<p>I’m thinking of turning down the summer programs I got into (MITES, Theoretical Computer Science at Princeton, and other similar ones) in favor of a two paid internships I received (one doing CS research at a state flagship, another programming for a 3 year old start up just beginning to boom). I know that neither internship will be a “making copies, fetching coffee” type deal and I’m really excited that I will get experience in both CS research and applied CS in a business setting, but I’m a bit nervous that these internships will seem less legit than the well known programs.
The catch for me is that I am committed to playing Certamen at the NJCL convention this summer, and it conflicts with both of the aforementioned programs, whereas the internships would allow me the flexibility to train for and compete at nationals. My prospective major(s) for college are Computer Science/Classics, so I would appreciate advice on whether this is the right decision. Should I go to one of the programs and sacrifice Certamen and Academic Tests, which I have been doing well in throughout high school to attend one of these awesome programs? Or is the internship/Latin nationals a good way to incorporate both of my passions into the summer?
(I will also be taking an AoPS course and continuing my volunteering if I choose against the summer programs.)
There’s very little time left to decide re NJCL due to the way spots are filling up, so quick responses would be awesome :)</p>
<p>tl;dr Should a CS/classics kid do CS internships and attend NJCL to compete in Advanced Certamen or attend a more prestigious CS program during the summer and give up Latin nationals for a year?</p>
