Nih sip

[OBGG27]

For those accepted to the NIH SIP program...

Did you contact the PIs you will be working with directly, or did they find you? How specific did you make your application essay to the areas you wanted to do research? What level of school are you in (ie undergrad, grad, med, etc.)?

I applied to this program bc it was the only one I could find that incoming med school students (not still in undergrad) were eligible for. I applied in January but haven't heard anything. I've never applied to a program like this before, where the PIs choose the students directly from the pool of applicants, and just wanted to know the best way to go about being selected. Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks!

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[NR3A]

Hi there-

I did the NIH SIP two summers in a row (the pas two). In my experience there are very few people who get in by applying without first speaking to a PI. They get a LOT of applications, and to be randomly selected by a PI you have to stand out. I knew one intern who had been accepted in this way, but she was a high school student who had already spent two summers at high end biomedical research at a big university and a pharmaceutical company (this was before she was a junior in high school even).

When I applied, I had essentially already been accepted in that the PI I had contacted agreed to pick my application out (the just send a request to the program director). I would definitely try and talk to a PI now, but I have a feeling you're going to have some problems. Most people use winter break as the time to arrange these types of things, well before the application is actually due. Also, they unfortunately reduced the number of interns they are taking on this year (at least in the institute I worked at), so people's chances are even lower.


Bottom line: Most people get in by knowing someone, those who don't either a) are extremely well qualified and get very lucky or b) contacted PIs directly and got in through that route.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[OBGG27]

This helps a lot! Thanks so much!!