Research: with a professor or at a summer program?

MWolf
Fri, 17 Feb 2023 06:39:24 +0000

The real point of any research-related EC is not the prestige, nor acceptance rate. Doing a research internship or being at a “prestigious” research-related summer program is really no different than any other summer activity which demonstrates interest as well as demonstrating that the student does stuff

What may make more of an impression is what is accomplished. A student who produces a an article which is accepted for publication in a good peer-reviewed scientific journal will get a lot of attention, no matter what it is about, or the prestige of the university of the students faculty mentor, while merely attending a prestigious program with a low acceptance rate will likely not.

DegreeDreamer2023:

I was also wondering if the university prestige matters for these professors’ research projects (i.e., is doing research with a Penn professor more valuable than an Eastern Michigan professor) like it does with the prestige of the summer programs?

Not at all, because the prestige of the university really says absolutely nothing about the student.

DegreeDreamer2023:

My friend got a NASA internship through nepotism, and he got into CMU ED for aero. His NASA internship was his #1 EC, so I’m not sure if they automatically assume it’s nepo, especially with so many kids cold emailing profs and with a LOR from them.

It’s safe to assume that AOs know that internships such as this are often obtained through family connections. So it’s unlikely that the fact of the internship itself wasn’t any more impressive than an internship with an aerospace engineering professor at a good university.

So to attract serious attention with such an EC a student has to have serious accomplishments.

That being said, most applicants to programs like AE at CMU don’t have serious accomplishments of that sort and aren’t accepted because of great things that they did during an internship.

The internship is not for the college AOs. The internship is for your brother. Your friend didn’t have his family members help him get an internship at NASA because it would help him in college admissions, but because a NASA internship is something that any kid interested in AE would love doing.

I don’t know how old your brother is, but he has only so many summers during high school, and he should use them to do stuff that he is interested in. Whatever he prefers to do is what he should do. Of course, he has to first be accepted to one of these programs, so for now, it’s all theoretical.