Research but no recognition? Useless?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>Hey guys, I posted this on the College Admissions Forum but i didn't get many responses...so i decided to ask the Harvard forum...anywayz, here's my situation:</p>

<p>Hi, I am a senior in a public IB school in Canada. I have always loved to do research in science but here in Canada, (at least where i live), there's no internships or research opportunities for HS students. However, there's always the annual science fairs. I have went to the science fairs twice but due to lack of resources and funding, the highest awards i've received was a provincial award and bronze medals at the regional level. I still wanted to do ISEF-type research and i contacted lots of researchers w/ my resume and transcripts before i got a volunteer position in a lab. My mentor and lab managers are really helpful and they encouraged me to participate in the ISEF (in gr.11). I then talked to my teacher about this but he said that this would not be considered my "own" because i worked under the guidance of a mentor and i cannot participate in the local science fairs because of that. </p>

<p>Even though i couldn't participate in the science fairs for recognition, i still continued working as a lab assistant.. my question is, would this be considered to colleges as a waste of time (bec. i received no recognition nationally/internationally for this work)? Would they criticize me for not entering the SciFair (bec i couldn't bec i needed my teacher to sign forms and support)? Should i spend time on something else that would get myself recognized? I really don't know what to do, all help appreciated =)</p>

2

<p>I was a research assistant with a prof at the Univ of North Texas in the linguistics department, and I made sure to include it in my application.</p>

<p>It definitely won't hurt you.</p>

3

<p>Really, don't worry about it. If you want to clarify, you might write on the part of the application where it asks you to list your awards something like "bronze medal in ISEF, a provincial high school science competition for research performed without a mentor." (Or whatever.)</p>

4

<p>nono, i didn't get bronze mental in ISEF...i got bronze at regional Scifair in canada. bit yeah, i'm kinda mad that my teacher didn't let me do the project w/ the mentor.</p>

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<p>bump. anyone else any insight?</p>

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<p>plz anyone? tres confuse</p>

7

<p>yea u shud have shown him the rules.. mentor is fine as long as ur done a dominant part of the work and he's guiding u</p>

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<p>research but no rec? sounds like ur in the same boat as volunteerism. ie everyone can do it</p>