Undergraduate Research Internships
The first internship is what will jump start your career, more than your GPA or coursework completion.​
Below are the steps you should take in order to get your first internship, and how to become an outstanding researcher once you're established.
Finding an Academic Advisor
The first step in the process is choosing an academic advisor to work with in your undergraduate years. During your second or third year, you want to establish a list of 5-10 professors in your area to contact.
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To start, you want to look through your department's page and look through the faculty. Each faculty member's page should have a brief description of their research. Additionally, you can look through each faculty member's lab website, which should either be linked on their page or you need to look up "[professor name] lab [university]" (e.g., "Jonny Appleseed lab University of California") and find the possible results there.
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Log the research interests you find most interesting in a Google or Excel spreadsheet. Then, rank the professors' research by what you're most interested in and by what you have the most experience/knowledge.