Rant about "research" and "internships"
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Anonymous
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I keep hearing about HS kids doing "research" and getting "internships" to get into top colleges. What does this actually mean? Besides securing a spot through connections, I find it hard to grasp how a high schooler could provide value to a professor etc who is doing meaningful work. My friend's child "interned" this past summer, but all he did was clean the space. How is it that these kids are becoming coauthors on research papers? Especially since many, many STEM subjects are math-heavy, difficult to grasp, and require an insane amount of background knowledge?! Even if the kid is intelligent enough to understand the basic subject material, isn't it a liability for them to handle expensive materials/equipment?
The title was sort of clickbait. I'm genuinely curious. |
Anonymous
| AOs aren't dumb. They know these things are no more meaningful than typical teen jobs. |
Anonymous
It means the bolder above. |
Anonymous
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I was actually curious about this as well, as publishing in journals is listed highly in one of the lists on this thread:
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1213376.page I work in a field where people publish and I would laugh if a high schooler published something. It just doesn’t seem like a serious thing to me. |
Anonymous
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It's not a thing.
There are some universities that have established programs to give these opportunities to high school students, but those are structured, competitive, and clearly established program. There are also high schools that have connections with certain places for internships (MCPS + NIH or UMD, for example). It really is not a thing that a kid can send an email to a prof, get hired, get their name included on papers (which take YEARS to get published...they'd have to get their name on it in 8th grade to make it to publication in time for college applications) and get into college this way. Couple of reasons: - there are so many college students competing for these things - grants don't work like this; you can't just use a random high schooler for research or work - liability - no one unaffiliated with a university is going to get hired for a student worker job many of which are federal work study or open to certain types of enrolled students If someone has a dad there and just tags along and helps clean lab equipment and gets SSL hours or writes about the experience and enriching conversation, maybe. Maybe. But it's not a job. And if someone tells you it is they are either in one of these programs or they are embellishing a glorified take your kid to work day. |
Anonymous
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For all the shortcomings of DCPS, they do have some unique programs...one of which is that kids are nearly guaranteed summer internships if they are part of certain DCPS programs.
I know many have interned at NIH and Children's Hospital through a DCPS program, and then there are other kids securing internships at Accenture and lots of other companies that participate through other DCPS programs. None of these come through family connections and DC subsidizes payment. Some of the internships are nothing, but I am told the NIH internships are reasonably interesting and it's usually kids who plan on premed majors. |
Anonymous
| A kid in my neighborhood did summer research with a college professor in Maryland after her mom paid the professor $$$$. The kid did well, published a paper, and won an award at the prestigious ISEF. Now she is in a Top 10 university. I bet AOs know the authenticity of these "EC/Research/Internships", but they don't care. It's common practice these days and people share information and resources like this all the time, even on DCUM. |
Anonymous
| My child did a paid research internship with a university professor this summer as a rising senior. His teacher nominated him. He had to apply, along with the other 11 students in his cohort. He had to go through HR like a regular employee, including a background check and training. He worked on an existing research project (data science) and described the experience as stressful because he had to learn a new programming language and read several academic journals during a short period of time. He presented his part of the research project to the department and will participate in a poster presentation this semester. |
Anonymous
| I work at a stem company. We have a junior who did an comp science internship this summer. Paid. He was tasked with finding and fixing a bunch of things in the code. He did a great job and will come back next year. Its not research but he dod come up with some ideas to improve a few things. We advertised the internship and interviewed but he knew about it as hes is son of one of the developers friends. |
Anonymous
A lot of this is just myth. You hear about the one or two phenoms, but it's not commonplace. |
Anonymous
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Two ways:
1 teen pays a significant amount of money to be listed with principal investigator 2 high school offers program where teen can apply and be matched to help with research |
Anonymous
yes, my rising senior did a tech internship through DCPS this summer. It was an incredibly well-run, interesting experience (and actually helped her decide that she doesn't want to pursue a major in tech). It was paid through DC government funds. Other internships that are legit are: -Federal government. My kid applied to about 40 of these and received one in a large federal agency downtown. She ended up turning it down for the DCPS opportunity. -Some universities have legit, highly competitive programs for both interns and researchers. |
Anonymous
3 teen applies to Federal government "student" internships. There are many of these across almost all agencies. Some take high schoolers. You have to apply about 9 months in advance of the summer start date. |
Anonymous
which company? |
Anonymous
My kid got one of these and I was shocked as I personally (at age 49) have never received a call-back for a federal job. She applied, was interviewed, got a job offer, a background check, a federal ID, etc. She managed to navigate the federal hiring system at age 17. 
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