High school is a crucial time to prepare for your academic and career paths.

It’s crucial to explore your interests and talents.

Internships can be a great way to dive into mathematics, especially when this gives you the opportunity to conduct real research in the field.

You will be able to gain valuable skills for the rest of your career as the result of participating in one of these opportunities.

I will share some of the benefits and tell you how to get an internship opportunity as a student in high school.

What are the Benefits of a Math Internship?

Math is a foundational field for many different industries, making it a useful thing to study.

It has applications in physics, engineering, and finance, in addition to being a valid intellectual pursuit in its own right.

Here are some of the main things you will benefit from by doing a math internship Hands-On Learning: You will be able to use your knowledge from classes to see how math gets used in a real-world setting.

Career Exploration: You will be able to gain exposure to the environment that people who do math work in, which is important to consider when deciding whether it is something that you would like to pursue in the future.

Networking: You will be able to network with people in the group that you work for, which can ultimately lead to future mentorship and employment opportunities.

Resume Building: A good internship can be a strong point for a resume.

It shows that you are able to take initiative and will demonstrate your skills to future employers.

College Readiness: This type of experience can help you decide whether you would like to study mathematics in college and demonstrate to these schools that you are skilled in your intended field of study.

How to Get a Math Internship There are a few ways that you can go about getting an experience that you would like in the field of mathematics: Apply and get accepted into a formal research program that will teach you how to conduct research in the field Cold-email various labs explaining your interest in the field and ask for a research opportunity.

Apply online to companies with roles for high schools students that involve a lot of math.

There are not many of these opportunities available, but some people tend to overlook these for opportunities in academia.

There are areas like finance, engineering, and data science that use a lot of math.

Research Programs Here is some information about how you would go about getting into a research program.

Note that this is the least likely of all three to work out, since it takes a lot less effort for students to find the most prestigious research programs.

Most of them will look at the following when deciding whether to accept you: High School Academic Record: You should maintain a competitive GPA and be skilled in math, science, and engineering courses.

You must submit proof of your academic excellence in the form of a high school transcript.

You can request this from your counselor or academic supervisor.

Standardized Testing Scores: Along with your academic record, many programs look at all of your standardized testing scores.

This includes the PSAT, SAT, ACT, and any AP tests.

They strongly recommend that you take the PSAT.

To remain a competitive applicant, you must have obtained at least one of the following test scores: PSAT: 700 R&W, 740 Math ACT: 34 English/Science/Writing, 33 Math Extracurricular Activities/Awards: Many programs require you to concisely outline your major activities or awards.

These can range from winning math olympiads, to science journal publications.

Even leadership in STEM clubs or hackathons can count.

They want to see that you have taken an initiative towards your passions in STEM.

In addition to these extracurriculars, they also want to see that you do more than just STEM.

Some applications include a section dedicated to non-STEM extracurriculars, from sports teams to poetry clubs.

Letters of Recommendation: Most programs require recommendations from teachers or research supervisors.

While you can go on and on about how good you are, it helps that you have other people to vouch for you as well.

This is why it’s important to build strong relationships with your teachers and anyone else whom you may work with.

Essays: Essays allow you to showcase who you truly are.

Your essays are also an assessment of your writing abilities: scientists must be effective at communicating their results to the scientific community.

Cold-Email The way that cold-emailing a lab would work is that you would identify a mathematics professor or department that you are interested in joining.

Then, you will email them with the hope that they will take you on to help with their research.

I wrote a detailed guide about how you can actually accomplish this, which is linked below. https://rishabacademy. com/2024/03/06/how-to-cold-email-as-a-high-school-student Conclusions Finding an internship can be a great stepping stone and help you decide whether the field of math is something for you.

It also looks very good for applications.

We have a list of 50+ competitions and opportunities available at Ultimate STEM Student Guide, which is available to anyone completely for free.

Additionally, it has tips and tricks including cold email templates so that you can secure an opportunity this summer.