Re: ==When to Do Internship?
balance big name with what you actually do. both are important, big name brings its advantages, but what u did and what you learnt is important as well.
some major companies have very well developed inernship programs, in others the intern is nothing more than a peon asked to make copies and all the crap no one really wants to do in the name of hey this way you can see what all takes place.
as far as the ama president great student issues, maybe she just was not the right fit for the roles. in the end its how the hiring mgr feels. For a very prestigious internship, I did not have the GPA to apply for it even though it was really somethign i wanted. At a conference i asked my advisor who was on the governer's advisory board for internatonal trade if I could help them. we had some conversation about why, and experience plus interest. He asked me why did you not appl for that internship, that was right in your area, I said because I dont have the cumulative GPA that was required. He said why did ou not tell me, wait here. ..brings a guy, Elliot meet my student, he is interested in that internship you have with our uni but does not have the gPA, however..then he proceeded to describe why he thought I would be a good fit, elliot, talks to me briefly, gestures another guy to come over, says, Paul this is one of Raffael's students, interested in that internship in your group, have you fileld it yet, Paul says no, so they talk to me briefly, ask me to come down to the office next week. I get a call on Monday sayiong they need to push it out a few days, so I figured yeah yeah..its over, then my advisor called, saying, listen I know they delayed the visit to theri office, but I just talked to Elliot, you are in, I wanted you to know do u are not nervous, btw paul does not know that you know, so dont act too cocky.
the guys and girls I was competign against were the 3.8-4.0 gpa types, while I was hovering just above 3. and i got it.
so..relationships matter, chemistry matters..grades and all that jazz do matter, but are not the only thing.