We've all seen our Facebook feeds flooded with pictures of our seniors Skiing in the Alps, Sipping a beer on an Italian beach or relishing the NYC skyline atop the Empire State Building. So how exactly does an average Indian college student, who doesn't have enough money for a midnight snack get to spend his summer in a foreign land? Well, chances are, your senior isn't just discovering another continent, he's also bolstering his resume or better yet, getting himself published in an international journal and doing all that for free!
If you've got patience and an appetite for research, you could well be on your way to spend a fulfilling summer. Here's your step by step guide on how to land a foreign internship at a university:
If you've got patience and an appetite for research, you could well be on your way to spend a fulfilling summer. Here's your step by step guide on how to land a foreign internship at a university:
- The very first step identifying your area of interest. If you're majoring in civil engineering for instance, you might want to narrow down your choices to say, hydraulics. You can always choose another area you're interested in. I've had friends majoring in Chemical Engineering intern under professors from CS. Just make sure you have something on your CV to prove your interest in the chosen area.
- After you've chosen your area of interest, you want to start identifying which universities you want to go to. The obvious starting point for this search would be to look up international university rankings. QS University Rankings gives a subject wise university ranking, so you can identify the leading universities in your area of interest (http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings). However, I'd like to warn you here that unless you're an exceptional student(read top of your class,projects), your chances of making it to a place like Stanford or Harvard are extremely slim. In my honest opinion, you'd be better off targeting universities that are slightly off the top. Most universities in the top 100 are world class universities anyway. The most common destinations are Japan, China, Europe, USA and Singapore.
- The next step is to find professors in the chosen universities whose work aligns with your area of interest. Most American universities have a standard website format and its easy to find a list of professors, while their homepages have information about their research interests and publications. However, I do remember having a tough time trying to find professors on websites of a few European Universities. Keep looking though, and I'm sure you'll find a way!
- After you've found the right professors,its time to start reading. Look up the website of their research group and find out what they are working on. Try to read some of their publications. This should be enough to give you a head start.
- Prepare a short CV. Your extra curricular achievements won't make a big difference, it is the academic credentials you want to highlight. If you've done any projects related to your(and the professor's) area of interest, you must explain it well. Prepare a cover letter( which btw is also the body of the e-mail you're going to send) which explains your intent, skills relevant to the project and your past research experiences(if any). Try to keep it short.
- It is now time to get in touch with the professor. How? E-mail. You'd be better off sending mails on weekdays so that your mail doesn't drop down the mailbox over the weekend. Also, try to send e-mails when its morning in the time zone of the professor. This way your mail would remain on top of their mailbox in the morning, which is usually when most professors check their e-mail. You can start e-mailing professors as early as September and continue mailing until March.
- You've now done everything from your end, wait for the professor to reply. If you don't receive a reply in a week, it would be a good idea to send a follow up e-mail. It is very likely that your e-mail went unnoticed among the tons of e-mails some professors receive. Wait for another week and if you still don't receive a reply, perhaps its time to move. Patience is the key here, I've had friends who sent as many as 500 e-mails before they received a positive reply. So don't give up just yet, keep shipping out those mails!
PS:There's one thing you should keep in mind before you start shipping out those e-mails. Getting a research internship is easier for people from some disciplines, while it can be a lot harder for people from others. So don't get disheartened if your friends from CS have already booked their tickets while you're yet to get a positive reply. From what I've seen, people interested in CS, Math and Physics are the first ones to get these internships.
NOTE: I sincerely request you all to be careful and honest while e-mailing professors. Please do not spam their inboxes. The IITs have already gained a notorious reputation, thanks to hundreds of clueless students who spam professors without as much as opening their web pages. You really don't want to get in the bad books of professors or universities.
I'll be happy to answer your questions. Good luck in your search for an internship.
