Hello, I am a novice here, so please guide me if this is not the correct forum to post this.
DD is a sophomore doing well in school, and is interested in Biotech/cancer research/Medicine when she grows up. She has an opportunity to spend next summer in a well-known institution’s cancer research lab, unpaid and not part of an internship/known program. Our local comprehensive cancer center, which isn’t as famous, has a program where they pay students, but we have to go through an application process, and the results might not come in time before we have to commit to the other place. Likely, in both places, she might come out with a presentation ( local in the local program, maybe national in the other well-known lab).
The other program will require staying out of state, she will also likely prepare for the SAT next summer
Our question: Is there any benefit of spending a summer in a well-known research lab( As parents, logistically we will make it happen ) vs staying local next summer? Thank you
I would go for the sure thing. These types of experiences build on each other and having this on her resume will be very beneficial for additional internships and experiences next year and in college.
Thank you. Yes, out-of-state is assured; in-state is not (likely to get, but there’s a risk of not getting accepted). No family to stay out of state, but parents will make it happen by taking leave/arranging work from home/AirB&B etc)
Given that the OOS opportunity is assured, the in-state is not, and you could be OOS with her and work from home…I would go with the OOS opportunity (but I would also let her be in the discussion and decision process). Congrats!
To me, the paid job would be more valuable, similar to scooping ice cream at baskin robins or picking up carys from the grocery store parking lot.
This is a summer job. The unpaid role is not a job and will cost you money for housing - it’s not why you’ll get into a specific college.
To me, if it benefits her to see a career, I think it’s great.
But otherwise, while it’s fine, I think a paid summer job of anything is as beneficial, if not moreso as it will pay.
Working for free and paying for an air bnb in hopes that your student will get into a selective school seems money wasted to me. Getting strong grades in rigorous classes, a strong test score and being involved overall is enough. The unpaid role won’t impact admission in my opinion more than any other activity. And duties / responsibility matter more than name.
It probably won’t have that much of a benefit for admissions to an “elite” college, when compared to any other summer activity.
HOWEVER. My kid did a summer internship at a well known neuroscience lab in the summer between her Junior and Senior years. It did not have any effect on her undergraduate admissions. However, it ultimately had a large positive impact on her ability to get an offer to her PhD program with her present PhD advisor, who was her #1 choice when applying to grad schools.
So, if this is what she wants to do wither her life, this internship will help her achieve her career goals, regardless of where she does her undergraduate degree.
If your daughter wants a career in medicine or research, it is important to remember that her goals are a career in research or medicine, NOT admissions to an “elite” college, or even a degree from an “elite” college.
It also seems that it is getting increasingly more difficult for college students to obtain good summer internships. It appears that those who have had previous internship experience have a leg up in obtaining them in college/earlier in college. Not sure if that’s true with the biological lab sciences, though.
My kids was in high contention for what would have been a prestigious summer internship as a high schooler that would have meant a similar adjustment – my relocating to the new location and working from there (not remotely, but my employer had a location there) and paying for summer lodging. It was something that we very seriously considered and that I was willing to do. It turned out that he was one of two final contenders and the position was offered to the other person who I believe was a college student, rather than a high schooler. But to us it seemed like a sacrifice worth making had it come through. But of course, that’s my bias showing and may be why I am responding as I am!
I have said for a while now that the way to get into a very good university that is the right fit for you, whether highly ranked or not, is to do what is right for you, and do it well.
To me the opportunity to do research over the summer while still in high school sounds like a great opportunity. To me it sounds very interesting. I would not worry about whether it is paid or not unless the family needs to “pay” to afford it, and it sounds like this is not needed in this case. How famous the institute is probably again does not matter. Whether the research opportunity is really going to happen does matter, which makes the assured opportunity more attractive in my opinion.
By the way, we have one daughter who is interested in biomedical research, but she did not get an opportunity to start this until she was in university. Some was paid, but not paid all that well and we did not worry about the income. The opportunity was the point, and it has turned out to have been very valuable (some of it was cancer research, some was not).
There is also the issue of what the students wants to do. This might be the most important issue.
Congratulations!
Yes, this sounds right to me. There are lots of schools that are very good for a bachelor’s degree in something related to biology and medicine and research. Finding the right PhD program is much more of a “looking for exactly the right needle in a haystack” sort of problem, and research experience is very important. This can start when a student is an undergraduate student, but starting earlier seems like a plus to me.
Thank you all for the replies. DD wants to go out of state; she thinks it will be a great experience, and is passionate about science. Although we will make it happen, it still requires us to go away for some time, costs us money, etc. So we are just trying to figure out the value. She spent the 2025 summer (between 9th and 10th) working and volunteering, is doing well in school, and hopefully will do well on standardized tests, and is participating in the extracurriculars she wants to do. Ultimately, she and we would like her to go to a good college. I guess that is one of the reasons we are on this site and the forum ( so the truth is we want to know how valuable this experience will be in the College application process vs doing something else). Thank you
She’s already off to a great start and there are hundreds of great colleges. Many of the PhD feeders aren’t the biggest names.
That you go to Kalamazoo instead of Bowdoin or South Carolina instead of N Carolina doesn’t necessarily change your overall outcome or direction.
And some of them are double the price and will likely have a worse ROI.
You needn’t do much pressure. That she has been and will continue to be involved is what matters more than the what. But hopefully she’s involved at school too and not just summers.
That she comes from a good family and is a go getter will impact her life far more than any school name.
The value of research will be in the experience and what she learns. She will learn not only whatever she is working on, but also how to operate/behave/co-exist in a lab setting with adults.
As others have said there may be benefit in getting future internships and the like. Do not do this thinking it will necessarily help her in admissions. I don’t know the proportion of applicants who have research experience in high school, but it’s not uncommon. At the more selective schools, research is not necessarily anything that will set an applicant apart on its own. IME the only research that is notable and can be relatively important in the admission decisions are students who have won competitions like ISEF, Regeneron (probably a few hundred students) and/or who made a meaningful enough contribution to result in a publication (rare).
There are hundreds of ‘good’ colleges. Encourage your D to look for schools that will be a good fit, across the factors that matter to her. A low admission rate is a sign of popularity, not necessarily fit.
She doesn’t need to do research in HS or attend a selective college in order to do this type of work down the road. It’s great if she enjoys it, but it needs to be because she wants to, and not because it may set her apart and help her get into a selective school (sorry to be repetitive). My daughter interviewed for a specific scholarship at Pitt (great school, but not one of the highly rejective) and she met many, many students who did research..and published…in HS. While many do not do it, it is also not uncommon.
The lab doesn’t matter. Whether it is famous or not doesn’t matter. What matters is the experience, what she takes away from it, the transferable skills she learns, relationships, etc. This type of work may help her decide if she really likes it.
A part time job is also an outstanding EC for the reasons noted above.
One of my kids did a lot of research in college. When she interviewed for grad school this research rarely came up - despite it being relevant to her degree. What DID come up all the time was her teaching (TFA), where she gained all kinds of transferable skills.
This is very similar to having a part time job in HS.
If this is what she wants to do and you can afford it, go for it. I’d say the same if she wanted to spend the summer canoeing. Don’t do it for college admissions, which are pretty good at seeing through opportunities available because of money.
With that said, your D can get a lot out of this (or any) experience, and it’s up to her to do that. Skills, knowledge, insight, connections, etc.
Shift supervisor at a pizza store, helping your local food pantry computerize their ad hoc donation system, teaching residents of a nursing home how to Zoom with their grandchildren– these are all valuable ways of showing initiative, leadership, etc.
Summer research is great- and so are all the other ways a kid can spend the summer. If your kid wants to do it- fantastic. It won’t move the needle necessarily for admissions, but it will be a good learning experience (or not- my neighbor’s kid who worked in a prestigious summer research lab wrote an essay on “why you don’t wear Birkenstocks in the lab” which he claimed was the only thing he learned all summer).
In many labs, first time “research assistants” are doing things like caring for animals, making sure the lab is clean, restocking supplies, etc.
Before you spend money on an out of state experience that requires renting housing and is not paid, I’d check to see what your student will likely be doing as a first time employee in a lab.
So true! Her first position required her to be in a lab for hours at a time, sometimes by herself. She learned a lot about various types of equipment and did a lot of cleaning and setting up. I remember her speaking a lot about the shoes she was required to wear.
She did have a paid position in a research hospital, where she still had a lot of learning to do about the equipment, and where she still put in long hours to clean up. She often worked 12 hour shifts- the hospital had a shuttle bus from her apartment that accommodated the crazy hours. This lab position did result in a published paper, but it was not her first position..which was really about learning….and cleaning.
She also learned that there is science research that does not require spending all day in a lab.
@newparent2025 just be aware of what your daughter will be doing as a HS student. It might not be what she expects..or maybe it is.
I am reluctant to recommend that a young student live away from home if it requires one or more parent relocating temporarily to support the activity. And it costs the family money.
It won’t help with college admissions and won’t help a potential future med school admission. It may or may not give her a real taste of what research is like. Research is boring, repetitive and painstakingly meticulous. Science is incremental with each success is built on many failures,
D1 had a research position in high school at the local med school. (But she was old enough to drive herself to her work site and she was able to live at home.) Her job wasn’t glamorous. She cleaned a lot of animal cages, guillotined A LOT of rats, learned to carefully shave rat bellies and give injections to rats to infect them with diseases, learned how to safely handle infectious materials (materials containing live herpes, hepatitis, Epstein-Barr and other viruses)… and discovered she really didn’t like biomedical research much.
I’m not convinced that having prior research lab experience will even help her get a research lab position in college. D1 went on to do research in completely different field in college (medium energy particle physics) where her prior research experience had zero relevance so she didn’t even mention it to the PI when he asked her to work in his lab.
D2, who didn’t do research in high school, but who is a very goal-directed individual, found a research lab position she wanted and convinced the PI to hire her. (it wasn’t all that hard.) She learned what she needed to know on the job and one year later she was training both undergrads and new grad students on how to use the lab’s specialized equipment and software packages.
