An overview of summer research internship opportunities appropriate for MB&B majors

By Michael Koelle, Director of Undergraduate Studies, MB&B, Yale University

 

 

MB&B majors have been doing summer research internships with a much higher frequency in recent years than they have in the past.  In my experience, many of our students jump at the first internship opportunity they encounter, not realizing the potential limitations of that internship or that there may be superior choices available. Thus the programs with the best publicity and easiest Web-based application forms tend to draw in the most students, even though these may not offer the best experiences.  The purpose of this Web site is to inform our students so they can make better choices.

 

There are two types of summer research internship

The first and possibly best type of internship is one that you arrange individually with a laboratory head at Yale, or at another university or other research institution.  This requires initiative on your part to contact the scientist, convince them to take you, and to get funding from them or another source.  Nevertheless, this is probably the most common type of summer research experience for our students.  Its advantages are that you can choose a lab doing outstanding research in a topic of your choice.  You can “interview” several scientists, and make sure that you think they will be good mentors and give you a good project before you sign on.  You can choose what institution to work at, giving you complete flexibility as to location.  As a Yale College undergraduate, especially if you have already taken some of the core science lecture and lab courses, you should be reasonably attractive as a summer research intern, and will have a good chance of convincing a good lab to take you.  On the “independent research” pages on this site, I give my advice on how to set up such an independent research internship.

 

Organized research internship programs

A number of universities, research institutes, and pharmaceutical and biotech companies run organized summer research internship programs.  Typically students fill in an application form (sometimes via the Web), and if accepted to the program are matched with an individual lab head at the institution to carry out a summer research project.  These organizations usually have an ulterior motive in running these programs:  the universities and medical centers  hope to attract the very best interns to return for graduate or medical school, and the companies hope to attract the very best interns to return for a job (perhaps after a few more years of graduate training).  The main advantage of such organized internship programs is that the logistics are easy for you.  Once you are accepted, the program typically takes care of funding, finding you a place to live, and matching you up with a lab.  Another nice advantage of such programs is that you will have a cohort of other interns that you can hang out with, there may be special and interesting lectures for the interns, and often there is a mini-research symposium at the end of the summer for the interns to give presentations on their work.  A disadvantage of organized research programs is that you may have limited or no ability to choose the specific lab head who will supervise you or research project you will carry out.  Since these are the main determinants of the quality of your research experience, participating in these organized internship programs may give unpredictable results.

 

 

There is considerable flexibility for independently-arranged internships, but I recommend contacting scientists about working in their labs by February or early-March at the latest.  This gives you and them a chance to apply for money to fund you over the summer, and also makes it less likely that other undergraduates will have already taken the spots in the most attractive labs.  Organized internship programs each have their own application deadlines, and these are typically around February 1, plus or minus a month.