A five week research internship at MIT? A two week philosophy and literature camp at Yale?

All and more were within reach for MSMS students last summer. 

Thursday, Nov. 18, via Zoom, seniors presented on numerous summer program opportunities for prospective juniors. During the almost hour-long session, application advice and tips were provided on activities from Ole Miss’ StarTalk to MIT’s Research Science Institute.

Senior Cameron Wright decided to host the informational a month earlier this year to ensure that the inflexible application deadlines could be met.

“The summer program was held earlier this year than it was last year mainly because last year many of the summer programs that were introduced to us had due dates that had either already passed or were the following day,” Wright explained. “That was of course detrimental to the goal of the summer program informational, so it was held earlier this year.”

Throughout the presentation, seniors described each summer experience they were familiar with and then opened the board for questions. For juniors Vineel Vanga and Vidhi Patel, the seminar was informative and eye opening.

“I never wanted to do summer programs because they always cost too much money, but through this meeting I learned that some summer camps were free or were cheaper than I imagined, which makes me more inclined to participate in them,” Vanga said.

“Personally, I felt that this informational seminar was very beneficial because it informed me of many opportunities that I didn’t know existed,” Patel said. “I am very thankful for the seniors taking their time out to put this together.”

Senior Anh Mi Nguyen spoke highly of her summer program experiences, detailing that it prepared her well for senior year.

“Summer program applications give you a taste for the real, scary thing that you will have to face your senior year,” Nguyen said. “In MOSTEC, not only did I learn about topics that I have never heard of before, but I also did a presentation to more than 50 people, including leading professors in their respective fields, while, most importantly, building a community of motivative, big-brained students that I still keep in contact with.”

Even if students do not make it into their dream summer program, it was emphasized throughout the meeting that there were different ways to pursue passions, from independent studies with MSMS teachers to starting a business. Though Wright’s programs were ultimately canceled due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, he believes that there was an upside for writing his applications.

“Both summer programs I applied for were canceled due to COVID-19,” Wright said. “I would say there were still benefits to writing the applications for them though because they gave me a taste of what the college admissions process would be like before I dived into it headfirst my senior year.”

With the seniors passing the torch of summer program information to juniors, many juniors are planning to spend their summers pursuing their passions through educational summer programs. Currently, Vanga is looking at applying to MIT’s MOSTEC program due to its various financial and educational incentives.

“Right now, I am thinking of applying to MOSTEC, because one, the whole thing is free and financial concern was really a big concern that I had,” Vanga said. “The second reason would be that it is aimed for minorities, and I am in that group because I am Indian. Finally, third, there are some topics and classes in the course that I am interested in like neuroscience and connections and biomedical signal processing.”

Patel is also looking towards applying to a summer program mentioned in the meeting.

“I plan to apply to the Research Science Institute (RSI) at MIT along with a few others,” Vidhi said. “These are programs I would not have known about if it wasn’t for the seminar.”