<p>Ok.
I'm not thrilled that this thread has been revived. But, having read the whole thing, and having been a semifinalist from Ward Melville, I'm going to do my best to tell you all how this works, what I think about it, and then, I will not post on this thread ever again. You can decide whatever you want, but at least hear some facts.</p>
<p>When I was in 9th grade in junior high, we had a presentation during lunch time, and anyone who thought they might be interested in science research was to attend. We learned about the InSTAR program, and how we could apply for it. I don't remember specifically what the application comprised, but it was something along the lines of an essay, maybe a transcript or teacher recommendations. Over the following summer, we learned whether or not we had been selected.</p>
<p>If one was selected, as I was, this meant that you would have one period (of 9) each day for InSTAR class. Around school, we liked to call this class, AP Lunch - we recieved honors credit, but mostly we just ate lunch. We did some projects, like entering the West Point Bridge Design contest, on FIRST competitions, or whatever. And we were taught some basic statistics, like chi-squared tests and student's t tests. If you showed up and put in a modicum of effort, you recieved a good grade.</p>
<p>One day, at the end of tenth grade, it was announced that it would be a good idea to start looking for a mentor if we wanted to do research this summer. Some people seemed to thnk this was a good idea - and others weren't that interested. I thought it would be good to get an early start. Why not work on a project for two years, rather than one? We were handed the outline of a letter which we could modify to suit our purposes. I have posted the gist of this form letter elsewhere on CC. We were then instructed to use the internet to find potential mentors, focusing on areas that we were interested in, and preferably somewhere local to minimize transportation issues as much as possible. We were also given a list of mentors past students had worked with. I wrote to several potential mentors (maybe 10) with little success. I had read published articles by all of them in order to have some idea of what they did. None were interested. I was frustrated. </p>
<p>At the time, I was attending a series of lectures at Stony Brook called mini-med school. One of the presenters gave a really interesting and funny talk. Afterwards, I read several of his journal articles, which were completely unrelated to the lecture. I wrote to him, and though I didn't understand all the details of the papers, he agreed to have me work in his lab for the following two summers. </p>
<p>At this point, I should add that I had no personal connection to this man. He wasn't my dad, or my dad's buddy from med school. Neither of my parents worked for Stony Brook at the time (although in the interests of complete and full disclosure, they are both alums - though not of the med school, where this researcher worked - and my mom is employed by Stony Brook now). The only connection I had was that my close friend's father had worked with him several years ago, though I didn't learn this until after I the researcher had offered me a position in the lab. And no, my friend's dad did not lobby on my behalf. He didn't know I would be working with his former coworker until it had been arranged and I mentioned it to him.</p>
<p>This is a tenuous connection in my town - where Stony Brook is the largest employer. Everyone knows someone who works there, or went there, or whatever. But, few kids I know got research positions based on their connections. It's not fair to argue that because someone's mom works at Stony Brook, they got their research position unfairly. The two are NOT always (or even often, in my experience) related.</p>
<p>So back to my story, then. I worked in this lab 5 days a week, all summer long. I didn't design the experiments. I didn't forumlate the hypothesis. I was a lab tech - pipetting as I was told. In all fairness, this was because I had agreed to stay for two summers. In the first, I would learn the lab techniques, and in the second, I would develop my own project. But, I grew a bit bored, and I did not stay for the second summer.</p>
<p>The following year, I applied for a place in the program run by Dr. Rafailovich, described in the article posted by the OP. I knew several people who had partcipated in the program, and knew that many people had gone on to do very well in science competitions after doing their research there. I applied to the program, and was accepted. Once again, I had zero connection to the researchers working there, and I actually do not know of anyone in the program who did. At this summer program, I worked with students from Ward Melville, yes, but also with students from across Long Island and New York City, and from Connecticut, New Jersey, and Texas.</p>
<p>During the first weeks of the program, we were given sheets describing the main areas of the lab's research. With greater interest in medicine than materials, I at first wanted to do a project on medicated stents, a new development that I had read about in the popular press (this was several years ago - medicated stents are now pretty commonplace. But they were quite new at the time). Unfortunately, none of the postdocs were really interested in helping me on such a project, and eventually I realized that I needed to pick something else. I looked up some papers by the postdocs at the lab, and found that one in particular was working on tissue engineering and the reactions of cells to materials. This was at least semi-close to my original interest, so I approached her. Over the next weeks I read many other papers, just to get an idea of where the field was. I found that all of the tissue engineering projects were working on making patterns with just one type of cell, and i knew that in one's leg, for example, there were many kinds of cells. I wanted to know, how would tissue engineers get different cells to grow together? How could you make patterns with two kinds, or three? From reading the articles I had and from asking the postdoc about her research, I learned that they were using polymer coatings to direct the growth of cells. I theorized - what if you used two polymers, one that attracted each kind of cell, and repelled the other? It was not this simple, as in turned out. The polymers would mix or not mix in the ways I had envisioned, and a polymer that would repell one cell, often repelled all cells. I had to go to the literature to find out which polymers could be safely implanted in humans. Anyway, it was a long process. Often, my mentors would suggest a polymer that I should try - after all, as a rising high school junior, I didn't have extensive knowledge about the properties of all polymers. But often, the suggested polymer wouldn't work as I had expected it to. (Which I discovered using atomic force microscopy, confocal microscopy, and optical microscopy - all of which I was taught to use by postgrads). </p>
<p>In the end, I never found the right polymer to make the method work. But, I had put in many many many hours, including late nights and early mornings, so I wrote it all up. By myself, at least at first. It was 30 pages long when I finished it. I was then required to turn it in to the director of the aforementioned InSTAR program, who proofread it and made suggestions. I fixed it, and had it proofread at least one more time.</p>
<p>At the same time, I was also working on the other components of the application, which included a statement from Dr. Rafailovich, noting that I had not handled the cells myself, in accordance with university policy, but that I had carried out all of the experimentation, microscopy, and analysis. She noted that she and her postdocs had made suggestions for which materials to use (which I should note, often resulted when they saw the microscope pictures I had and they identified the problem with the sample - ie. "these polymers are too miscible - you need something more like X").</p>
<p>I also had to submit 5 personal essays on my drive to be a scientist, intellectual curiosity, etc. These essays were also proofread for me a few times by the director of the InSTAR program. But they were my words - not anyone else's. In addition, I submitted test scores, transcripts, teacher recommendations, and demographic information (what my parent's did for a living was explicitly asked). I was asked if I spoke more than one language, played an instrument or was on sports teams (the answer to all of these was "no").</p>
<p>Then, in mid-november of my senior year, at the height of college app season, I completed my application and mailed it off to Intel. If I hadn't, I would have been immediately dropped from the InSTAR program.</p>
<p>In January, we were notified that my high school had done quite well and that officials from Intel would be coming to make a presentation of the winners. I thought this was a terrible idea. I thought it put too much empahsis on who won and who didn't and since my project didn't work, and I was sure to not be named a winner. I didn't really want my reaction to bad news out there for everyone to see. An assembly was called and I believe the whole school attended. My mom was there, as were about 30 TV and media camera people. I was shocked to have been named a semifinalist - and my picture the following day, clearly shocked, was published in Newsday's online edition. I still don't think there is a need for such assemblies. But that's what we had.</p>
<p>I didn't go on to become a finalist, which was ok. By the time semi-finalist decisions were announced, my college future was set (I had been accepted ED to Rice), as were those of several of my fellow semifinalists. It was obvious to me that the STS judges had not simply been looking at my research, which essentially was a failure, but at my essays and test scores and everything else.</p>