Should I at Least Ask? Summer Program for URM.

[star230]

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Hello everyone, as you might know, more than half of summer research programs claim themselves as underrepresented minorities (URM) only. They include many great programs, like most of Harvard programs, Cornell, UNC etc. Has any of you emailed or called schools to ask if they take non-URM even though their websites say URM only? Should I at least ask the school or just don't bother?

I'm an Asian (minority, but not URM🙁). I have a good GPA, and I'm in a great lab where I have my independent project. I have one publication and some nice ECs. I just want to have some different experience this summer because I'm sure I will not go to med school in state (for some important reason). Should I just email professors in other schools who are doing similar topics of mine? Any suggestion is welcome!👍

 

[Juicec]

You will be wasting your time applying to those programs. I am sure that on occasion the odd non-URM may have been selected in the past, however these days with the amount of URM's out there it is unlikely anything would ever come from your huge time commitment applying to these programs.

What I suggest you do is look up the NSF funded REU's and find one that is similar to what you are looking to do. There are many ranging from CS to medical research all designed specifically for undergraduate students. Some are URM, most are not. Other than those my only suggestion is to e-mail professors directly which is a great fall back. I say fall back because the latter pays you, the other generally does not.

 

[star230]

You will be wasting your time applying to those programs. I am sure that on occasion the odd non-URM may have been selected in the past, however these days with the amount of URM's out there it is unlikely anything would ever come from your huge time commitment applying to these programs.

What I suggest you do is look up the NSF funded REU's and find one that is similar to what you are looking to do. There are many ranging from CS to medical research all designed specifically for undergraduate students. Some are URM, most are not. Other than those my only suggestion is to e-mail professors directly which is a great fall back. I say fall back because the latter pays you, the other generally does not.

Thanks! What do you think of Agmen Scholars Program?

 

[Juicec]

Oddly enough I never heard of it previously, though a quick search makes me wish I had a free summer to apply to it 🙁

The stipend through the REU's however might still win out for me at the end of the day.

 

[star230]

Any more suggestions or comments?

 

[Stumpyman]

The Agmen Scholarship is really good (or so I've heard). Good luck trying to get into it though, it's super comeptitive (well, judging from second-hand info).

 

[kduck]

Last summer I went to the University of Virginia SRIP, and it was awesome. While many of the attendees were URM, there were non-URMs there too, and the stipend (and the school) were amazing. Definitely worth applying!

 

[cheesier]

There's no harm in asking, but there are plenty of programs that aren't for URMs that you have a much better shot at. Why not apply to those instead?

 

[NickNaylor]

I applied to a couple of programs that were specifically for URMs (I'm white). I didn't hear anything from these programs.

You can apply, but I wouldn't expect much.

 

[txlover]

I highly suggest looking into the NIH summer research programs!