summer research @ stanford...should I go?

superwomant
Sat, 07 Feb 2009 18:19:04 +0000

I’m trying not to be annoying for posting on different boards…but I really need some help here.
So…I have an opportunity to go to stanford for summer research in engineering. I was really excited in the beginning, but now I’m seriously considering if I should go.
I won’t go into detail but the general situation is, I’m in 2nd year in Canada, I don’t get paid by the prof, if I go, I’ll probably stay for 4 months, I really like my project but I’m seriously thinking not specialize in that area, so I’m worried about wasting time. and honestly, I think this opporunity is too good to be true, I don’t know how it happened, but it somehow did…so now I start thinking…according to the rule of gruaduate school admission, admission w/o financial stripend = polite rejection, I’m thinking if the prof actually meant a polite rejection since I’m not getting paid, but somehow I just didn’t get it. and besides I really have no idea if Stanford is good for the particular rresearch area I’ll be in, because as much as the real academia community is concerned, prestige in a specfic reserach area doesn’t usually associate with good school name.
and also my parents don’t want me to go, they think it’s too unecessary and cost too much money. I’m trying to apply for scholarships, but my GPA really isn’t that impressive, if I don’t end up getting anything, then it’ll be really really expensive. Also someone used to tell me how sucky the quality of stanford undergrad is because her dad went there. I was also thinking about taking summer courses while I was there working towards my 2nd major in humanities, now I’m just don’t sure if it’s really a good idea.
On the other hand, I secretly want to go to Stanford just because it’s in California, beach, parties, sports, greek life and all that, I just want to check out the social scene. But I’m not sure there’ll be any stanford students left on campus during summer.
I talked with some profs and they really think it’s a good idea to go, but obviously they probably just don’t want to discourage me and try to keep me interested in research. I couldn’t really discuss this with my friends because I’m sort of an underdog, no one would expect I could get something like this, so I don’t want to be pretentious and tell the whole world. also, in general lots of them aren’t that into research so they probably don’t know anyways.
In general, I have the typical syntrom of "If I get something, then it must not be good, because I don’t deserve anything good. " So, basically I doubt if this whole thing is over-rated because otherwise why would I out of all those people get it? Will this be a good investment for 4months? is it over-rated or is this an opportunity I shouldn’t miss even if I end up having to be a lab rat and spend 10k?