Is anyone here participating in MIT INSPIRE 2018? If so, does anyone know how formally the submissions to this competition are crafted? Do judges look for full blown research papers with literary reviews and etc., or is just a simple “intro, thesis, research+analysis, and conclusion” all they want ??
I want to participate in it! I don’t understand what they’re looking for still so I’ve looked at submissions from previous years.
@iamBookworm Were you able to find full research paper documents online ?? Or are you just looking at the finalist list ??
Also, does anyone know how many people submit research papers to MIT INSPIRE annually ?? They seem to be choosing a lot of finalists these past few years, so are they just being generous or are there just way to many people to choose any less number of finalists ??
Hi guys! I was a literature finalist in MIT Inspire for 2017-18. You can ask me if you have any questions. 
@writergirl0316 just echoing what @SlayMeLove asked above; do you know around how many people enter each year, or which category is the most popular?
Thanks for being helpful!
I believe the number of finalists in a category should be proportional to the number of entrants in a category. I forget the numbers we were told. IIRC, the “Science, Technology and Society” (or whatever it’s called) was the most popular by far.
@SlayMeLove You’re able to see the winners’ full research papers on the website. It’s under the winners tab once you pick a year.
@writergirl0316 do you think that you could share what you think made your research paper stand out?
I was in the literature category, and I think it was the relative obscurity of one of my source texts & the specificity of my topic in general that got me selected as a finalist. @SlayMeLove
@writergirl0316 what was your methodology ?? Considering you were in the literature category, I can’t imagine that you went out to a lab and tested chemical reactions :)) I’m having a bit of trouble figuring out how to do methodology when writing a qualitative research paper that isn’t social-science related.
Hm, I don’t have the document on me right now, but I’m pretty sure I modeled it after one of the past winners posted on the MIT website. @SlayMeLove
Hi. This might sound incompetent but I am so confused as to where the Intent to Participate form is, can someone help me please? I’ve found several links from previous years however they are disabled. Do I just need to throw specific information together in my own document?
Thanks.
I am also having trouble finding the intent to participate form @insertnamehere . I am planning on emailing them later today. Will update if and when they reply
I’m planning on participating in INSPIRE as well! Definitely let us know if they reply. They’ve had a message saying that the intent form “will be released soon” for at least a few weeks now.
No update so far. If I get no reply by the end of the week I might try calling them 
Good idea @SlayMeLove
@SlayMeLove, I could give it a try as well. Did you try filling out the ‘Contact Us’ form on the site or did you just shoot them an email?
Doesn’t seem like there’s any activity from them. I’m not sure whether to keep going with my project or not lol
Yes. I’m rather disappointed with that. Based on how prestigious MIT and INSPIRE are, I would generally assume that they should be more organized than they seem to be. Intent to Participate is due 2 weeks from this Friday.