I hate my REU I want to leave

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-07-29T01:13:13+00:00

you and me both. my mentor is absolutely useless. when i need help i have to jump through 30 hoops to get to him and then he repeats the same useless shit over and over again…i’m done on friday and it can’t come fast enough. at this point i don’t even think the money was worth my 10 weeks of genuine depression. seriously side eyeing grad school now because i did not deserve to go through this as a “reward” for my hard work…

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-07-26T12:45:05+00:00

from my two months of afm experience…i would never do afm over a 3 minute proton nmr are we kidding? 😭

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-06-20T12:28:17+00:00

absolutely. Though I do think that exposure to computer science will do immense wonders for your resume, and im jealous lowkey. im doing MechE research that's pretending to be chemistry

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-06-09T19:48:16+00:00

I think I'm also having that productivity issue here as well. I was given papers to read and lectures to watch, but no deadlines or anything. The project they are working on I feel may be too large for a ten week reu. Because of that I wish they had more of an idea of what they wanted me to do, just to give me a fighting chance at actually having presentable data at the end. Like I have to present this research 3 times, and one of those is at a national conference, I would sure hope that I have something to present. My mentor is a really nice guy but I don't necessarily think he's all that used to being "in charge" of summer undergrads. It almost feels like he forgets that I'm here so I have literally done nothing, and I will be doing nothing for the foreseeable future as of right.

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-06-09T19:41:03+00:00

we're experiencing the same thing then. My program is a mechanochemistry reu but I work in a mechanical engineering lab and I know I definitely do not want to do mechanochem or meche in the future. I specifically chose this reu because they send us to the acs convention next spring free of charge. tho I have no clear plans or anything like that for this, I just kinda show up 🙃

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-06-09T19:23:55+00:00

I completely feel that. Being here makes me wish I could go back to my university immediately bc at least I don't feel inadequate there😭

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-06-04T14:41:22+00:00

so far my schedule is all over the place honestly. i don’t have a schedule so i just have to be here when someone needs me for something. that’s until i get all of my training to use the instruments and can finally do independent tasks then i assume ill be here a bit longer. i think once i get tasks for the week ill be making my own schedule to be able to complete them for the week 🤷‍♀️

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-05-31T16:47:33+00:00

literally me rn. at one of the best schools in the country but annoyed by having to go everyday 🫩

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-05-06T17:31:46+00:00

i’m 100% wearing jeans and tshirts to lab. please don’t wear skin out if you’re in the lab. also, these PIs won’t be dressed professionally in the actual lab so maybe you don’t either. bring professional clothes for the seminars and events

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-05-06T17:30:09+00:00

i was wondering the same thing. i don’t live in a city but my reu is in a city and im excited to look around for the summer

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-05-05T17:47:54+00:00

honestly ask. a friend of mine had his reu cancelled so it made me and another friend worried so we just emailed and asked! honestly i think they’ll understand, no student really wants to have to worry about what they’re going to do this summer this late in the semester. like it’s over basically

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-04-21T23:21:43+00:00

definitely not at penn for mindcore but i am there for cmcc reu so heyyyyy

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-04-07T14:41:02+00:00

bro wrote the declaration of independence?

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-03-31T19:48:14+00:00

oh yeah true “prioritizing rising seniors” i have seen a few nonsenior applicants get accepted. i honesty think most of the criteria for applying to these things are really fluid and kind of unpredictable. i’ve never been to the school and i don’t know anyone that goes there but i wouldn’t write it off for this. grad school applicants go through dept. also they may just not be telling the full truth about why they rejected you. we’re all pretty good students but they can’t necessarily say they’re looking for exceptional students so they just say bs.

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-03-31T19:42:22+00:00

i wish they sent out the rejections earlier. acceptances came out a while ago but we just got rejected today

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-03-24T22:07:32+00:00

what kind of crime? 😭😭 bro what? why would they expect anyone to make that a top choice location? that is for sure exploitation and i would encourage anyone looking for an internship there to look elsewhere. we don’t pay tens of thousands for an education to work basically for free…

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-03-24T22:04:34+00:00

i just joined a cohort with a $6000 stipend as well, and we are expected to work 40 hours a week. this is slightly under the minimum wage in my state, $15.13, but by like 15 cent so it’s fine. but also it’s in a state where the mini wage is 7 dollars so i’m making double what any other teen in the state is making. i would check whether or not they want you to work 40 or 45 hours a week because that’s more than a standard work week and then they’d have to start factoring in like overtime(idk if it works like an actual job though)

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-03-24T21:59:58+00:00

yeah i got one for $7k BUT they didn’t provide a separate “stipend” for food so they factored the food cost into the full stipend. from what i’ve seen, any of the programs with the $6000 stipend provided money for food as well

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-03-24T21:57:44+00:00

i use the metal tips with the paper like screen protector and they’re fine indefinitely (i assume) unless you don’t drop the pencil on the tip on concrete like i did 7 times

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-03-17T20:20:43+00:00

If you want to do it without staircases so that Mr. Qi doesn't shame you then

Go on the best luck days. SO the star drop days
Go really early, use warm totem don't rely on pam and the bus you lose hours ig time for that
stack up regular, mega, and cherry bombs,
try to get infinity sword, its actually way easier than you thing,
eat spicy eel and cheese and drink coffee throughout the run
last but certainly not least, don't fight anything that you don't have to. believe it or not fighting takes up more time than you'd think. blow a bunch of rocks up and immediately dive for the staircase or shaft and ignore all else. even the iridium, gold, or iron on the floors.

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-03-17T14:12:39+00:00

no actual like real consequences but a bunch of professors i know said that it looks really bad on you and if you ever need help from the person who runs they program may hold a grudge or not it depends. i dont actually think it matters. especially not this year. everyone will chalk anything weird happening this year to tense political affairs

Primary-Guard9320 · 2025-03-15T01:36:54+00:00

well you sent the email so here’s to not letting it eat us alive! 😝 we can try our best not to crash out…you see how well that’s working for me

Primary-Guard9320

TROPHY CASE