Reply to Rant about "research" and "internships"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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.

[/quote]

Regarding the competitive remark - these programs may be competitive in terms of selectivity, but apparently not in terns of required follow-through.

DC was part of a cohort at a major research university this past year (research dollars in the Top 5 across the country, for perspective), probably got a leg up due to their mother's spidery connections throughout the ivory tower, but was appalled at the low level of commitment demonstrated by others in their cohort. At a poster presentation late in the program, it was clear that DC wasn't just complaining to be a complainer. One poster looked grad student (maybe post-doc) quality, and the rest looked like they were developed by feral cats.[/quote]

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