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<p>What is there not to get? How hard is it to read what people have said about the abject gamesmanship and lack of integrity that plagues this program?</p>
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<p>I would love to win a hundred grand for my work from this past summer, or even just a free laptop!</p>
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<p>Well, I admit I havenât read all 38 pages. I have skimmed a few pages, but thatâs it.</p>
<p>My assessment of the Intel program is in my recent posts. No one has really disagreed with my particular points. Anyway, I donât have a âdog in the huntâ as I didnât do research as a high school student. However, most of my high school classmates did do research, and many submitted to Intel, so thatâs how I based my opinion.</p>
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<p>I could probably write all day on this topic. I went to a good public school (before I transferred to a magnet high school,) and the top track there was to take precalc as a sophomore and complete calculus by the end of the junior year. It wasnât a track you could really test into. In elementary school, I started out 5 years ahead in math (which was the ceiling of the test), and after several years of supposedly âlosingâ my placement tests and making me do different versions of the same book (different publishing companies), I ended up being 2 years ahead. Unless you have a parent who is in STEM (or at least educated,) your growth will be stunted in this country. My experience was similar to many of the people at my magnet high school, and later, MIT. My impression is this unwillingness to let people progress at their own natural ability doesnât happen in Asia. (On another note, maybe people can see where Iâm coming from when I think it would be nice if the academically talented got into the elite collegesâŠ) </p>
<p>An Indian guy I work with (who I havenât spoken about my history in school) made this observation: the American education system is the best in the world if you are average, but itâs terrible if you are academically talented.</p>
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<p>Wow? Was he joking?</p>
<p>Math and CS generally donât require labs, or in some cases, mentors. S1 sat out in the yard with a laptop, the dog and a pile of research papers as background.</p>
<p>I donât really understand why itâs considered an outrage that high school students are directed toward a specific idea for their project by their mentor. When professors apply for funding to do their science, they have to be extremely specific with what they intend to use the money for, Specific aim 1/2/3 etc. Even graduate students and postdocs, who have years of experience and training, are guided toward project ideas by their mentors, based on what research was funded. If a highschooler is interested in a field that requires technology that is simply not available outside of a laboratory, their project has to be directly related to what the professorâs lab is already doing. Doing a project costs money, and it doesnât make financial sense for a professor to allocate money for a high schoolerâs project that doesnât fit within the aims of his/her grant. </p>
<p>The most important thing is what a student does with their topic, not that it was necessarily their original idea. The topic is merely a starting point, as research is actually initiated on the topic, the aims of the project can change. Research isnât an endeavor where you can go from point A to point B and win a science competition. Even if a highschool student is given the most promising topic in the world, without perseverance, creative thinking, and scientific curiousity, they wonât succeed into turning it into anything. Intel and Siemens and etc. are SCIENCE competitions. They look for good science, not just good project ideas. While the fact that one can think up a creative and insightful scientific project completely independently obviously is a great indicator that the highs schooler doing the project will have the creativity and scientific talent to do the science to complete it, itâs a disservice to the other high schoolers who win Intel/Siemens to assume that the reverse is true; that because they did not come up with the project idea they are not capable of performing high level science independently. That is just simply not true.</p>
<p>And to those who think that highschoolers who win get their hands held: being a professor isnât just a cushy, relaxing job, where you have all the time in the world to babysit highschoolers all day. A professor constantly has to meet grant deadlines, churn out papers to stay relevant, and nudge their postdocs and graduates students for more data to publish. Do you really think that a professor would have time on top of that to sit next to a highschooler every day and explain to them, step by step everything they need to do to complete their project?</p>
<p>Iâm a high school senior who is about to submit my project to the Intel competition. And I am slightly offended by what Iâve read here.</p>
<p>This is not a conspiracy by the high school students of America trying to find Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny in Area 51. Sure, there are a couple rotten eggs, but most of the people at these competitions do try really really hard and do their own work.</p>
<p>Itâs crazy to say that the idea has to be completely original. At the lab where I worked, everyone else was a Ph.D, had been to med school, or something else like that. When I started, I had only taken one year of bio in my entire life. So I needed their guidance and expertise to show me what has been done, and so that I could get ideas of what could be done.</p>
<p>I know some people just repeat what their parents say, and thats horrible. But I wouldnât generalize the entire competition like this. Most of the participants spent hours reading up on their topic, conducting research, and preparing to apply. Iâve learned so much - not just about biology, but about how science works, and how things come to be. For those who are saying its glamorized in local newspapers - I agree. This stuff sounds a lot cooler than it actually is. Also, quotes are taken out of context. I saw an article about me for something else where it mentioned my research - trust me, I didnât say exactly what was printed. For me, it was something I was really interested in, something I want to work on even if it seems tedious, something that challenged me and intrigued me where school work was not. Applying to Intel and other competitions was just an âOh, maybe I should do that.â, not a reason to conduct research. </p>
<p>I donât think the adults on this board should spend their time degrading an entire organization and the work of many teenagers just because theyâve seen some bad examples. Some of the people who win are really brilliant, and I know Iâm not that, but that doesnât mean I had extensive parent help. In fact, I donât think my parents ever read my research paper. There are some teens who can do work without cheating, just saying.</p>
<p>Also, while some people have connections, many other people get to work in a lab because they send 40+ or 60+ emails until someone responded. My stories arenât hearsay, theyâre the unpolished truth I know from my peers. You can always find out if someone is hiding information about this kind of stuff.</p>
<p>Now this thread is making me so angry Iâm going to get off it.</p>