So I’m currently a high school sophomore interested in the fields of biology and chemistry. I hope to get into a UC and maybe perhaps more selective colleges, and I have some somewhat unsuccessful STEM extracurriculars, such as Science Olympiad and USACO/BO/AMC and maybe Science Bowl next year. However, people on CC and elsewhere mention research/Siemens as an useful extracurricular for students pursuing a STEM degree, and I would love to participate in these competitions just out of pure curiosity. I do not have access to research universities near me that would be willing to allow me to do research; there are a few basic community colleges in a 20 mile radius, and the closest research university would be around ~1-1.5 hours away, which wouldn’t be practical, esp during the school year.
This year, I really wanted to participate in the Google Science Fair, but most of the winning projects had advanced equipment and facilities (other than some computer science projects, though I know nothing about programming), so I gave up in March. In addition, I would really like to participate in a team for the Siemens competition, but again, it requires access to a laboratory. My school’s chemistry program is neglected (no AP chemistry, highest level of chemistry is pretty basic), and the laboratory has standard high school equipment (beakers, probes, chemicals) and not much else. Perhaps it could be possible to do something in my school’s lab.
The summer programs that seem to be research intensive are ridiculously competitive and seem to almost require prior research awards (finalist at Siemens) to be accepted, such as RSI. Other more local summer research opportunities cost huge amounts of money ($5k-6k). This summer, I’m attending COSMOS at UCD, though it is more of an enrichment program rather than an actual research program and I can’t really use the COSMOS paper for any competition.
What can I do to participate in competitions such as Siemens/Google Science Fair/competitions about science innovation without access to a biology/chemistry laboratory nor expensive equipment for inventions and such?
You don’t necessarily have to do competitions to get good research experience. A lot of universities have free internships for high schoolers and some of them even give stipends that you can use to pay for housing.
Talk to your Chem and Bio teachers about possible ideas or they know anyone at local colleges.
I do alumni interviews and most people who do research seem to do it over the summer.
The BEST way to go about this is to contact professors and researchers at universities. Go on to their staff directory., lab websites, etc, and read about their research. If you are interested in working with them on a project, go ahead and contact them!
I have gone through this process and you WILL get a lot of rejections and non-responses. Don’t give up and you’ll eventually get a lab placement! If you are driven and the professor sees that, he/she will be more than happy for you to work in his/her lab and use their facilities.
If you want to win a major science competition, this is pretty much the only successful way to go. Unless, of course, you are a genius and will be able to run everything from your basement…
Housing shouldn’t be much of a problem. Off-campus housing with, perhaps, an undergrad roommate isn’t expensive at all.
Also, you have to pretty much do most of the research work for competitions over the summer. Since you will be occupied this summer, next summer will be your only chance, to be honest.
for highly selective colleges, enrichment programs like COSMOS aren’t really impressive; most other applicants have the same stuff on their apps. It only shows colleges that you have the good grades to get into the program and your family can pay for it (which your transcript and other parts of your application probably already show). Getting an internship from your own efforts is a totally different story.
