<p>Earlier this week, I talked to a student who was a senior at my high school last year. He now attends Yale, and he had competed and placed well at Intel. He told me his father was a college professor and lab researcher that helped him get started on research early (in seventh grade)</p>
<p>I thought that this was interesting, so I talked to three other seniors in the area who had placed well at Intel. I discovered that all three of them had begun interning at a lab in middle school through connections (two of them had fathers who were professors and one had an uncle working in the lab)</p>
<p>I took it a step further and I talked to five current college sophomores who went to high school in the area. Most of them did well in Intel (a couple did other research competitions - can't remember the names, but they did do well). I found that four of the five had similar connections and began interning in a lab as early as sixth grade and as late as ninth grade. The fifth guy had no such connections, but he began doing research in sophomore year and had an excellent project.</p>
<p>As many of you know, getting a position as even an unpaid intern is TOUGH if you're a middle schooler. And quite a few successful competitors that I know began in middle school through connections. The others who did not have early connections and were allowed to begin in high school did not have the long-term research experience and may have been outliers who simply had great projects. </p>
<p>This is all a hypothesis, but I bet that if you looked at the people who did successful at competitions such as Intel (I don't know much about research competitions as I'm not a science person), I bet you could find a surprisingly high number of people who had parents that were involved with a university or lab. It'd be interesting to see an observational study.</p>
<p>I know so many students who have a high interest in science but either did not know that research competitions existed OR were simply not allowed a spot in a lab early on. We have so much potential in our country that isn't reached (due to this an other factors such as education and economic inequality, but those are separate issues).</p>
<p>What are your thoughts? If you have been successful in competitions such as Intel, share your ideas. My observations might just be coincidental.</p>
<p>Apologies for bad grammar or any mistakes as I wrote this pretty quickly. I’m a high school senior btw. Not a parent.</p>
<p>Not really a surprise. It’s known that there is a rather nasty socio-economic bias in most top research programs and competitions as well as college admissions in general.</p>
<p>99.9% of normal teenagers wouldn’t even dream of doing scientific research or obtaining an internship - including many extremely intelligent students - mainly because, hell, most of these kids don’t even know that things like these even exist! The only ones that do are usually moderately wealthy kids from college-educated backgrounds. It’s extremely atypical for the average teenager to do something outside a job in fast-food or retail.</p>
<p>There are a couple of outstanding, self-motivated whiz kids who are an exception, but they are definitely rare. Most of the kids “in the circle” are those who have parents who come from top colleges and are pushing their kids to do the same, or kids who attend wealthier, rigorous high schools. Highly intelligent kids who come from “average” high schools will seldom be even aware of these sorts of competitions and event, let alone have the resources, connections, and motivation to be successful in them.</p>
<p>I’m speaking on a more general sense: but I really think simply getting that information out there is the biggest socio-economic barrier. Take a look at top free science summer programs. Sure, many of the top programs themselves are free of charge, but how many participants do you think come from a highly wealthy background anyway? I’d guess probably the grand majority.</p>
<p>@Rob: It’s not just that there’s a nasty socioeconomic bias. It’s more specific than that. Almost everyone I’ve seen who has competed in these things has parents with a scientific background (and, from my experience, a parent who is able to land the child an internship at a lab early on through connections)</p>
<p>I know a few professors who conduct research and they would never accept a middle schooler as a lab intern. As I said, the majority of kids I know who did well at Intel had connections that enabled them to get involved in research early. It’s very difficult to get the research experience needed to compete in one or two years. I would assume that kids who have a greater exposure to research would be more likely to have better projects. I’m not taking anything away from their achievements: they still worked really hard. It’s sad that we close so many doors to so many people with great potential… just a few thoughts</p>
<p>In middle school? Really? That’s incredible. For kids starting in middle school, it makes sense that they would have connections in some way or the other.</p>
<p>I concur with the idea that most of the opportunities are limited to very few people. I remember in my freshman summer, a bunch of kids (who didn’t exactly strike me as the OMG I LOVE SCIENCE whiz type) got in because friend of a friend/parents or something. It was really frustrating as I didn’t have any of those advantages and TBH- most of them didn’t really seem to care for it beyond college apps. </p>
<p>I think certain summer programs are very good at churning out Intel STS projects. However, most of these programs kind of have everything “prepared” for the student. The project is picked out, the techniques are ready etc. etc. For something really unique, you have to have a very good knowledge of the field and techniques which obviously takes a lot of time and effort. Additionally, for some science fairs- I know people who actually haven’t done any of the experiments/planning and basically show up with their mentor’s data. That’s hard to discern if you just look at a report or have less knowledgeable judges which is commonplace for local competitions. :(</p>
<p>This is true, somewhat. I have many friends who attend a rigorous public school (probably #1 in the state) and represent our state in Intel quite frequently. Their school is next to some of the most high-tech and best labs available. Of course, some of their parents work there in the labs and some just love science so much they decide to pursue it :)</p>
<p>BTW I’m a freshman in a lab, but I admit I did get in by using a few connections.</p>
<p>This makes me feel better for not doing this kind of stuff. My parents don’t have connections and the closest access I really have to scientists is at a local chemical plant, and they’re mostly just chemists with bachelor’s degrees and not research scientists.</p>
<p>I’ve also noticed this. A lot of the people who do research or are at ISEF have connections and hence can work in labs. In my case the best place I’ve worked in is my friend’s basement.</p>
<p>If you continue on with this study, I wouldn’t try to submit it to the Intel competition :P</p>
<p>@TheGreatCatsbyx: Freshman? That’s pretty impressive. I had a friend who tried really hard to get into a lab during freshman year. But very rarely would a professor allow a high school freshman to intern. </p>
<p>As I said, I’m not trying to discount the achievements of people who have connections and do extraordinarily well. People often talk about merit… but don’t realize how many doors are closed off to so many people :/</p>
<p>I am not the only one who noticed this! There is a guy at my school who will be submitting his project to Intel and Siemens and his dad is a professor and he conducts his research at his dad’s university. </p>
<p>Most of kids, even the intelligent ones, not coming from a family with that kind of connection or from the special, magnet high school either don’t know that such competitions existed or don’t really know how to start a research or find a topic. I surely hope that these disadvantages can be evened out with post-high school education. :(</p>