Research Paper Optional

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
1

<p>Caltech is my favorite school, and I was planning on applying early action this year. My only problem is in the "optional research paper" section. I worked in a lab at upenn over last summer, but (as my PI put it) they were "not in paper writing season." Most of the papers on current research had just been finished, and so most of the summer was devoted to research. Most of my work was paired up with an undergrad who was (the week I left) switched to a different project, so there is no hope of a research paper coming from that work by either decision deadline. </p>

<p>I am also working on a research paper as an independent study in my school. As my fall is very busy (not counting sleep, I'm home for 3 hours tops a night), I have no chance of finishing this paper by the early deadline, and potentially not even by the regular decision deadline. Also, I am using school housed measuring instruments for the research which involves spectrophotometry (for which I am using some 1990s dinosaur), so there is a good chance my results may even be inconclusive.</p>

<p>My question is, how important is the research paper to the essay. My scores are less than great (Basically, I line up with Caltech's 50% line on my ACT's, I was never told that the AMC or the ACME existed until a few weeks ago so I never took them, and and I'm in the top 5-7% of my graduating class of 500) and I'm obviously less than confident in my chances of acceptance even with a research paper. So given my record, could the presence of this research paper make/break me, or will the fact that I'm working on two separate research topics simultaneously while still doing school and extracurricular work counteract this negative? If it doesn't make or break me, I was going to apply early.</p>

2

<p>I would highly, highly recommend submitting something in that section. As far as admits goes, some ridiculous amount like 90-95% submitted a paper or had done independent research. I would talk in your essays or in the supplementary area about your work at upenn, and I would write up as much as you can about your independent project in research form. Even if you don’t have a lot of data, then write a paper about the math and what you think your results should look like, and compare them to the data that you have.
Also, if your scores are in Caltech’s middle 50%, then you would be in the top 25% of any other school in the country, including MIT or Harvard. I (and many others) got in never having taken the AMC or ACME, so I wouldn’t worry about that too much.</p>

3

<p>you could try getting the research adviser to write you a reference letter, as that confirms that you did research</p>

4

<p>Re: this paper…if it’s not finished/polished and is actually something not previously published, is it okay to just send the abstract? I know it says not to, but I frankly don’t want my kid (who’s not on CC) to send the whole paper before it’s finalized. Comments please?</p>

5

<p>Mummy, I would send an unfinished paper over an abstract. The two things they’re looking for are evidence of the scope and difficulty of the work that was done, and the critical thinking in data analysis and conclusions. If they can get either of those two things from the section that is completed I would send it in.</p>