<p>Run4fun--I don't think it will explicitly penalize you, but if your "hook" is your passion for research and the people in your field don't think it's that good, then you won't really stand out.</p>
<p>If you are a "science" applicant, your paper can make you or break you. The paper pushed me over the threshold.</p>
<p>Regarding scientific literature in bio, I'm sure there are many papers that are so specialized that a prof of generic bio (with no experience in the sub-field) would have trouble reading and understanding them without doing research. What I mean is that a prof could pick up my paper, and just read through it without spending 10 min. on each page.</p>
<p>what if you wrote a nontechnical paper designed for adcoms to understand, then included a bunch of mathematics and technical notes for those who are interested? I didnt really write a "paper" in the strictest sense, because the branch of research I'm interested in cannot be pursued without access to cutting-edge facilities. It's more of a compilation of my ideas as to the future of a budding science.</p>
<p>"The paper pushed me over the threshold."</p>
<p>That's interesting--how do you know that?</p>
<p>Psychic--Then what was the paper about? It seems like you didn't do your own research, just made a research proposal, so what did you write about?</p>
<p>And don't expect an adcom to read your paper. They don't have time and really don't care. They can't understand how good or not good it is anyway. It should be directed towards the appropriate department.</p>
<p>i wrote about a possible design for a nanobot which would be capable of eliminating viruses from the human body, focusing on mechanisms of finding viruses, moving around, energy, requirements, and biocompatibility. Surprisingly, the paper was more about physics than it was about biology.</p>
<p>An admissions officer emailed me saying that the adcom requested that i send a paper to be evaluated by a professor, so I must have been lodged on the threshold at that point.</p>
<p>I got in, so I assume the paper pushed me over.</p>
<p>A sci paper should not be written for admissions officers to read. They cannot possibly evaluate its scientific merit. I believe that they always send it to the applicable department.</p>
<p>GuitarMan, do you know the second place Siemens winner, Kiran, well? I think he applied to Harvard as well.</p>
<p>Kiran got in.</p>
<p>Do you know him well, though?</p>
<p>Well, about as well as I could know him from Siemens. Although he isn't online much so I've kept in touch with him less than some of the other people. I liked him a lot though. Why?</p>
<p>Because I used to know him a bit and I did not realize he was a Siemens winner until today, LOL.</p>
<p>haha nice :D How'd you know him?</p>
<p>yo tupac, if I sent in an original research study in political science (similar to something you'd find in a journal); would they also refer it to a department?</p>
<p>If they do it for the natural sciences, I'm sure they do the same for political science.</p>
<p>that's one of my hooks. I don't think many applicants do polisci research =)</p>
<p>I worked at the same laboratory for a while with Kiran.</p>
<p>Oh, very cool, in Princeton? He's a funny kid, lol. I love what happens when you take a first-generation Indian science geek and inject him into a $33,000/year New England prep school. :p</p>
<p>No, not at Princeton. And I wouldn't say he's a science geek. He seems much more the business type. But alas! I do not know him well.</p>
<p>Well, he's not overtly geeky (thanks to prep school, lol), but he did make second in Siemens so he's obviously extremely gifted in science.</p>
<p>Haha...another question for you along similar lines, do you know where the fifth place Siemens winner, Luyi Zhao, applied, and whether he got in?</p>