A friend of mine is doing work for the government and is now getting a master’s degree, paid by the government!