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This post is about how high school students can find a Research Assistant Internship.

When students choose a department, they consider many things, including the most representative ‘outlook’, atmosphere, and professors. Conversely, when universities select students, they look at the student's capabilities the most. Therefore, if you apply to a prestigious university, you cannot be accepted just by having high official certification scores and GPA. You need a spectacular EC experience tailored to you.
Accordingly, research internships are emerging, allowing students to prepare for college life by directly participating in high-level academic research starting in high school. In particular, students who wish to enter the STEM field have the advantage of being able to increase their expertise by experiencing the research that will be conducted in college.

So, let’s find out what a Research Internship is, how to find one, and its advantages!
 

Research Assistant Internships are conducted at minimum wage or without pay and serve as research assistants who directly enter the labs of university professors and participate in research.

Research Internship work may vary depending on the research institute and professor's research program, but generally, you may be able to receive guidance by organizing research data using Excel, spreadsheet, or coding programs, as well as participating in experiments and design.
Additionally, projects help students improve their skills in organizing work, applying new experimental techniques to real-world problems, and giving oral presentations. This experience often influences the choice of thesis topic and career path.

【Types of Research Assistant Internships】

An official Research Assistant Internship is a program in which universities officially provide research funds and scholarships, such as MIT's Research Science Institute and Stanford's Office of Science Outreach Program. However, the competition is so fierce that unless a student excels in all aspects, he or she will not be accepted. The acceptance rate at MIT's Research Science Institute is known to be less than 5%.
Additionally, A-Tier Programs include:
▶Stony Brook University's Simons Summer Research Program,
▶Texas Tech University's The Clark Scholars Program,
▶Boston University's Research in Science & Engineering (RISE),
▶Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program,
▶Michigan State University's High School Honors Science, Math and Engineering Programs, etc.,

and they are all very competitive with an acceptance rate of less than 10%. Therefore, many top universities in the United States, especially STEM-focused schools, look very favorably on students who attend these summer programs in their admissions process.

To gain an internship opportunity, the informal Research Assistant Program uses parents or personal connections to directly contact professors at nearby universities or science institutes. In these cases, we cannot guarantee the time it will take for you to be contacted and be able to perform the internship, so we recommend that you plan. Also, some research institutes only prefer long-term work, so it is a good idea to find out about the working period in advance.

1.    

Gavi The Vaccine Alliance supports programs that help immunize nearly half of the world's children against deadly and debilitating infectious diseases. The internship program is open to undergraduate or graduate students who are formally completing training in a related field. 

2.    

Through Linkedin, you can learn about and apply for Research Assistant Internships supported by various universities.

3.   

  

Collegevine introduces internship programs in various fields in the United States for high school students.  

【Get a 1:1 free in-depth consultation first!】

So far, we have learned about the Research Assistant Program that high school students can participate in! Of course, participating in a program is important, but more important is the attitude of learning through experience. The more you maintain an attitude of always learning, the more valuable your experience will be. Therefore, I hope that the research conducted during the internship will continue even after entering university, as many universities want. Discover various internship programs through GIRE! At GIRE, we always support our students!

GIRE is an organization that conducts 'research consulting' based on a network with professors from prestigious American universities, and is accompanied by more than 70 top school graduates with master's and doctoral level STEM major consultants. ​If you want to learn more about how to enter the US or if you want to get counseling, ask for 1:1 free in-depth counseling through KakaoTalk Plus friends right now!