Flyby’s Guide to Your Summer Search

It’s a new semester and a new opportunity to freak out over your course schedule, your relationship status, and of course, your summer plans. Maybe you missed the memo about recruiting season getting moved up to the fall, didn’t have much luck with your other interviews, or just like to tell people that you’re not a “corporate sellout” (yet!) Rest assured—there are still amazing summer opportunities available that don’t have “Goldman Sachs” in their title. As always, Flyby has you covered with our guide to your summer search:

Oh the places you'll (try to) go By Wikimedia Commons

If you’re a junior planning on writing a thesis, consider doing thesis research this summer. Whether you’re holed up in a library on campus or traveling the world, Harvard likely has some money for you to get a head start on the soul-crushing, mind-numbing experience that will take over your senior year. Sound like fun yet?

Believe it or not, it is possible to get an internship outside of OCS’s main recruiting program. Check out the IOP’s Director’s Internships (application due February 5th). Even if you aren’t politically inclined and don’t have IOP experience, there are Director’s internships at places like Facebook, NASA, and MTV, so take a look. If you want to venture further afield while still getting work experience, look into the DRCLAS internship programs in South America (also due February 5th).

Harvard also offers on-campus research programs for non-thesisers. If you’re interested in Econ and Business, check out PRIMO through HBS (application due February 22nd), and if social science research is up your alley, you should also look into BLISS (also due February 22nd). More sciencey types should look into PRISE (due February 14th). Harvard also has SHARP (due February 22nd) for humanities research, and SURGH (due January 31st) for global health. That is, if the cheesy acronyms haven’t turned you off entirely.

If you’re hoping for an enviable, insta-worthy summer, apply to study abroad. The deadline for Harvard’s programs has already passed, but there are summer programs available through other schools that you may be able to get Harvard funding for. Study Marine Systems in Turks and Caicos, Portuguese in Brazil with Yale (If you can tolerate a whole summer with the Yalies), or pick your program at Cambridge without needing a pesky Marshall scholarship.

If you’re hoping to travel but don’t want to pay for a study abroad program, consider doing a work exchange. Sites like Workaway and HelpX can help connect you with people in need of various odd jobs from babysitting to teaching English to picking grapes. WWOOF can connect you with organic farms in need of farmhands. In exchange for a few hours of work a day, you’ll usually get free room and some board, plus a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in another culture and break out of the Harvard bubble. After all, you’ll have the rest of your life after college to work during the summer...why not do something different? Trust us, you’ll be the only person in your seminar next fall who worked on a goat farm instead of in a cubicle.