Summer Undergraduate Research Programs

[TB00]

For anyone who has previously applied or seen threads regarding the stats of matriculated students into SURP / SURF / Amgen programs.. What are my chances given my list of schools and statistics?

Stats:

• Junior Biological Sciences Major, Chemistry Minor, International Business Certificate
• 3.973 cGPA
• One year of laboratory research in two separate labs, two years of business related research
• Two semester abroad doing research

Schools:

• NYU
• Columbia
• Mt. Sinai
• Albert Einstein
• Harvard
• Case Western
• UCLA
• Stanford

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[La Presse]

Your best chance is at Einstein or Case. Everywhere else is a crapshoot. I know for a fact that NYU Sackler SURP only has 30 spots available out of 1200 applicants. You should broaden your list A LOT.

 

[MangoPlant]

Not to take over this thread, but what do these summer programs even look for? Is it just a high GPA? Also would having publications help or hinder one's chances at these programs (since these are supposed to be for students who haven't experienced much research)?

 

[La Presse]

Not to take over this thread, but what do these summer programs even look for? Is it just a high GPA? Also would having publications help or hinder one's chances at these programs (since these are supposed to be for students who haven't experienced much research)?

If you are dealing with a very prestigious program, previous research is is necessary. There is also an unspoken rule that publications are definitely a norm at these programs. Most of the candidates who applied to places like AMGEN or Sinai or Sackler or Janelia Farms HHMI had publications, posters, etc. Middle of the road applicants are those who have considerably high grades and maybe a bit of research and decent letters from their advisors. We are now left with those without research experience or poor grades. You kinda have to sift through these programs to find your "fit."

Another problem is that these programs are trying to serve those students who are primarily interested in research and are actively pursuing careers in biomedical research. You can draw your own conclusions here.

In some of these programs, it may be necessary to contact potential research mentors early in the process. This may actually serve as a backdoor into the summer program if they are affiliated. Overall, these programs look for a decent academic record, strong research involvement, good letters from research advisors, and a compelling statement of purpose that demonstrates passion for research. NSF REU Programs are slightly less competitive and I actually urge you to apply to some of these. Their intent is to increase minority involvement in research and those with little opportunity at their home institutions to pursue research related activities.

Oh, by the way, applications have already started opening and if you peruse my posts, you'll see that I made last year's thread, so someone please take care of that...

 

[TB00]

Your best chance is at Einstein or Case. Everywhere else is a crapshoot. I know for a fact that NYU Sackler SURP only has 30 spots available out of 1200 applicants. You should broaden your list A LOT.

Thanks for your reply. I have a friend last year who got into Stanford Amgen and Columbia Amgen with a cGPA of 3.8 and only a year of research at my university so it is definitely possible. Have you applied to NYU in the past? I will probably only apply to these schools because I have an internship in place as a backup plan at the Cleveland Clinic, so acceptance from any of these schools would be a bonus. I have a pending publication with the Cleveland Clinic with M.D./ Ph.D. physicians so... What else are they looking for? Obviously the 30 matriculated students had a commonality that made them stand out among the other 1,200 applications.

Is there a thread where these statistics can be accessed? Thanks again and if you are reapplying, I wish you the best of luck!

 

[nemo123]

Honestly, it's a crapshoot. I was lucky enough to do two during undergrad and did an AMGEN, but to be honest, I still don't know what they look for...

 

[TB00]

Honestly, it's a crapshoot. I was lucky enough to do two during undergrad and did an AMGEN, but to be honest, I still don't know what they look for...

Which Amgen program were you admitted to if you don't mind my asking? And what were your stats? Sounds awesome though, I bet Amgen was a great experience!

 

[nemo123]

I did MIT AMGEN! To be honest, the best part about it was the free trip to LA. AMGEN headquarters are really gorgeous and it literally feels like the prettiest large college campus. They have soccer fields and volleyball courts and organic only food served in their cafeterias. We also got to see a cool 3d viewing room of one of their medicines. I also got to catch up with some of my old friends from LA (some of whom were from my old SURF program actually) and I even saw one of my old high school friends during the icebreaker event.

Beyond this, AMGEN works you really hard. Almost all the programs make you write some sort of grant proposal or complete research paper of your research... That sucked for some people because they didn't have data! To be honest though, I preferred my SURF experience to my AMGEN experience. More social outings and things paid for by my SURF program. And better living arrangements too.

Also, I'm not sure how well ADCOMs know about AMGEN. In my program, I was the only one going MD and I always got made fun of lol. I think LizzyM was once asked if she knew about it and she said she never heard of it. None of my interviewers have mentioned it either. Most AMGEN scholars go on to get a PhD.

 

[TB00]

I did MIT AMGEN! To be honest, the best part about it was the free trip to LA. AMGEN headquarters are really gorgeous and it literally feels like the prettiest large college campus. They have soccer fields and volleyball courts and organic only food served in their cafeterias. We also got to see a cool 3d viewing room of one of their medicines. I also got to catch up with some of my old friends from LA (some of whom were from my old SURF program actually) and I even saw one of my old high school friends during the icebreaker event.

Beyond this, AMGEN works you really hard. Almost all the programs make you write some sort of grant proposal or complete research paper of your research... That sucked for some people because they didn't have data! To be honest though, I preferred my SURF experience to my AMGEN experience. More social outings and things paid for by my SURF program. And better living arrangements too.

Also, I'm not sure how well ADCOMs know about AMGEN. In my program, I was the only one going MD and I always got made fun of lol. I think LizzyM was once asked if she knew about it and she said she never heard of it. None of my interviewers have mentioned it either. Most AMGEN scholars go on to get a PhD.

Sounds like you had an awesome experience! I'm considering going the M.D./Ph.D. route so SURF / SURP is probably my better bet. NYU would be ideal, as they offer physician shadowing, which is similar to what I did last summer with the Cleveland Clinic.

Also, I have heard great things about the Amgen headquarters.. It is a leading international biotechnology organization..

 

[nemo123]

^ There were a couple of people who were interested in MD-PhD in my program (maybe 2-3 out of the ~26 of us). Be careful with applying to these very top programs though. They get a ton of applicants and sometimes they are for URM only. If you want to maximize your chances of getting into a program, apply to a lot of programs and ones that are not as well known or don't have living arrangements. I've found that programs that don't provide housing are slightly easier to get into than ones that don't.

As for AMGEN headquarters, I didn't know it was going to be THAT nice. I knew it was great, but it was really an amazing place located in a really upscale town too (in Thousand Oaks for all of you LA people). Literally, they have their own little utopia there. They have little gardens and small streams running through the place too. Plus, they also do sustainable stuff only, so they gave us food on wooden plates and wooden forks (first time I ever saw these in my life lol, though I'm not sure wooden forks are very practical... It was hard to eat with them). The food was good, and In-N-Out catered for us (some people were really excited about this, but having had their stuff before that, I'm not a huge In-N-Out fan, so it was more like eh).

Either way, I learned a lot from AMGEN. I learned how to give more effective lab and scientific style presentations (apparently there's a standard way of doing this, which I never learned before the program-- what I get for being in labs that don't care about lab meeting). My scientific writing also improved, and the lab I was in was phenomenal.