Obviously it would be more convenient if EA orgs accepted interns earlier, and I totally agree that it destroys value when we don’t :(
Moving EA program deadlines up to compete with industry might be challenging for orgs that aren’t 100% sure what kind of funding they’ll have for summer programs. In this case, consider what kind of guidelines you can provide to prospective candidates to give them a better sense of how likely they will be accepted for a summer program at your org. Also, consider doing early acceptances if an extremely talented student contacts you with an exploding offer from another organization, and publicizing this policy if you decide to enact it.
FWIW in Redwood Research’s case, our main bottleneck isn’t funding, it’s that we aren’t sure what our org is going to look like in eight months’ time—we might be feeling like we’re doing a great job and have lots of management capacity and space for interns, or we might be feeling like we’re wandering in the desert and don’t know what research we should be doing, in which case interns will be a dangerous distraction.
I think the right comparison to draw is between EA orgs and similarly small startups; my rough experience is that small startups are similarly uncomfortable making internship offers far in advance.
That’s a very important insight! And it’s too bad, because programs like Redwood’s MLAB are excellent opportunities that I would prefer undergrads to apply to over corporate positions at Bain.
I’m just hoping this post makes orgs update on the benefits of earlier application deadline/acceptances, with the understanding that these might still not outweigh the costs for each specific org.
Obviously it would be more convenient if EA orgs accepted interns earlier, and I totally agree that it destroys value when we don’t :(
FWIW in Redwood Research’s case, our main bottleneck isn’t funding, it’s that we aren’t sure what our org is going to look like in eight months’ time—we might be feeling like we’re doing a great job and have lots of management capacity and space for interns, or we might be feeling like we’re wandering in the desert and don’t know what research we should be doing, in which case interns will be a dangerous distraction.
I think the right comparison to draw is between EA orgs and similarly small startups; my rough experience is that small startups are similarly uncomfortable making internship offers far in advance.
That’s a very important insight! And it’s too bad, because programs like Redwood’s MLAB are excellent opportunities that I would prefer undergrads to apply to over corporate positions at Bain.
I’m just hoping this post makes orgs update on the benefits of earlier application deadline/acceptances, with the understanding that these might still not outweigh the costs for each specific org.