@jemk15, my daughter’s approach was similar to @OHMomof2, though she initially started searching for options through some help at her school’s career center. The career center also helped her to get started on a resume and personal statements. My involvement was helping her to consider locations, dates relative to her school schedule, housing included or not, need for a car (she still doesn’t even have a license), etc. She applied for three last year, but felt they were all reaches because she only had one semester of grades on her transcript and a thin resume at application time. No offers.
This year she was initially going to apply to seven, then added two more that she found out about when her department head sent out notices that the application for certain programs, that she hadn’t found on her own, were open. The REUs do seem to be targeting the graduate school bound undergraduate students. She got rejected by her first choice, accepted by her second choice, and won’t know about the rest because once she accepted the offer over the weekend, she wrote to withdraw her applications to the others.
@OHMomof2 is right, there is no centralized or standardized application process. Asking for a lot if different recommendations is an issue. One place that she was going to apply had so many essay requirements and was such a reach that my daughter decided that the effort to likely outcome ratio was so poor that she didn’t do that one.
@jmek15 also, the NSF website has lists by subject for students to search for REUs. And my daughter found some good internship resource lists on college websites other than her own.
Sources to find ones to consider include @NorthernMom61 's NSF site and the college career center itself, also the major department web site often has links, and when following links you can often follow those on to more. Straight up googling works too - “Biochemistry REU” or “statistics summer research undergrad” - that sort of thing.
Paid summer research programs also go by different acronyms - REU, SURF, SURP, SRE, RIPS, MSRP etc. Not all get their funding from the federal government.
Much like the college search/app process, I found some programs for her to look at, she took it from there.
My daughter’s math major boyfriend did note that there is a centralized application for some math REUs and he got his offer way back in early January about 3 days after submitting through one of those.
There are a handful. Here is another: http://www.theleadershipalliance.org/programs/summer-research - this has only one app for 20+ programs, which is nice. But notifications span 3 months and most places won’t wait for all decisions to come in before they expect yours.
Nice to see all the updated plans for summer and beyond and thanks for the REU advice!
DS has applied to probably 30 or more internship positions with only a couple phone interviews and no success. He is not an expressive person to put it mildly so I hope the phone interviews are at least helping him get a little more comfortable talking to people. I have encouraged him to use career services more but he is resisting. We do have a plan B involving his degree-related EC and a summer class but I know he is a bit disheartened by the internship search results.
@STEMFamily, sorry to hear that your son has had such a discouraging internship search. I don’t wonder that he is feeling frustrated. I am not even sure what to suggest. The career centers do seem to be a good place to start if you can convince him to take advantage of it.
D has become a regular at the career center. She resisted help of any kind all through HS but I pushed her to get it in college and she is now very comfortable asking for help.
They help edit resumes, cover letters, coach interview skills, all kinds of things.
One more vote to go to the career center. This is why they exist and you pay for it. They touched up my daughter’s resume. As others mentioned, they will do mock interviews and also provide a lot of good practical advice about things like making the most of the career fair, writing thank you notes, dressing for different occasions, etc. A lot of the advice is common sense, but can be reassuring to our younger students who are doing this for the first time. Also, a lot of the advice can be found online.
I say this often on CC, but career fairs are effective. These companies company to your school because they want to hire your students. It’s no guarantee, but just the experience of talking to representatives of different companies is useful. If there is a career fair next fall, encourage your son to give it a try. It is also much easier to get an internship after junior year. Quite a few companies my daughter spoke to suggested she return the following year since they don’t hire sophomores. Good luck to him!
Agree, the sophomore versus junior status seems to be a big deal, my three engineering nephews had this experience, nothing sophomore year, better luck junior year. It’s frustrating though.
HI Everybody! It’s nice to visit back here two years after the acceptances/decisions for colleges were taking place, and hear how your kids are doing. Congrats to everyone for surviving the transition! I have a DD2017 so I am here at CC reading that list a lot right now. Anyway, DD2015 at Bama is doing well with biology major, pre-med; working on an Arabic “minor” which the school has not officially created yet, but is expected. Has found opportunities to volunteer and shadow in medical settings; has a 1 credit research position that started this semester and should continue next year, about viruses; has made some nice friends, and grown up a lot. This summer, going to Jordan for 8 weeks to continue to study Arabic and participate in an internship. She is interested in global health. I am thankful she still tells me a lot of what she is doing, and comes to me for input. Agree with the career center being helpful to DD. The semester will be over in the blink of an eye! Good luck to all your kids.
Great news all around with your kids! Congrats to you and them. It is great to see thriving kids. DS had an internship last year and another one lined up this summer. He is very engaged in school and has made good friends. What more a parent wants, right? Let’s KIT and good luck for upcoming activities!
Well, sophomore year is officially over! Daughter is out of the dorm, her stuff is in a storage unit for the summer, and it’s on to a few weeks break before her summer research. Am I the only one who feels like the terms seem to be gaining speed? All in all, it was a great year for her. Best wishes as all of your kids finish up their school years.
We picked D up last weekend. She has been working at her job from last year for a few days. She is trying to get the paperwork sent in for her pharmacy intern license so she can start logging hours.
This summer we have two drivers, so they have been taking turns with the extra car.
