STEM Research Supplement- Helpful?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

Would sending in a research paper that isn’t published be helpful or just be annoying to the admissions person? Did those students who got admitted send a research paper and lor from their mentor in, or just the required materials?

2

An additional LoR from your mentor would IMHO be much better than submitting an unpublished research paper.

3

Thanks. The problem is that my research mentor sent the LOR in to the Common App (and two other places) back in September, but Yale doesn’t allow you to submit it that way. Now I have to bother him again to send it to Yale, which I really don’t want to do (but will, if it truly helps my application). My research was independent, but nothing that extraordinary. My paper is well written, I believe, but again, the research wasn’t anything that amazing. I wish I could just submit the LOR that was in the Common App, and not email this professor again.

4

Is it helpful to send a 20 page research paper on independent research conducted under the direction of a professor in a university lab? I am the only author of the paper.

5

^^ @applicationangst: No, It is NOT helpful to Admissions to send a research paper period. That’s because an AO does not have the time or expertise to read a research paper, especially a 20-pager.***

It is helpful to send an abstract from a research paper which has been published in a well-known and respected journal – something that is one paragraph long, but no longer than 1/4 of a single side of 8.5 X 11 sheet of paper. See: https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/presentations_abstracts_examples.html.

6

That makes sense, but I thought maybe it is a red flag when a student doesn’t submit anything supplemental about their research after talking about it in the essays and list of EC’s.

7

^^ No, it’s not a red flag. After reading an applicant’s abstract, an Admissions Officer might ask for the applicant to submit the full research paper so they may forward it to the relevant department for review. But student’s should NOT submit a research paper unless specifically asked for it.

8

This discussion was created from comments split from: supplementary material.

9

Back in September you thought it was a good idea to have the research mentor send the LoR to other colleges. What has changed? If nothing, then you should ask your research mentor to send a copy to Yale, explaining the particulars of Yale’s application.

Then don’t send it.

10

Thanks for the advice. Sorry about writing on another thread; I didn’t realize that wasn’t allowed.