<p>Mentors can be people who either oversee an institute/hospital/etc, work there, or both. That would be the person under whose direction you work (or if they just oversee a lab, they could find you someone there to work with). All you have to do is search around and send out emails talking about your interest in that field and asking if they have room for a high school researcher during the summer. If you’re doing Intel, SIEMENS, etc, let them know that, too, because there are certain regulations.</p>
<p>Science research is a class (program?) at my school. At the end of Freshman year, 10 kids from each grade of about 400 are accepted, and you do an independent research project during Sophomore/Junior/Senior year. You can choose to just keep expanding on one project, or do a new one each year, which is more popular. For Senior year, the project is done the summer before the school year, and you just write your Intel/SIEMENS paper when school starts. And each year we go to around 3-6 (pretty competitive, I’d say) science competitions after the projects finish in March. But Senior year you also do Intel/Siemens.</p>
<p>That sounds awesome, I would love to be involved in something like that at my school but sadly they don’t have anything fitting that description 
But on a better note I just got the email and it looks like I can take classes at the University (Dual-Enroll) this summer in Chem/Bio classes. So I am excited for that.</p>
<p>Summer Activities:
Varsity Hockey
Working >150hrs
Volunteering >150hrs
Dual Enroll classes
Government class online (have to for school)
And MAYBE some research projects but I have to find some still :/</p>
<p>And for next school year I think I decided what I am going to do for EC’s:
IB Chem, Bio, Phys
Model U.N.
Science O.
Varsity Hockey
----------------- (then maybe these ones)
Newspaper
Robotics (our team has won nationals the last two years)
Ocean Bowl</p>
<p>What do you think about this? In terms of whether or not it will look good, and whether or not you think I could manage it :p</p>
<p>If you think you can manage it, go for it! But just start with the first ECs before immediately adding the last 3 you were considering…</p>
<p>Haha nooooo sorry I didn’t mean to say I was joining 3 additional clubs next year. I am not that ambitious + foolish, I am probably going to try picking from one of them. Of all, Newspaper would definitely be the easiest and most manageable with Robotics being more difficult, but if I join robotics there is a good chance that we will at least make it to the world championship. So choices, choices, choices. I think I am going to attempt that.</p>
<p>You want a ton of depth in chem/bio if you want MIT or Caltech, so those dual enrollment classes are definitely good.</p>
<p>[This</a> is a guide to getting research at a local university.](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/summer-programs/1063234-how-apply-independent-research-internships.html]This”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/summer-programs/1063234-how-apply-independent-research-internships.html) For a more structured method, research summer programs that I know of include RSI, HSHSP, Clark Scholars, Iowa SSTP, and UF-SSTP. Google will help you find more information. It’s too late to apply to most of them, but you can apply to all of them next year if you want to do research during the summer. One tip for any of these: search for threads in the Summer Programs forums so you get an idea of the admissions process. Some are moderately selective (like Iowa SSTP, where I’m going this summer), while some are extremely selective (RSI), so start early and suck up to your math/science teachers if you want better chances at getting in. xP</p>
<p>Yeah, but mentors are free, so if that is more appealing, they are just as good. We usually have about 3-7 Intel semifinalists each year, and the amount who get it with mentors vs. programs is about 50/50, with mentors possibly even being a little more common.</p>
<p>@born: That’s cool. I just grabbed the Dual-Enroll app today, think I am going to take an Intro to Psychology class and a Chemistry one. Pretty excited. I’m also still looking for some research opportunities. But I am confident that next year I will be able to get one. And sorry but I still don’t fully understand what a mentor is? Is it just a teacher/prof. who helps you do an experiment testing something?</p>
<p>@energize: Do you think a summer spent doing research at UoM or a local university would look better than RSI or another program?</p>
<p>Yeah. It’s the researcher in the lab who oversees your project/helps you</p>