Applying to the NIH Summer Internship Program (SIP)

Sharon Milgram:
Good afternoon.  I'm Dr. Sharon Milgram.  Today, I'm going to talk with you about the NIH Summer Internship Program.  So, I want to start the video today about applying to the Summer Internship Program by first talking briefly about the NIH.  The mission of the NIH is to uncover new knowledge that will lead to better health for everyone.  We accomplish this mission through the work of 27 separate institutes and centers.  So, it's important to understand it's not the National Institute of Health.  It's actually the National Institutes of Health.

Most of the NIH institutes, or ICs, have two major divisions, an extramural division and an intramural division.  Extramural NIH supports research and training outside of the NIH by funding grants and fellowships and research on campuses across the NIH and the globe.  The intramural program in the NIH actually occurs on NIH campuses.  And the intramural program consists of scientists who are doing research here to tackle major biomedical research problems.

It's not important for you to understand or memorize each of the 27 institutes and centers or ICs, but I do want to give you a little bit of context, because it will help you in considering your application for the summer.  So, shown here in this slide are all 27 institutes and centers.  And you can see that they each have an acronym and that those acronyms can be confusing, okay?

So, for example, NCI is the National Cancer Institute.  And the focus of the NCI is to understand the causes of cancer, to develop new treatments, to study basic science that might contribute to our understanding of tumorigenesis and metastasis.  So, I'm not going to go through all of the 27 institutes and centers, but those examples give you a little bit of a sense of how the NIH is organized.

So, let me talk a little bit about what actually -- what types of research the NIH does and supports.  And remember that we support the biomedical research enterprise, both through extramural funding and through intramural programs here on campus.  Our research is at the basic level, the translational level, and at the clinical level, meaning we take very basic observations and try to turn them into research that can benefit mankind.  We use tools from the behavioral sciences, the biological sciences, the chemical sciences, computational science, mathematical, physical, and social sciences.  And that's a really key thing to understand, that you can get exposure to and learn about a variety of disciplines.

This is not just for people who love biology.  You can take your love of math and apply it to solving biomedical problems.  You can work in the public health arena, in a computational lab, in a wet lab, in a clinical lab.  And that's something very, very special about our internship program.

One of our major missions is to train the next generation of biomedical research scientists and healthcare providers.  Obviously, the students of today are the professionals of tomorrow.  And many of our programs are specifically focused on helping you receive the training you need to develop a successful career in the long term.  And so, the Summer Internship Program is one of those very unique programs designed to help you prepare for the future.

Now, I'm going to talk about the Summer Internship Program in the intramural program.  So, let me teach you just a little bit about the intramural research program.  The main campus is in Bethesda, Maryland.  But we actually have campuses in other areas of Maryland, in North Carolina, in Arizona, in Michigan, and in Montana.  And while the bulk of the internship opportunities are in the Maryland area, those of you interested in training at another campus for the summer should look carefully at what these other campuses are.

The intramural program actually is in 24 of the 27 institutes that I talked about earlier.  And there are over 950 research groups doing public health research, basic science research, translational research, and clinical work.  So, anything that you're interested in is likely represented here in the intramural program.

So, the NIH Summer Internship Program is a paid internship in an NIH intramural research group.  You can work in all of those disciplines that I've already discussed, doing research in public health, in the biological sciences, in the clinical sciences, putting your love of math and engineering to work within the biomedical research enterprise.  It's really quite broad.

The internship lasts anywhere from eight to 12 weeks.  And I mentioned that there were paid internships.  I'll also note that sometimes when investigators don't have money for a paid intern, you could also consider volunteering.

The eligibility criteria include U.S. citizenship or permanent residency status.  And you have to be enrolled in school at least halftime.  Note that unlike many Summer Internship Programs, we welcome applications from students who are currently seniors in college and who will be graduating.  You can work on any of the NIH campuses that I mentioned previously, and you can do an internship at pretty much any educational level.  We have community college students and college students here.  Students who are working on graduate and professional degrees at both the Masters level and the PhD level, medical students, dental students, nursing students, pharmacy students, et cetera.  We welcome individuals with very, very broad long-term career interests.

In addition to working in a research group and really exploring some science in depth, we want you to have an enriching experience outside of your lab or research group.  And both the NIH institutes and the OITE offer a variety of programs to help you further develop your skills.  We have workshops focused on developing science skills, science communication skills, exposing you to principles of career readiness, and leadership.  We have a large program focused on resilience and wellness because a big part of succeeding in high-knowledge careers is learning how to deal with the inevitable setback that's a part of both our educational journey and our research experience.

And we want to help those of you who are currently undergraduates understand better the graduate school and professional school application process.  And so, we have a series in going to graduate school and a parallel series on applying to professional school.  We have an amazing summer lecture series, where senior scientists come and share their careers and their science with you in lots of community building and networking events, journal clubs, chances for you to talk about your own research and your research interests with your peers and with other members of the NIH community.

And we have two important major events.  One is the graduate and professional school fair held in mid-July every year.  This is a chance for us to really focus on the application process, for you to meet recruiters and representatives from schools across the country.  And we end the summer with summer poster day, a really energetic and exciting day, where over 1,000 summer interns present their research to the NIH community.  The Natcher Conference Center here on the main Bethesda campus is full and brimming with people wanting to talk science with you.  Each of the NIH campuses has a poster day as well.

NIH summer interns have access to the OITE Career Services Center.  And you can talk to a career counselor about career exploration, about career opportunities, about your resume, about what you might like to do.  We also have pre-graduate and pre-professional advisors who can help you think through the process of your next educational step.

So, let's talk a little bit about applying.  And so, I'm going to start with some general principles, and then we're going to dive deeper into various parts of the application.  So first, before you begin, spend some time reading.

First, check out the OITE-sponsored or IC-specific sub-programs that are listed on the SIP webpage.  These programs have a focus on a specific population of students.  For example, the community college summer enrichment program, or the graduate program in data science, or a focus on a particular topic.  For example, the NIH Amgen program has a focus on the development of leadership skills while exploring health disparities.  These are sub-programs of the NIH Summer Internship Program, and you want to make sure before you apply what program might be best for you.  And alternatively, you might choose to apply to the broader SIP.

Then you should read the FAQs, and you should read our guide to writing a successful application.  You should read the information and carefully study the website before emailing us with questions as well, but especially before you apply.  You want to make sure to put your best foot forward, and that means really understanding the application and selection process.

We find that students who submit early do better than students who wait until the last minute.  And we strongly encourage you to get your application done as quickly as possible.  This gives you time to get your letters of recommendation in, and it gives you time to really work through the selection process.  We're judging you by written materials, and this is your chance to make a good first impression.  So, your application should be grammatically correct, your ideas should be clearly expressed, your application should be well-organized, and you should really address the questions that we asked you to address.

It's important to remember that the sub-programs have different eligibility criteria and different application deadlines.  And so, you will want to pay very, very careful attention to the instructions on the sub-program webpages.  Furthermore, the application, while looking very similar, and in fact, it is very similar, we do ask for some different information in the cover letter.  So, you'll want to pay careful attention to the prompts provided on the webpages.

Let's dive deeper now into the application, which actually consists of five parts.  And the first is contact information.  And that's generally just an email address and a cell phone number.  Please note that many people are likely to reach out to you during the holiday time when you might not be at school.  So, you should make sure to provide an email address that you check regularly.  We'll also ask for a cover letter, a resume, letters of recommendation, and a list of your courses and grades.  And I'm going to talk about each four of those topics in a little bit more detail.

Now, I already talked about reading carefully before you apply, and I just want to stress this great document, which is tips on applying successfully.  This was put together with the hope that it will help you be successful.  So, please take a moment to take a look.

Your resume is a concise representation of your educational and professional history.  It should include contact information, the schools that you are attending or have attended, dates and degrees received, honors and awards, and a separate section for research experience and other work experience.  You want us to be able to easily see what types of research experience you've had.  But we also are interested in knowing what other types of work experience you have.

We appreciate that some applicants are first-time researchers, and that your laboratory and research experience is all classroom-based.  And that's fine.  That's what the internship program is for.  And so, you can skip that section on research experience if this is your first internship.

If you have presented at undergraduate meetings or local or national scientific meetings, if you have any abstracts or publications, please include those in a separate section.  In some research groups, the ability to speak foreign language is valuable.  And so, you'll want to mention that.  And finally, you'll want a section on your leadership experience.  Organize your resume in a really clear and concise way.

Another way that we will be evaluating you is through letters of recommendation.  These letters should come from individuals who know a lot about your academic and/or research skills.  These should be from teachers who know you well.  And they should address both your scientific knowledge base and relevant personal traits.  For example, your time management skills, your team skills, your ability to receive feedback and make appropriate changes.

In general, we think it's best to have these letters come from individuals who know you from an academic environment.  But you might have a boss or someone outside of school that you feel knows you well.  If they can address characteristics important for success in research environments, then those would be good people to ask for letters as well.

You should not request letters from family members or friends.  These letters don't carry very much weight, because, of course, our family and friends are very vested in our success.  And in general, it is best not to ask for letters from coaches on sports teams or advisors for clubs, unless the club is very, very relevant to the work you might like to do at NIH.

There's a section for you to list your courses and grades.  And these are all of your courses in college, including those that you are currently enrolled in.  If you are a first semester college freshman, include information on your high school grades.  You should organize your list by semester and be very, very careful in transferring your grades from your transcript to the application system.  When an offer is made, we will request that you send an official transcript, and we will compare the transcript to the list you provide.  So, please double-check your list.  Take some time to clean up the list and make it easy to read.

Probably the most important part of your application is the cover letter.  So, let's talk some about the cover letter.  Okay, this is your chance to talk directly to us and to highlight your motivation for coming to the NIH.  It is also, if you are applying to one of the sub-programs, your chance to explain to us why you are specifically interested in that sub-program, why you are uniquely applying there.

You should, in general, discuss three important areas in your cover letter.  First, a little bit about you, your background.  What classes excited you, why you're interested in the biomedical research enterprise or healthcare, your broad science and research interests.  And you should highlight any previous relevant experience.  This can be classroom-based experience, work-based experience, or research-based experience.  You should use concrete examples, and be brief but complete.  So, for example, saying, "I have developed science communication skills" is nowhere near as good as saying, "I've presented at two undergraduate research meetings, and have gotten feedback on my presentation skills from my teachers at my school."  If you're applying to one of the OITE sub-programs, discuss the program-specific elements that are listed on each of the program webpages.  And so, your cover letter would include everything that I've already talked about plus information specific to the sub-program.

One of the things that I think can be confusing is to decide whether to apply to one of the sub-programs or the broader SIP.  And we're happy to answer any questions you have about making that decision.  And at the end of the talk is contact information.  You can also email me directly with questions.

Let's talk, now that I've given you a broad overview of the application process, let's talk a little bit about the process of actually -- sort of from start to finish.  And I'm going to start first with the OITE sub-programs.  And the key point here is that the selection process for those sub-programs happens centrally, okay?

So, a committee of OITE and NIH training directors will read your application and make decisions about your candidacy.  You should, like I've already stressed, read the FAQs, watch the video, read the guide to successfully applying, then apply in the central database, being very careful to pay attention to the fact that the deadlines for these programs vary.

A central committee here in the OITE makes the selections.  And we will notify you by the date noted online.  So, each of the programs has a different application deadline date and a different notification date.  If you are selected to participate in the sub-program, OITE staff will work with you to find an appropriate research group placement.  So, you should not reach out to individual NIH investigators or PIs during the application process.  And you may have heard from others that that's a key part of the application process.  But in this case, for these programs, it's not.

Now, in the end, if you're not admitted to the NIH -- to the sub-program that you apply for, we will help you move your application to the broader NIH SIP, and then everything that I'm going to talk about now would apply to you.  So, let's talk about the broader, general SIP application process.  Same beginning.  You apply online to the central database, read the information, put forth the best application you can.

Now, here's a key difference and a really key point: NIH investigators, or PIs, which stands for principal investigator, or someone in their research group, a surrogate on their behalf, will search the database to find candidates.  You will greatly increase your chances of getting an offer by emailing PIs with a specific email telling them why you're interested in working with them.  But you should do that only after you upload your application.

Furthermore, your cover letter needs to be written somewhat broadly, because many different NIH investigators interested in very different things will be reading it.  Many NIH investigators interview candidates, and those interviews are typically by phone.  Although, if you're in the area, it may be in person.  And very important to understand -- unlike the sub-programs where offers are made by a specific date, for the broader SIP, offers can be made at any time, generally starting in mid-December all the way through the end of April.  So, this is a protracted process.  You first apply online.  You then reach out to NIH investigators and go through the selection process directly with them.

So, let's talk about how is it that you appeal to many PIs in that cover letter.  I want to give you some guidance about this.  So, you don't want to be too focused and only appeal to a small number of people.  You also don't want to be so general that nobody finds you.  So, it's important that your cover letter include a discussion of scientific disciplines that interest you, of model systems that you might want to learn about, techniques you might want to explore.

So, for example, I'm broadly interested in cancer biology and want to learn more about using animal models in cancer research.  That gives people an idea that you want to work in the translational space looking at cancer biology.  You could go on further to say, "I would be most interested in studying prostate cancer.  But actually, I would welcome the opportunity to work in any cancer biology group."  You are both focusing this a little bit, but leaving it broad enough that many PIs would say, "Oh, that's a good fit for my group."

Another example.  Maybe you're not so focused, and you really are open to many, many areas, but you know that you want to really understand the connection between science and clinical science.  So, you could say, "I would enjoy pursuing research in a variety of areas: heart disease, stem cells, drug development, other disease-specific areas.  For me, the ability to learn about the bench-to-bedside research process is more important than the specific area."  You might point out that you learned about a specific disease or disease process or scientific area and that you'd love to explore it more.  The main point here is to be broad, but not so broad that we don't have a sense of what interests you at all.

So, how are you going to find PIs.  So, you -- this is a general letter.  And now, you are going to begin the next process, which is narrowing down your interest and reaching out to PIs.  So, there are a variety of ways to find PIs.  And let me start this by saying that we do not have a database of people who are looking for summer interns.  I know we get that question dozens of times, and I wish we could provide that, but this is a very large, dispersed campus and there are many, many research groups on many different campuses.  And because of that, we really can't provide a list.  So, you're going to have to spend some time doing some work reaching out to PIs to find a position.

In this slide, I give you a variety of resources to use from the Intramural Investigator Database, which is also called the Annual Reports.  And you can find a link to that here.  To a list of NIH intramural investigators grouped by scientific discipline.  So, perhaps you know that you really want to do neuroscience.  You could start right there.

You could contact the NIH intramural training director for institute-specific information.  If you know you'd love to work on aging, you might want to reach out first to the training director in the National Institute on Aging.  If you're interested in the long-term in becoming an ophthalmologist or exploring ophthalmology, you should reach out to the National Eye Institute training director.  Likewise, if you're interested in dentistry, to the NIDCR.  In each of the institutes is a training director who is there to help you, and the link to their contacts is on the application website.

Some applicants find it helpful to look at last year's summer poster day program to find researchers who have had summer interns in the past.  Many, many NIH investigators hire summer interns.  And this gives you a sense of the types of projects and opportunities that are available.  There's also a video not so focused on finding PIs and what they do, but more focused on what it is to find a research group, to learn there, to be comfortable there.  And I would encourage you to watch that video as well.

We often hear that searching the Annual Reports database is overwhelming, and it can be.  And so, let me give you a few tips about how to do this.  The first is not to use terms that are too broad.  So, for example, epidemiology by itself might be too broad, but epidemiology and children or epidemiology and cancer will give you a much more manageable list.  So, that's one key thing, not too broad.  But also, not too narrow.  You don't want to have one or two options.  it could take many more emails than just a handful.

You should use a variety of keywords.  You can use techniques.  Maybe you learned about proteomics, and you think it would be amazing to spend a summer actually doing some proteomic experiments as opposed to just reading about them.  You can use diseases.  I'm interested in cystic fibrosis, or I'm interested in Huntington's disease.  I'm interested in exploring mechanisms of sickle cell.  This gives NIH investigators who work on those diseases insight into your interest when you mention them specifically, right?  So, this is a great way for people to find you.

Maybe you learned about using model organisms, like Drosophila or C elegans or zebrafish.  And so, you might mention that.  Or maybe you're really interested in doing research with human subjects, and then you'll want to use a keyword of clinical research or human subjects.  And finally, you might be interested in a particular organ or physiological system, the cardiovascular disease, heart remodel, et cetera.

Search the database using keywords that are relevant for you.  And for each of you, that will be different.  Try to come up with a list of 20 or 30 PIs whose research interests you.  You don't need to read many papers about them, just read the short description in the Annual Reports and decide if that would be a place you might like to work.  Then you need to reach out to them.  And I want to start with some general guidance.

Actually, before I do that, I'm going to go back for a second, and I want to say one other thing about searching.  People have a tendency to use Google and just say NIH and cardiovascular disease.  You will not find intramural investigators that way.  So, even though the database is a bit overwhelming, start there.

You have a list, and now the next question is, "What do I do with that list?"  So, you are going to email investigators and tell them that you've applied to SIP and that you really are interested in an internship in their group.  Rule number one, no generic spamming.  No, "Dear NIH scientists, I really want to work with you."  These emails need to be personalized a little bit.  And they need to include a discussion specifically why you're interested in working with them.  You learned about this disease in school, and you wrote a paper, and it really fascinated you.  Someone you know has experienced that difficulty.  You see yourself as a public health researcher, so doing some epidemiology research would let you tell if that's really a good fit.  Why are you interested in working specifically with them?

You should also address why you are ready to work with them, what specific preparation you have.  You've taken a biochemistry course, and so you feel prepared.  Or you had neuroscience, and so you're really ready to work in a cellular neuroscience lab.  You can talk to them about previous research experiences, techniques you know, techniques you want to learn.

And make it easy for them to learn more about you.  So, include your resume as an attachment, and let them know that you've already applied through the training website.  It's important to know that you can't be hired as a summer intern at NIH unless you've applied through this web page.  So, please, make every effort to get your application in before you reach out to investigators.

So, in the next slide, I actually provide you with an example of a letter, not for you to use this exact same format, but just to give you an example of what a PI letter looks like.  If you notice, it starts with just a little bit about yourself, and then it talks a little bit about the research experience you've had, why you might be interested in this lab, and it ends with contact information, all right?  Here's my email address.  Here's my phone number.  I look forward to hearing from you.

The honest truth is that you might have success very, very early emailing only a handful of investigators.  It might take many, many investigators and many, many emails.  We are happy to read both your cover letter and an example of a PI letter.  We will not edit it carefully.  We will not spend a lot of time going back and forth with you, giving you multiple feedback.  We have thousands of applicants and a need to provide information to all of them.  But we're happy to help during the process.

Let's talk briefly about the interview, because hopefully you're going to get contacted by investigators who are going to want to interview you.  So, you, in general, will be asked about four different things: your previous research and work experience and educational experience, techniques that you might know or want to learn about, the question of why my research group, why did you pick me, and the fourth is your career goals and interests.  We appreciate that they're likely to change, but we're curious at this point what are you thinking you might like to do.  These phone calls can last anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes.  And most of these interviews are by phone.

You should ask a few questions.  And it's really the kiss of death in an interview if somebody says, "Do you have any questions for me?" for you to say no.  And so, here are some things that you might think about.  You can ask about potential projects.  You can ask whether you'll be working directly with the PI, or there'll be a postdoc, a grad student staff scientist, biologist in the group who will be supervising you.  You can ask what summer interns in the group typically do.  Do they work jointly on a project?  Do they help someone?  Do they start their own small side project during the summer?  And the mentoring video might give you some other ideas of things that you might ask about the environment and about the expectations that they have of summer interns.

This is a long application process.  It starts with the online applications, and then it involves lots of follow-up.  For those of you applying to the OITE-specific programs, some of the contact with investigators will happen after you're accepted.  For those of you applying to the broader SIP, that happens almost immediately.  And we appreciate that that's a long process.  We are happy to answer questions along the way.  You can reach us at the email address here on this slide.

There are lots of other resources here at the NIH website that I want to remind you about.  The first is the broader NIH website, nih.gov.  There are links to each of the Institute websites.  There's information about the science supported by the NIH, about extramural grants, health information for you, your family, and your community.  And our website, which is training.nih.gov, you'll find all the application resources.  You're here already, so you have already found them.  But there's lots of other archived videos, career information, and a variety of resources for you to use.

If you are interested in doing a summer internship somewhere else, or you want to just be inclusive and apply broadly -- these are very competitive, and it's a good idea to apply to multiple programs -- there's a list of summer programs outside the NIH that might be helpful for you.  The honest truth is you could just Google summer internships in STEM, and you'll find a variety of them.  I stress the contact information for the summer program, Summer_Postbac_Quest@mail.nih.gov.

Summer internships can be an amazing experience, a chance to see if what you thought you loved you really do love, a chance for you to network and talk to people about careers you hadn't even thought about, a chance for you to take book knowledge and turn it into real hands-on experience.  They are really formative opportunities.  And it's really worth putting a lot of effort into the application.  Every year, we get more applications than we have positions, and many, many qualified applicants aren't offered a spot here.  And I wish there was something that we could do about that, but the reality is that there are many talented students out there.  So, apply to multiple places.

But also, reapply at NIH if you don't get in the first time.  Many, many applicants have to reapply.  Many get in the first time as well.  And I want to stress that we welcome first-time researchers as well as more seasoned and more advanced students.  This can be an amazing place to do a Summer Internship Program from the networking opportunities, to the workshops, to the hands-on research experience, to being in Washington, D.C., which is a really vibrant, diverse place, or at one of the other campuses, where there's a special sort of NIH flavor.  This can just be an amazing way to spend the summer.  We hope that you apply, and we wish you the best during the application process.

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