I’ve been really curious as to the importance of internships and research papers on one’s college application. coming into senior year, lots of my friends (including me!) were stressing about not having a science internship or being an author on some prestigious research paper,
I guess my question is: how important is having some degree of research on an application? if I could have the choice between taking college level courses or performing research, which would be more beneficial?
(as application season is pretty much over, this is just out of curiosity since I have been wondering this for a long time and many of next year’s seniors have asked me about it)
I’m definitely no expert on this, but up until last night I had never heard of a high school senior taking time off to do research or supplement research for classes. This is not to sound arrogant in anyway but I do live in an affluent area with dozens of prep schools and several highly ranked/regarded colleges in the surrounding area (one even a five minute drive from my high school). So, I would have think if this is something integral to college applications I would have heard of somebody doing research before January of my senior year. I do know plenty of kids who have taken college level courses at the universities local to our area, but I have never heard anything about research. I don’t think this is anything to stress about. I’m sure if you had done research it would look great, but I also believe it would be held to the same regard as college courses. Both are advanced for kids in high school. That’s just my thoughts and experience. Hope that helps. Good luck with your applications!
@CathJR lots of kids here also do research instead of taking courses at the nearby university. i’ve always felt sorta nervous/left behind since I opted to take classes whereas everyone else was working in an engineering lab (big data clusters, virtual reality, information technology, business and law firms, graphical processing, biolabs, mechanical eng, civil engineering, architecture, EE - semiconductors, to name a few), but i guess its a bit too late for me now anyway, so I’m just advising the next year’s kids.
it’s good to know that something feels courses and research are weighted the same, like i do! i ended up doing the route of taking courses, and i think it’s paid off tbh
@sherpa do you think have some basic research/internships would be a viable substitute for courses? I have a friend who is sort of torn between time commitments to both courses and computer science research (he is writing his own operating system for a professor at the university nearby which sounds very time intensive).
While the idea of internships and published research for HS kids seems premature to me, I can see its potential benefits. Still, I’m having a difficult time imagining a HS student possessing sufficient scientific knowledge to aid in significant university level research.
I think scientific research has the most impact on an application when the student enters their work in a regional science fair. If the student has made a significant contribution to the project (or better yet, done a project on their own), judges will give the students awards. At most Intel ISEF affiliated fairs, the top third of projects will win awards in different categories (honors, high honors, etc), and I’m sure admissions counselors know the system. But the best part for the student is having to distill their months-long project into a short presentation and answer tough questions over and over again from industry professionals all day long. It is a very valuable experience, especially if you get chosen to move up to your state science fair or ISEF. The kids who have gone on to ISEF from our area have done very well in college admissions.
@SueAnneW i’ve always been curious about science fairs, how exactly do people go about doing science fair projects? i’m mostly a pure math guy so i haven’t really pursued anything in the applied sciences but reading some of the ISEF abstracts, how do these kids get these ideas? some of the stuff involves super specific enzymes or rare magnets, how do kids my age get their hands on this sorta stuff?
@tunderscore Science fairs in general are a real mix of kids who did interesting projects at home like my kids (more engineering, electronics, computer science, robotics and some biology/ag projects) and teens who did research at an institution (usually a university) under the guidance of a professor. Most chemistry projects and medical research are done under the supervision of an adult in a lab (probably the case for the abstracts you were mentioning). The kids who seem to do well in science fairs started in middle school with simple projects at home, then moved up in complexity as they got older. They get to be quite good at presenting.
The kids from our high school who did research at a university were hooked up with a professor thru one of the science teachers and spent the summer going into the lab several days a week.
Our many-county area has a regional science fair that has slots to send three kids to the state science fair every year, and two kids to Intel ISEF.
@tunderscore I spent 2 High School summers working in a lab. I was very fortunate and got 2 peer-reviewed publications out of it. I was very lucky that my mentor allowed me after adequate training, and with supervision to carry out my own original project i.e. one where the idea was my own, which allowed me to win some awards in local and regional science fairs. Basically, you try to get in touch with a Scientist at a University or Medical School (in my case), and talk to them about your ideas. Much more commonly, the investigator gets you to do a small project in his/her own field of expertise which is part of the investigator’s large project rather than your on original idea. Either way, you get to learn many techniques and how to work in the lab.
@SueAnneW is correct, kids who do well in Science Fairs start early. My first Science Fair was in 1st grade although I didn’t participate again until 9th grade. I hope this helps answer some of your questions.
@tunderscore I am so sorry but for privacy reasons I can not provide any specifics about the project except to say that it was in the biomedical field.
Back to your original topic, I feel that conducting research and showing this in one’s application is beneficial;
to show an extension of your scholastic interests which in my case I could point out as an area of deep interest to pursue in College. I have a genuine passion for research and it was good to be able to show this in the application.
to get confidence and skills in the lab. I found that the confidence and skills I had gained from working in the lab has helped me in lab courses at College.
As for the question about college level courses OR research, I certainly could not do research in place of courses as I had to complete general requirements for college/university such as 4 years of English, 4 years of Math etc.