My Immaculate Treatise of an Awesome Canadian Summer (MITACS): Part One
In the Summer of ’22, I had the amazing opportunity to go visit the University of British Columbia as a research intern for 12 weeks. This series of articles is to encapsulate my experience both for memories, and as an aide to future applicants. This particular article deals with the entire application process.
For those living under a rock the size of a mountain (which now that I say it out loud, is just a mountain), MITACS is a non-profit organization backed by the Canadian Government, and has a multitude of initiatives, one of them being the MITACS Globalink Research Internship Programme. In a pleasant surprise, the programme selected more than 80 students from IIT Kharagpur last year, contrary to the usual 5-odd, leading to the dramatic rise in applicants and my DMs this year, further motivating this blog.
To qualify, one must have 1 to 3 semesters left in their degree programme AFTER the fall (September mid) following the end of the internship. To put it simply, both 3rd year BTech and 3rd year Dual Degree students at IIT Kharagpur can apply. The programme is fully funded, and lets the applicant pursue a 12-week long research internship in a top-ranking Canadian University, if selected. Once selected for the Globalink Research Internship programme, one also unlocks the Globalink Graduate Fellowship: an aid of $15,000 to former Globalink interns who return to Canada for a Masters/PhD/PostDoc.
Phase I: Application
In my experience, corporate internships come with a load of money, but also with next-to-no innovative work, and just doing stuff that’s already been done to complete saturation and then some. Done with the clumsy repetitive work I was being assigned, I set my eyes on a KGPian fantasy: FT (Foreign Training). As every aspiring third year does, I too started out by getting seenzoned by professors for about a month, before I heard of MITACS. It was hailed as this arc of the covenent reserved only for the best of the best, and the record suggests that only a handful KGPians get selected every year. Although, as my unapologetically high hopes would have it, I sought to apply, and also got a few friends of mine to do so.
So it began. Cross checking SOPs, research statements, and even LoRs because like your parents, even professors won’t praise you themselves and you have to rely on your own creativity and self-image for any sort of validation (to my folks reading this, y’all amaze dw). Although, being a part of The Scholars’ Avenue (shameless plug) would have me write a dope application, just as it has me writing this article.
For those tasked with writing their own letters of recommendation, highlight the challenges you overcame and the managarial skills you demonstrated, even for tech-based roles. Your resume and SOP do more than enough to demonstrate your technical ability and skillset. An LOR serves as a heart-to-heart (although a case can be made for unresponsive professors having none) between professors to express the fact that you are trustworthy and reliable. Say things like, “Vatsal demonstrated zeal and reliability because he did XYZ despite ABC” instead of just saying “Vatsal did XYZ”. The more positive adjectives with examples backing them, the better.
All applicants also had to give a preference order of 7 projects, spanning atleast 3 different provinces. If you find yourself stuck on choosing the projects and the university, follow this simple rule:
Topic of Project > Professor/lab group’s activity > University’s reputation
While the h-index of a professor does have some merit in comparisons, they are biased towards older professors who have had a lot more time to publish and gain citations. Instead, read your professor and their lab’s website, and go through their recent publications/pre-prints to see whether they appeal to you. The University’s name and fame barely matters at all at our level, and should be used only to break a tie. Although truth be told, while applying I followed none of these guidelines, and it was pretty random on my part, but that in no way means that you shouldn’t.
My top preference was a project at McGill University for detecting skin lesions using graph-based machine learning, and the second (which I eventually got), in the University of British Columbia, in automatic documentation of software projects.
Phase II: Interviews
Come the November Rain, all of us applicants started received requests from our list of professors for an interview or some form of screening. Now’s a good time to mention that getting an interview isn’t indicative of anything. It all depends on the professor chosen. One of my fellow interns received an offer letter directly without an interview at all, so in case you find yourself without an interview request when you apply, don’t stop believin’.
MITACS divides its student matching period into two. Applicants are equally likely to be contacted by a professor in either period, and the likelihood of being contacted totally depends on the professor’s interest and availability. After the end of the first period (roughly around the end of November), the applicants either receive an offer directly, or are put into the second round of interviews, which has the exact same procedure as the first round. The final award letters come in the end of February.
Personally, I received three interview requests in the first period. The first was from the University of British Columbia. Given the name and fame of the University, I planned for every possible question I could be asked, and entered the interview meeting. The professor asked me all of two questions:
“Tell me about your past experience,” which I answered to perfection as planned.
“Any further questions?” to which a bamboozled shell of a Vatsal replied, “No.”
That was it. Two minutes. I sat there disappointed and at the time it felt like the professor had already made her choice and this was just a formality. Indeed, it was.
The second was from the University of Alberta, the ISB of Canada (no offence intended). I was very interested in the project however, and already had my crafted responses at hand. As fate would have it though, I was greeted with a google doc of two DS/Algo questions which I knew nothing about, and the project description said nothing about either. So well, that’s that.
The third was from the University of Manitoba, my last preference. At this point, I had lost all hopes of getting selected, and barely prepared for the interview at all. Just an hour before the interview, I read the project description, and to my horror, it was not in ML at all. Worse yet, it was in BioInformatics. My lazy ass had just skimmed through the project description and added it to my preferences. Now you would think that this interview would have been an absolute trainwreck; and you would be right, except that it was probably better than both the other interviews.
Phase III: Celebrations
One fine December morning, I woke up to receive a mail from MITACS saying that I was selected to spend 12 weeks in Canada at the University of British Columbia! I could really not believe my eyes, but this did call for celebration! So if you do find yourself without an interview or ones which went terribly, rest assured and let the universe and its probabiliity hexes (or God, your call) do its thing.
For any further queries, reach out to me on any of my socials!
