<p>Hi, I have a science research paper to send to colleges as a supplementary material. I know people are saying that admissions officers are not going to read a 20 page report, but I am planning to send it anyway. So, is it best to attach it to the additional information part of the common application (online) , or snail mail the physical copy to colleges?</p>
<p>For some colleges, I already attached the paper as a file in the additional information section. Because I've heard that some volunteer professors read the paper, would it be good to snail mail the research paper to those colleges as well?</p>
<p>Thank you for your help in advance. Your response is greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Why not just the abstract in the application and then send the whole thing to the relevant department. Surely there must be a relevant department that would be much more suited to reading this thing.</p>
<p>^Agreed. I actually would recommend sending only the abstract to the correct department. If they are curious, they’ll ask to see the entire thing. You should contact the admissions department and see what they prefer, however.</p>
<p>This is quite hilarious. You want to disregard instructions, but you want instructions on how to do so?</p>
<p>I think it is a fine idea to email the admissions office for advice. I think it is a better idea to send an abstract. Make clear what the paper was for (high school? college class, publication in a journal?)</p>
<p>When my kid was applying for undergrad, she never sent excess materials herself. But, her GC did send a magazine with a science article she wrote, and one of her recomenders sent an abstract of a coauthored paper that was published in a scientific journal.</p>
<p>I think some of the kids who get the few merit scholarships at Chicago do exactly what you are going to do. Go for it.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but I don’t get what is hilarious. Perhaps when I said that I was going to send the paper despite the possibility that the “admissions officers are not going to read an entire research paper,” some people got an impression that I was going against a rule? I have never disregarded any instruction because all the colleges except Stanford said that they accept research paper as supplement. I think an abstract often cannot do justice on the amount of work done by a student. Anyway, I only asked what methods, snail mail or a file attached to the common application, would be preferable.</p>
<p>You have some misguided notion that they really care about the “justice on the amount of work done by a student.” How you write about that in essays and in recommendations will tell them just that.</p>
<p>The only thing the full science article can help with is if it consists of actually notable and interesting results. Otherwise it really doesn’t tell anyone about anything new beyond the fact that you’re just like the other thousands of students that “conduct research” and put lots of time into that. Hopefully because the question actually interests you and you didn’t do it just so you could submit some paper full of jargon to a bunch of non specialist admissions officers.</p>
<p>Just do it electronically. Why would you even think about doing it by post?</p>
<p>Well, anyone who did research in a lab probably will have come to find something interesting. Regardless, thanks for your recommendation. I am going to send it electronically.</p>