<p>I've heard that getting a scientific paper published is better than winning Intel and Siemens Westinghouse. However, I'm not sure if this seems true since I was under the impression that almost every winner at the top levels has had their paper published in a journal (last year's 2nd place was published in the most pretigious: Science). It seems like you would need more than just a publication-worthy paper to win. Anyone else have a take on this? Also, I've been wondering- is there a difference in prestige level if you co-publish a paper with a mentor than if you publish on your own? How good is it to co-publish with a mentor and how would anyone know the difference?</p>
<p>P.S. I've co-published with a mentor and I'm hoping it could be a hook for Harvard/Yale... any input on this?</p>
<p>lol no one publishes on their own, even in the real world, rarely (other than like editorials or more conceptual papers) do people publish completely on their own. I think the real difference, in my opinion, that separates the real top science kids in the world from all the other terrific students who get siemens and intel stuff is a real broad and thorough understanding of their field and its related techniques. This is very rare if you talk to even the big competition winners. Do it for the science, not for the prestige/awards etc!</p>
<p>I think the only difference is whether you are first author or your mentor. Because in general whoever is the first author did the most work - wrote the actual manuscript led the project, etc. If you're the second coauthor i think thats great too (i dont think a lot of HS kids do this - at least i hope not cuz i was hoping that was my hook too, lol) but it shows that you were more of like a helper?</p>
<p>well you should realize that in real laboratory situations, the mentor's name goes last. Its the primary student who's name goes first. But anyway, ya if you are first author in a big time journal that is terrific, but again its all about what you really bring to the table. Anyone can be a tech, but what can you offer intellectually, conceptually and technically to a project that is unique to your education, that they cant just hire someone to do</p>
<p>if you're just going to use research as your only hook, that won't be good enough.</p>
<p>But it's published research!! Isn't that better than going to nationals for Siemens or Intel? That's what I've heard...</p>