What are some good international internships?

What is the criteria for selection into international internships from BITS Pilani?

• Are opportunities available to students going for their PS-I/II or anyone can apply for them? If the latter is true, how can we know more about such internships?

• Answer:

  There are plenty of opportunities available to a BITSian for a foreign internship. If you are looking for one, I would suggest you keep in mind these following points: Always check your BITS google mail. Most of the universities are themselves interested in providing these opportunities to BITSians. Hence, you shall frequently receive mails providing you the requisite details. Check notice boards regularly. For example, Announcements of the internships available in international practice schools stations etc. Seek advice from seniors who have availed such opportunities and are currently on campus. If they are not on campus, drop them a mail. (Use Facebook's graph search to your advantage.) Keep in touch with the professors. Don't just see them as sources of recommendations. Seek advice from them. They have a lot of experience in this regard and connections. (Obviously) Most of the internships are either communicated to you via mail or through the notices. However, I would recommend you to follow these two websites which lists down all such opportunities. Evaluate your preferences and land the perfect internship. http://blog.internshala.com/internship-list/international-internship/ http://www.internships.com/student Anyways, I've listed down some below which I could recall. [Note: The duration and application dates may be different for the dual degree students. Please visit the individual websites for complete information.] Post First Year during the summer holidays There is hardly any opportunity you can avail after the first year. Most institutes prefer (actually demands) students who have completed at least two years of undergraduate study. However, there's no harm in trying. You can use the above links to find any such opportunity. Also, I would suggest students to exploit these long stretch of holidays. If you haven't decided what you are going to do with your life in the future this is the time to experiment. Instead of looking for internships to add brownie points to your resume spend your time on something which interests you. (Besides Sleeping or Gaming) Post Second Year during the summer holidays Practice School -1 Tough Luck here! It's a compulsory eight weeks duration course work. The main aim of this programme is to provide professional exposure to the students. I think I'm running out of space to describe you in details about the benefits of this programme over internships. In simpler words, no internship opportunity is available during this "exposure-oriented programme" Further Details can be found at : http://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/university/practiceschool/aboutPsI Tada! Well now your pathway to a Professional career paves. Post third year during the summer holidays Mitacs You can apply for a 12 week http://www.mitacs.ca/ research internship. Students can join the Globalink program to work under a Canadian professor from a list of total 30+ universities.  They start accepting applications from mid-August itself. The eligibility criteria is: Completion of the second to last year of study and an 8 CGPA. They receive about thousands of applications out of which few hundreds are shortlisted. You also get a stipend of 200$ every week. Further details can be found on their website: http://www.mitacs.ca/. CERN For a total of eight weeks, students get an opportunity to attend the CERN generic student program lectures. They offer a stipend of CHF 5500 which  sponsored by CERN and the CERN open-lab industrial partners cover your travel, accommodation and living costs during the two-month stay. Further details can be found on their website: http://jobs.web.cern.ch/join-us/students DAAD This provides an opportunity for students to research in a German University. The internship duration is 2-3 months (maximum of 90 days). They also give you a stipend of 650 Euros monthly and a travel subsidy of 550 Euros. The eligibility criteria is: A CGPA of 8.5 and Either pursuing full time Bachelor degree programme who are enrolled in their 5th and 6th semester or Pursuing a full time Dual Degree enrolled in their 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th semester at the time of application. Further details can be found on their website: https://www.daad.de/en/ EPFL I'm not sure whether they accept applications only from old IITs or BITS as well. Further details can be found on their website: http://ri.epfl.ch/india/internships During 4th Year (Single degree students) Practice School II The PS-2 option provides and opportunity for the students to work in some International Host organizations. Some of the stations are: # DreamWorks Animation Studios, Los Angeles # Cypress Semiconductor, San Jose, California # Pocket Gems, USA # Insead Business School, Singapore etc. Remember new stations sign up and few old stations withdraw every year.  Also, every host organization has its own eligibility criteria and application procedure for shortlisting the desired candidates.  Further Details can be found at : http://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/university/practiceschool/AboutPSII Thesis For students who are interested in internships other than the PS-2 stations there's an option of off-campus thesis/ dissertation. The procedure seems quite simple but you'll have to make a few rounds of PSD/ARCD etc. First you'll have to convert your PS to TS. Then you'll have to inform the HOD about your supervisor, area of research, location etc. details. After getting the consent from off-campus supervisor about delivering of your grades on time, communication with the campus etc. you shall be able to successfully avail this opportunity. You shall come to know about the procedure in detail in fourth year. The important thing you should keep in mind is that before applying for thesis you must have received the confirmation already from your supervising professor. Low/Average CGPA pals (CGPA<8) You might have noticed that most of these opportunities demand a high CGPA of 8 and above to even be considered for available positions. Does it imply that students with CGPA less than 8 can't avail a foreign internship? Well surely not the ones which have explicit cut-offs listed. But, you do have opportunities at par with them. The only eligibility criterion is your passion and your primary motive. What do you require? Work Portfolio An impressive Curriculum Vitae/Resume highlighting your interests in the specific field How to proceed? First list down some universities in which you are particularly interested in interning. Find the professors in your particular field of interest. Go through their research interests and get their official e-mail id from the university website. Write a mail to each of these professors addressing them individually (Remember No Cc or Bcc).  Explain why are you interested in the particular field of research... Why should he hire you as an intern..etc. The above method can also be exercised by high CGPA graders. Word of Caution Never spam the professors. If they are interested and willing, you shall hear from them with the details. Some are kind enough to send you a sympathetic rejection appreciating your work and encouraging you to carry on forward. But don't expect replies from everyone. Remember they receive hundreds of applications every day and replying to each and every single applicant can turn out to be an assiduous task for them. Drawback A major drawback is that most of the professors (who are interested in hiring you) unlike MITACS would not be able to support you financially and would ask you to sustain yourself. If that works out for you well and good. Edit: I may have missed out a thing or two. Hence, I shall keep on updating the answer. If you have any other questions or doubts please drop a comment here. Thanks for the A2A.