DoE/SULI Acceptances: Applying & Expectations

[Dishsoap]

Hey guys, one of the professors for an REU I applied for asked me for my Skype name so he could "talk to me". I'm a bundle of nerves right now since he's calling tonight (and I don't know when!). What kind of questions should I anticipate?

 

[Niflheim]

I'd just prepare for the usual questions and be sure to make sure you don't have to repeat yourself to often. I know when I was interviewed for a high school I would answer the next question before he asked it and it made me look like an idiot repeating myself.

 

[Dishsoap]

Too late, I already made a fool out of myself. No need stressing out about it anymore, though.

 

[QuantumCurt]

I'm sure you didn't make as much of a fool out of yourself as you think.

What was your project at Fermilab?

 

[Dishsoap]

I worked as a collaborator on Darkside-50, a dark matter detector which is actually in Italy. We analyzed a bunch of their data and purified argon-40 to be used in the detector. My particular project was looking for the double-electron capture of Argon-36 in the piles of data from Darkside, in hopes of finding evidence of the process being neutrinoless which would mean that neutrinos annihilate each other. That's the TLDR version. Not the most exciting, but I loved being at Fermilab, it was the best.

 

[QuantumCurt]

That sounds exciting to me. :)

I can't wait to find out what project I get assigned to.

 

[Dishsoap]

That sounds exciting to me. :)

I can't wait to find out what project I get assigned to.

It might be awhile! I didn't find out my mentor information until April 16, and from then on you can talk to your mentor and find out what your project will be. Be patient :)

 

[QuantumCurt]

It took that long? Then I guess I'm in store for a bit of a wait. That's okay though. I know that I'll be there this summer either way. The experience is going to be amazing regardless of the project.

It'd be a lot easier to be patient if UIUC would hurry up and give me an admissions decision. It could show up any day now. Hopefully soon.

 

[Dishsoap]

Quick question - I heard back from an REU today, and the deadline to accept or decline is next Wednesday. I just KNOW that as soon as I accept the offer I'll hear back from SULI, so I'd like to wait as long as possible. THe supervisor I'd be working with at the REU emailed me personally as well. Is it best to wait to respond until maybe next Tuesday, or should I respond and tell her I am waiting for more offers?

 

[QuantumCurt]

Personally, I would respond and tell her that you'd like a little bit of time to consider your options so you can be sure that you're making the right choice. They understand that a students personal interests may fall more in line with another internship offer, and that's okay. Be sure to point out that you're honored by the offer. The deadline is Wednesday, so I don't see it being an issue. This is part of the reason for the deadlines in the first place.

You probably already mentioned it, but which labs did you apply to for SULI?

 

[Vanadium 50]

I would add to Quantum Curt's suggestion that you also say you will respond by the deadline.

 

[QuantumCurt]

Yes, that should definitely be mentioned as well.

 

[Dishsoap]

Personally, I would respond and tell her that you'd like a little bit of time to consider your options so you can be sure that you're making the right choice. They understand that a students personal interests may fall more in line with another internship offer, and that's okay. Be sure to point out that you're honored by the offer. The deadline is Wednesday, so I don't see it being an issue. This is part of the reason for the deadlines in the first place.

You probably already mentioned it, but which labs did you apply to for SULI?

Good plan. I'll do that. For what it's worth, I applied to Pacific Northwest Nat'l Lab and Lawrence Berkeley.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I don't think you will get another SULI offer. Oak Ridge has, for a long time, tried to go to a model where things are more spread out and you don't have a few people with many offers. When you have a few people with many offers, decisions are made more slowly, and some positions go unfilled by the time the deadline comes around.

 

[Dishsoap]

I had an interview for my top choice a few days ago and they said it would take them about 2 weeks to make a decision, but I received an offer from my second choice and I need to let them know by Wednesday. Is it rude to ask the first place about the status of my application?

 

[Vanadium 50]

This is SULI? If so, I would not count on the 1st choice even being able to make you an offer once you have one.

 

[Dishsoap]

No, both are REUs

 

[Lumineux]

Yeah I got my project and advisor! It's honestly very different from what I thought I would be working on, but I'm really excited. I heard back from UM a month ago and didn't get in(not a big surprise).
Did you accept your PPPL offer Hshc? If so, I'd like to hear about your project!(Maybe send me a PM?)

 

[QuantumCurt]

Awesome! Hopefully I get my project and adviser soon.

In the email they sent with my offer, there was a note at the bottom with the name and email address of my DOE host laboratory point of contact. Was your assigned adviser the same person as the point of contact listed in the email that had your offer?

What type of project will you be working on?

 

[Dishsoap]

Awesome! Hopefully I get my project and adviser soon.

In the email they sent with my offer, there was a note at the bottom with the name and email address of my DOE host laboratory point of contact. Was your assigned adviser the same person as the point of contact listed in the email that had your offer?

What type of project will you be working on?

That is the internship coordinator. Your adviser/mentor you will probably hear from in a month or two.

 

[QuantumCurt]

I'm wondering a bit more about the actual selection process now. Was my application actually reviewed and selected by the person that will be my adviser? Or was it reviewed by a general selection committee and accepted, then later assigned to an adviser?

 

[Dishsoap]

Your application was reviewed and then selected by the person that will be your adviser (or someone who works with them). Why they don't just tell you who it is now is beyond me. But I remember my supervisor saying that he looked through applications and decided on me because I had experience. They also look through hundreds of applications, so I doubt that they care too much about all of the essays and such, but that's just speculation on my part.

 

[QuantumCurt]

I see. It probably takes them a while to get together the details of the specific project. I imagine there are a lot of different possibilities for various projects. They have to look at previous experience and technical skills and such to come up with a good project.

I'm thinking my essays might have played a big part in it. I know my main essay was very unique. I'm 28, so I'm a non-traditional student. I started college when I was 25 after spending 6 years running a professional tree trimming service with my brother, who is a certified tree climber and arborist. One of the main points that I talked about was how we did a lot of complex rigging with trees in tight areas to remove limbs from above houses and things like that. I talked about how we were essentially using force vectors, angles, masses, tensions, and a bunch of other physics concepts in purely applied senses, without necessarily even understanding the formalities of the physics that we were using. Then I discussed how I now consider some of these jobs to be my earliest lessons in physics, and that I can formally understand and describe what was happening in terms of real physics today.

That's a very brief summary of it, but I really felt like it came out well and very unique. I doubt that there were any other SULI or CCI essays that used the phrase "seat of the pants engineering."

 

[Dishsoap]

Good point. Maybe it's just that my supervisor was disorganized, but he certainly didn't have a project for me until I arrived there that summer, so they don't need a project in mind when they accept you.

I do imagine that having more practical experience does lend itself quite well to experiences like this. You're also more likely to be more mature than some of the other interns there.

 

[QuantumCurt]

I'm thinking that those points likely played a big role in my selection. I'd be interested in hearing what factors led to my selection.

 

[QuantumCurt]

Anyone else heard anything yet? I got the welcome letter with some more general information a couple days ago. Still no details on the project though.

The letter said that my supervisor is Jonathan Lewis, in the particle physics division, and that he'll be assigning me to a mentor.

 

[Hshc]

You should email the program coordinator at your lab to hear more about the project. Or you could email the supervisor directly. Also just plain googling your advisor will probably give you a pretty clear idea of what their research is about.

 

[ZapperZ]

I'm wondering a bit more about the actual selection process now. Was my application actually reviewed and selected by the person that will be my adviser? Or was it reviewed by a general selection committee and accepted, then later assigned to an adviser?

First of all, be patient! When you are assigned a Mentor (not sure how this is different than your "supervisor"), then you may fire off an introduction e-mail and tell him/her her how much you look forward to working for him/her. In the meantime, just sit back and wait!

Secondly, the selection process may vary a bit from lab to lab, but the pool of candidates within the area that matches a Mentor is sent to that Mentor to read and review. And contrary to what samnoris said, *I* do read the essays that the students wrote. That, and the letter of recommendations are the two set of items that I paid very closed attention to to judge the ability of the candidates. Then I will make my selections, indicating my first choice, second choice, and third choice. It is not uncommon that a student may have more than one Mentor being the firt choice, and my guess is, whoever filed first, gets that student (I don't know for sure since I was never told why my first choice was no longer available sometime).

Zz.

 

[QuantumCurt]

That's good advice. I'm definitely not going to be emailing anyone to pester them about project details. I won't be there until June in either case. My welcome letter said that I probably won't hear anything until early April.

I figured that essays and letters of recommendation played a big role in the selection process. I've got a great GPA, honors sections, and all of that...but that's all kind of generic. Tons of people have that. The essays are where ones voice comes through.

 

[Dishsoap]

If my application is rejected, will it say that, or will it just be "pending review" until the end of time? I've already accepted an offer so at this point an acceptance from SULI would just be an ego boost, but I'd still like to know.