Prospective PhD Students, Intern Abroad!

Boys, be ambitious! Prospective PhD students, intern abroad!

Why? If you’re aiming to get a PhD admission from a US university, interning at a research lab in a US university concretely boosts your chances. You will get to know professors there, and if you do a good job, they may try to hire you as a PhD student themselves. At the same time, you will get a strong letter of recommendation from them, which is crucial for PhD admissions. You see, nearly all letters say that the applicant is very good. What matters is who said that, and whether the reader of the letter knows the letter writer well enough to weigh in on their opinion. A professor at a US university is more likely to be known by the letter readers at other US universities.

I never quite imagined that interning abroad was possible when I was a prospective PhD student in SNU. However, I am now a fifth year PhD student at the University of Michigan CSE, and I can tell you for sure that there are many cases where international students intern abroad at labs in US universities. I especially see Chinese students (particularly those from elite classes like Yao Class, Turing class, ACM class, etc.) doing this. We’re always short on good interns; there are tons of engineering work (research and open-source) to be done, and also more project ideas than good people to work on them.

So, it’s worth it, and it’s possible. Now, is it easy? Not really. You need to clearly demonstrate to the professor that you are worth the trouble of sponsoring a J-1 visiting scholar visa for you. Being from a university that is well-known in the US (e.g., SNU, KAIST) definitely helps, and having a CV & GitHub profile that demonstrate your research potential, engineering skill, and craftsmanship is crucial. Establishing communications with PhD students in the lab beforehand should also help.

You will be traveling to the US for a few months, likely alone in a foreign country with unfamiliar language, culture, and work environment. You will have to keep yourself alive there and handle unfamiliar paperwork on your own, while also scrambling to do a good job at work. It’s a great challenge, but also a great opportunity.