<p>I did a research project through a summer program, but we did not obtain significantly new data (although we hoped to find sth very signficant). In other words, some problems occurred with the Analytical centrifuge and the some protein samples leaked. Thus, although my research report has a good start, I didn't obtain radically surprising information, or even innovative knowledge or sudden insight.</p>
<p>Is it still worth it to submit my research report? Can submitting it hurt me more than it helps me?</p>
<p>That sounds like how pretty much every research project on earth gets started. At least you've got a little bit of knowledge of the frustration and perseverance required in a research project.</p>
<p>I also know that, but what I mean is that does Caltech EXPECT you to submit sth that at least contributed to some new knowledge, or insight (however tiny that may be), rather than sth that just confirmed previous knowledge?</p>
<p>For example, although I'm sure the Intel/siemens finalist had their fair share of unsuccessful attempts, the difference between them and me is that they had the time to repeat again to obtain significant results.</p>
<p>A brief summary of what happened and what you learned from it could be good. An attempt to write this up as a formal research report does not sound helpful to me. </p>
<p>Well, writing the research report was part of the summer program. I could send them only the abstract and/or discussion part (where I can explain what happened, future work etc...) of that report though.</p>
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For example, although I'm sure the Intel/siemens finalist had their fair share of unsuccessful attempts, the difference between them and me is that they had the time to repeat again to obtain significant results.
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<p>The high schoolers that have worked in labs along with me generally were very closely supervised by graduate students and their results were typically dependent upon the attention to detail of the HS student (at that age most people don't realize the precision and repeatability required to perform "scientific" experiments) and the grad student working with them. A lot of times research has to do with just plain old luck, too. I know the typical expectation in my lab is you'll try four or five things before you find one that'll work. And each one of those things could take a week or two working full time on it, possibly longer (one of my last projects I dropped the better part of a month on before I got frustrated to say I'll come back to it "eventually").</p>
<p>I think writing about what you did, what troubles you encountered, what you did about those troubles, and what you learned from your experience is the most important thing.</p>
<p>RacinReaver is correct, and submitting research will definitely help and not hurt you. Caltech wants to see interest in math and science, and research is a great way of showing it regardless of your results :)</p>
<p>lizzardfire, I had already emailed caltech my PDF file of the research paper I had contributed to (i was one of the co-authors). should i also submit a short statement of what the research was about and what i had learned from it?</p>