For Princeton students, it’s not premature to start thinking about summer. If anything, this post may be a little behind for some of those proactive students. Rest assured though, you are not behind if you have not started the search for summer internships (even though many students will say they’ve already applied). Opportunities are aplenty, and no, you are not behind if you didn’t start applying for research internships back in the womb.
This guide is in no way meant to overemphasize the importance of an internship. Sometimes, a little summer of rest and a nice part-time job at a local coffee shop is exactly what the doctor ordered. However, if you do want to start taking steps towards securing an internship, this guide can help. With that mindset, here are a few tips. As usual, I believe in a person crafting their own path or method when it comes to doing anything, so these tips will support that journey rather than give you a step-by-step procedure.
- Have a scouring session. Dive on the internet. Keep track of anything and everything that remotely grabs your attention. Worry about the logistics of an internship on the top of the Eiffel Tower later; just grab it and put it on your list. Have a crazy, messy (or organized and color-coded) document of every internship that makes your brain crackle with the slightest interest. This document is not only useful for this season of internship searches. It will be useful for future ‘you’. Make sure this document includes links as well as names because referring to the homepage of an internship opportunity is the most important think you can do. This list does not have to be only Princeton opportunities. Go big (look for opportunities at international universities), or go home (look for opportunities at your local state school).
- Now that you have a list, start narrowing down. Having the big document and then narrowing it down really helps you realize what you’re looking for in an internship. It’s like having a conversation with yourself without actually trying to have a conversation with yourself. You organically start realizing that maybe you’d rather focus on domestic opportunities rather than international ones, or maybe you prefer research that is focused on chemistry rather than biology.
- Write down deadlines and write down recommendation letter requirements. Both of those go hand in hand. Making sure you give your recommenders enough time to write you a letter is crucial, and knowing which opportunities require one can help you prioritize certain applications
- Put the opportunities you want most at the forefront of your process (while also keeping in mind deadlines). While you should hopefully want every opportunity you apply to, we are also human, and you’ll naturally gravitate towards one opportunity more so than the others. All this will be kept note of in the working document of internships. You just keep editing that document.
- Don’t get your hopes up on any one internship. Whatever comes to you, whether nothing or everything, is exactly what is meant for you. It’s a hard pill to swallow sometimes, but don’t get hung up on one possibility. There are so many opportunities everywhere, you are bound to find your place. Don’t let one loss distract you from the rest.
— Haya Elamir, Natural Sciences Correspondent
