Internships for one with research experience (REUs, or no?)

[Dishsoap]

Greetings, fellow PFers.

I'll begin by saying that I'm looking for a few internships for people with research experience. I'm applying to a few REUs just in case, however I hear that they are geared more for people with few research opportunities at their home university, and that isn't the case for me. I've been published a few times in Phys Rev, am a Goldwater Scholar, did some work at Fermilab, etc. So I'm concerned about being able to get an REU. Is there still a chance for me, or should I cut out all REU apps altogether?

Also, what other internships are there? I'm applying for the UM one at CERN (not going to happen, but applying is free, so what the heck?), the SULI program, and one at Argonne Nat'l Lab. I didn't know if there were any other internship programs I should be aware of. I've scoured the forums and found a few, as mentioned above. Didn't know of anyone had other recommendations.

If I could afford to live on my own without a paycheck, I'd totally go for an unpaid internship, but that isn't the case, so I need to restrict myself to paid only :(

Anyway... tips?

 

[radium]

It depends on the REU and may also depend on who your professors know at a given school. I got an REU the summer before my senior year after I had already done one at my home institution the past summer and was working on a paper on which I was first author.

The reason I think I was admitted to this REU was unbeknownst to me at the time, The professor I mentioned in my statement's wife had been a postdoc with a Professor at my home institution. I had a great time working with him over the summer and we are finishing a paper from a project I startdd while I was at the REU.

So I think you should talk to your professors and apply to the ones you know you would want to attend if you were accepted. For the one you mentioned at CERN, I know at least three people who did that one and I think all of them already had significant research experience.

Also, if you happen to get rejected from one at a school you are interested in for grad school, it really has no bearing on your chances for admission. I got rejected from an REU at a school that not only accepted me for grad school but offered me a very prestigious fellowship.

 

[Hercuflea]

Apply to some less prestigious ones as well. No one is going to look down on your because your research experience happened to be at Lousiana State, what matters is the quality of your work and your experience doing research and how it prepares you to be successful in graduate level research,