Research?

Applying to College
1

How good is research as a main extracurricular?

For example, most people have sports or academics in which they really excel as part of their application but i have done research at a prestigious university since freshman year and presented the work and gotten awards. Is there any advantage that research may have over these and is research by any means weaker.

I’m in 11th grade btw.

2

Assuming that you were 14 at the time, did you get that research opportunity b/c you are a prodigy or do/did you have connections?

From ?