<p>Just looking for some of your guys' advice.</p>
<p>Over the summer this year, I did some research and came to some interesting hypotheses. I bounced it off a family friend (EE) and he thought they were worth researching and potentially profitable if patented and worked as described. I approached the local innovation center (sort of a tech startup) and they were impressed with my hypotheses and are currently working with me on getting some money and research together to see if they hold water...</p>
<p>Here's the problem. The NIIC (Northeast Indiana Innovation Center) is working on a timetable incompatible with my current situation. I'm applying for college next month (regular decision, december 31st), and need some help setting my application apart from the thousands of other qualified individuals. I feel I have something special to offer in terms of diversity to the campus, but have no way of conveying my hypotheses to the admissions faculty (and I seriously doubt their willingness to digest them). I've been recommended to contact a professor who specializes in the field and insist that I am seriously interested in undergraduate research and for them to be my mentor. I have no idea where to start in a situation like that</p>
<p>How would I find these professors and what would be the appropriate way to approach them at first?</p>
<p>Also, how large of a hook would this be for college admissions?</p>
<p>Could you get someone at the NIIC to write a recommendation for you? It would be great to have a recommendation that says you've put effort and enthusiasm into your original hypothesis, and that they're excited about it too. </p>
<p>Working with a professor is definitely not the only way to get things done in engineering, and certainly not in high school. If you're happy with the way things are progressing right now, I wouldn't worry about undergraduate research until you're actually an undergraduate.</p>
<p>I was under the impression that admissions people didn't put significance on references from individuals they're not familiar with. They're trying to get me an interview with the CEO of sweetwater sound (he's local) and some representatives for bose work at the NIIC. Our meeting would be brief and I'm not sure how in depth the recommendation would be, but how would a small recommendation from them affect my chances? I know Amar Bose is on the faculty at MIT.</p>
<p>As far as my other circumstances:</p>
<p>I had mostly As and a couple Bs freshman/sophomore year (wasn't focused), and As (a few Bs) junior/senior year. I've become progressively more successful each year.</p>
<p>I've taken the heaviest course load available (AP Calc, AP Bio, AP Chem, etc)</p>
<p>and have average SATs 650V, 720M, 580W. I'm taking the SAT IIs december first and am realistcally expecting a 600-700 in Chem (It's been a long time since I studied chemistry) and 700-800 in Math IIC. (I'm not a very good standardized test taker (make lots of careless errors because of stress), which is why I believe my scores don't really reflect my true capabilities)</p>
<p>Well, it's not really who they are that matters, it's what they say.</p>
<p>Undergraduate admissions is fine with hearing from people they don't know -- after all, they do read all of those teacher recommendations. It's only in graduate school admissions that you'd be better off getting a recommendation from someone noteworthy in the field.</p>
<p>You will be best served by getting a recommendation from someone who knows you and your situation very well. It's irrelevant whether that person has a flashy title.</p>
<p>
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I feel I have something special to offer in terms of diversity to the campus, but have no way of conveying my hypotheses to the admissions faculty (and I seriously doubt their willingness to digest them).
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</p>
<p>You might consider talking about this in the additional info section if you don't manage to get it in anywhere else. And while you'd want to talk about it in non-specialist terms, several admissions people in any given year are MIT alums, and a couple of members of CUAFA (the Committee on Undergraduate Admission and Financial Aid) are MIT undergrads. They might be more willing to digest your hypotheses than you think. :)</p>
<p>
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I've been recommended to contact a professor who specializes in the field and insist that I am seriously interested in undergraduate research and for them to be my mentor.
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</p>
<p>I misread this at first, but rereading, you're talking about finding an MIT prof who will agree to mentor you and using this as a hook? Whoever told you to do this was thinking of grad school admissions. You don't do this with undergrad.</p>
<p>Your understanding of letters of recommendation is closer to the grad system than the undergrad. A letter from someone with a flashy title would be nice...if they actually knew you and went in depth. Otherwise, it's not worth it - even in the grad system, where a flashy title on a recommender helps, you wouldn't get one unless the person could also write you a good, thorough recommendation.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'd like to present my passion to the faculty, not necessarily asking them to research my hypotheses. I can do that once I'm admitted. The point would be to let them know I'm seriously interested in research and have come to some interesting conclusions with the limited resources available to me. I'd be selling myself as someone who could take advantage of the resources available for research at MIT and potentially come to some even more intriguing conclusions given the opportunity.</p>
<p>Look at my response on the Caltech forum for an idea about how to do this if you decide to. But the bottom line is that the probability of a positive reaction is pretty low given how busy professors are and how much research they are asked to judge. It may be better to make the best case you can in your application.</p>