I have no idea why you re opened.
You already had a thread.
I don’t see this is different.
Best of luck.
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Thank you for your advice. I think it’s somewhat fair to offload things off to someone else especially if you just straight up don’t have the background to do research. It’s closer to “I’ve figured out that there’s a correlation between this gene being present in people and prostate cancer, I have no idea why this is the case but this is a pretty big discovery. I don’t think I’m capable of doing anything more than this with my very low level of knowledge in biology so I think it’s best for me to share what I’ve learned with people who know more about this subject and see what they want to do with the knowledge”
As for the scientific notes, this is more just as a way to passively increase viewership on what I’ve made. It’s not really meant for the general public and is only meant for a very, very small group of people who could use what I’ve been able to find out in a much more effective way than me.
Lastly, I don’t really know if I want to go back to being a regular ass HS student. Idk there’s just something innately more interesting in what I’m doing right now than what I would do as a “regular” high school student, even if the ECs I take look better (like an IMO gold would look a lot better than just about any EC I do, but I don’t think I’d enjoy doing the IMO more than I’d enjoy doing what I’m doing right now.)
I really do thank you for your concern! I do understand what there is to worry about but I don’t particularly think trying to convince me to change what I’m doing will lead to much as my goal with all of these ECs is to just do things I enjoy doing and may make my life easier down the line. I’m still a high school student at heart, and while the ECs look like they’re there for the sake of making me look good on apps I think I’d still do these if I didn’t care about where I went lol
Really? I feel as if even if it’s incomplete it’d look better than just having nothing no? Like it’s not as if this is just a padding thing this is more of a thing I’m doing for fun lol. Is an incomplete project really going to negatively impact a college application? I don’t know I just find that pretty difficult to complete.
I think it’ll definitely not look as good as if the research was complete but I don’t think it looks damaging to my application to the point that I just shouldn’t mention it at all.
Until it is complete, don’t bother listing it. It absolutely sounds like you are trying to pad your resume…and starting something knowing it can’t be finished by you should not be on your resume. In my opinion.
Regarding notes…that’s what they are…notes. Don’t list those either. Those won’t make a speck of difference in your college applications.
In your subject, you note that you don’t have Ivy great stats. That being the case…please look for schools with similar characteristics to Brown to include in your list.
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I will say to you what I say to every “Chance Me for Brown” OP: I hope you are happy with your safety.
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Where are you planning to “publish” these? What sort of journal will take it? I think your idea of published research is a lot different than what it actually means.
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This is not how science works. If it did, we’d all have Nobel prizes. They don’t go to the people who muse “Gee, I bet there’s a way to stimulate a stronger immune response to a vaccine”. They go to the two people who have spent decades-- and countless thousands of hours- testing, documenting, and figuring out how and why. (and Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman should live to 120 years each with abundant blessings for their accomplishments and patience).
As long as you are enjoying what you are doing- you do you. But don’t assume that your nomenclature (figuring out a problem is more important than doing the research to SOLVE the problem? No.) works out there in academia.
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I don’t think anyone is trying to burst your bubble, but we are trying to inject an element of realism. You don’t seem open to hearing it. As long as you’re going to be happy at your safety (and can afford it) I suppose it doesn’t matter. If you actually want some choices, however, you may want to revisit your strategy.
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I will agree with everyone saying “you do you”. You have some very particular things you want. You want to follow your gut and apply ED to Brown? Go for it (as long as you have appropriate expectations).
I also agree that much of this stuff reads as padding the resume. In STEM research, ideas are a dime a dozen. Truly. There are so many smart people with amazing ideas. The real value lies in testing and analyzing those ideas, interpreting and contextualizing the results, and communicating all of that clearly to an appropriate audience. What you have described is… not that. Which is to be expected for someone your age! I wouldn’t mention it at all in your app materials. And please wait to engage any professors on this stuff until you’re in college.
You have some good safeties on your list, which is what matters most. I’m sure you’ll get into some nice schools, so don’t overthink things. Best of luck to you!
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Will he be a qualified borrower for the entire time you are in college?
Honestly, expecting your grandparent to go into debt for your undergrad college is not something I think you should be doing.
Neither do I, but I think the only school he’s really willing to go into debt for is Oxford since he’s just that obsessed over it lol. All the other schools he wouldn’t have to go into debt for (however, it would definitely take out a large bite of his savings, but that’s college on a whole).
I think Oxford is really the only outrageously expensive school I have for me with my reported income (besides maybe High Point but if I get scholarships there it’ll be at a pretty reasonable price). The rest of the schools on my list are for my reported income less than 30k per year which is around the level I think he’s comfortable spending as long as I have a job while in uni to help pay off the costs. If I don’t then it’s closer to the 20-25k per year range. I think the unis that are cheaper than that we don’t have to worry about any financial struggles.
Thank you for your advice. I’ll keep this in mind in the future. I think in that scenario I’ll just shelve this research if I can’t find someone who would be willing to work with me until I get to grad school and am at a level where I can comfortably continue on researching it.
However, it’s still a pretty big time commitment so I’m still a bit apprehensive if I want to just straight up drop it from my application as a whole, even if it looks like it’s padding I want at least whoever is reading my application to know where I spend my time and what I find interesting about what I’m doing with the time spent.
A “pretty big time commitment,” but you started it 20 days ago?
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My kid didn’t even have very many ECs. He spent most of his free time hanging with friends, playing video games, and watching stupid stuff on youtube. You know, like a normal high schooler. He did not pad his application and was super pleased with how his college acceptances and merit offers turned out.
You have plenty of legitimate ECs. Stick to those! AOs will be actively turned off from anything that seems inauthentic or like padding.
And don’t forget that one of the best ECs you can have is a job.
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Not 20 days ago, I started it a few days ago, but it’s still pretty reasonable to predict if something’s going to take a lot of time to do. In the case of this research just getting to the level where I’m going to be comfortable tackling my subject is going to require me to read a bunch of textbooks, so just getting to the point where I’m comfortable will take a while, much less actually doing the research and then going through the process of asking for help with it. I think it’s safe to assume (even though I’m in the very early stages) that this will be a major time commitment.
If you didn’t finish, you didn’t do.
ECs get a grade. If you have 4 or 8 or 10, the grade isn’t necessarily different.
You want tenure and impact.
Your ten may be deemed no better than the four year athlete or the kid who had a part time job for four years - that being their only EC.
it’s not a race - and you are way overanalyzing this.
Good luck next year - you’ll have schools you’ll get into - just make sure you can afford them (I’m guessing not HPU).
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Cut your losses. You seem determined to make your life complicated. As others (including myself) have already suggested: get a part-time job instead.
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If this is genuine valuable research it could be PhD or Masters thesis for you later when you have a mentor to guide you.
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To be a bit blunt: given the track record, I think it’s a lot more reasonable to predict that this is not going to reach the stage where you have anything to show for it, similar to the “record label” and the supposed “novels” you had described in your earlier thread.
It would be pretty wild indeed for anyone to have started investigating a topic “a few days ago” and figured out some “Nobel level” research to pursue.
ETA: what do you think is more likely?
- an AO saying “this kid is pursuing Nobel-level research: we have to let him in!”
- an AO saying “this kid has made a really extreme exaggeration/fabrication. What else is he not telling the truth about in his app?”
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As I’ve stated, I’m not going to blatantly say something like that I am just saying that the topic of the paper is of a difficulty similar to that of a nobel worthy study. It is simply the reason why I said that there is no shot I am finishing it as a high schooler.
I also feel as if you’re putting down what I’m doing which I don’t really like that much. At least for me that is what this paper feels like and is why I’m interested. And also all research topics all had a point where their researcher says “I started working on this a few days ago”.
@circuitrider I really would rather not get a job right now as I like having my weekends to spend doing all of my assignments and on my hobbies. I used to have a job and while it was fun, especially the pocket money, this brings me a lot more joy than the pocket money did. And even if I did decide to drop what I’m doing right now the only jobs near me are fast food jobs and I think that saying “Oh I worked at mcdonalds” would look even more like padding out my application over “I attempted to do original research at some point but I realized it was beyond my current level and have decided to shelve it”