Gaining work experience is a fantastic way to help you stand out from the crowd when it comes to university applications, but what kind of internship is best for high school students?
This will mostly depend on your interests and goals beyond university. In this article, we’re looking into academic internships – an option you might not have heard much about before.
So, without further ado…
What Is an Academic Internship?
Academic internships are placements that offer you the opportunity to develop your research and analytical skills. They can take a variety of forms but tend to centre on applying your knowledge in a real-life context and learning more about a field of study outside the traditional classroom setting.
During an academic internship, you’ll have the opportunity to meet professionals in your sector and experience what their day-to-day life is like. This means you can gain first-hand experience of the subject, rather than relying solely on online research or word of mouth.
Depending on the programme, your internship might involve working with a host organisation on a predetermined topic, such as researching the impacts of COVID-19 on medical healthcare. Alternatively, you might be responsible for consulting with a client to assess their needs and plan a project.
Both of these options are valuable as they each reflect the real working projects of professionals in your field.
What Is an Academic Research Internship?
Each academic internship will be different, but in most sectors there will be an option to work on a piece of research alongside a team of other interns and an expert mentor. These are known as academic research internships.
For example, if you’re considering pursuing a career in medicine, our Medicine research internships offer the chance to co-author an academic paper on cutting-edge topics like epigenetics and AI in cancer diagnostics. Similarly, students on our Business, Economics & Finance internships contribute to the latest research on financial technology and global economic governance.
Although this may seem daunting, it’s great practice ahead of university. You’ll have a mentor guiding you through the process and giving you detailed advice on how to produce your best work.
What’s the Role of a Mentor During an Internship?
Whatever kind of internship you’re completing, academic or otherwise, you will likely be assigned a mentor or manager. Their role is to help you perform to the best of your ability, but also to answer any questions you might have about the field, their career to date or the degree that they studied.
In an academic internship specifically, mentors can guide you through the academic writing process, standing you in excellent stead for the start of your degree. Mentors can also challenge your ideas, giving you the chance to think critically about the sector and clearly articulate your thoughts.
What Skills Will I Develop During an Academic Internship?
It goes without saying that there are any benefits to an academic internship, allowing you to develop a variety of skills in a relatively short period of time.
Working as part of a research team means attending frequent meetings to discuss your work and your next steps, sharing ideas clearly and developing advanced collaboration skills.
The experience of learning and researching in a formal setting allows you to develop your intellectual independence in a way that can be more challenging than school. For example, when completing a research internship you’ll find that you’re encouraged to consider the sources you come across carefully, assess their biases and evaluate whether or not they are reliable enough to include in your work.
If you’re completing a STEM-focused academic internship, you’ll also likely get to apply your data analysis skills to real life problems. Data analysis is a really important skill for STEM degrees at university, so getting a head start on it is really valuable.
The process of then communicating your thoughts to a wider audience, whether by writing a research paper, presenting to a group, or both, will help develop academic writing, presentation and public speaking skills.
Academic Internships at Oxford Scholastica
At the Oxford Scholastica Academy, we offer a range of online academic internships for students aged 15-18 in the following subjects:
- Business, Economics & Finance
- Computer Science & Coding
- Engineering
- Law
- Medicine
- Politics & International Relations
- Psychology & Neuroscience
These opportunities allow you to work with an international group of young people under an expert mentor from a leading university.
We give interns the chance to explore highly topical subjects in depth, helping them develop research and communication skills along the way. By the end of the internship, each group co-authors a high-quality research paper, which we then consider for publication on OxJournal.
Completing an academic internship helps you stand out in future applications, especially at competitive UK universities where admissions teams highly value super-curricular experiences during the selection process.
By Oxford Scholastica Academy
The Oxford Scholastica Academy was founded in 2013 by Jamie and Sophie, two former University of Oxford students, who have built a dynamic education company dedicated to empowering young people to chart their path in the world and make it better.
