<p>A lot of people seem to have "Research at so-and-so college" on their resume. How do they do that? Like is their a specific research program that recruits high school students?</p>
<p>Some people have "individual research on so-and-so". Would I be able to use my research paper assignment from english class? It's a comprehensive research paper that got one of the highest scores in class (hooray).</p>
<p>I was looking at the stats for my dream school (CMU) and they all seem to have done research/a lab of some sort. I feel like my opportunities in this area are so limited... I've never heard of such programs (if there is one).</p>
<p>If you live near a college or university (and especially if your parents work at one) it isn’t all that hard for a high school student to find research opportunities. If you don’t live near a college or university then it is a lot harder to do this. There are some summer programs for high school students, but they might not work for you if you need to travel across the country and then pay your own living expenses. You can ask your HS guidance counselor to help you find out about this sort of thing if you really are interested.</p>
<p>Not everyone who gets into CMU has done research. Maybe a bunch of the people who post here have, but that is only a small segment of the total CMU student population. You need to take advantage of everything that is going on where you live. Maybe you need to have a summer job to make money. Maybe there is a place where you can do volunteer work that is interesting to you and/or related to your future career goals. That is perfectly OK.</p>