Did or will any of you who are STEM oriented students submit scientific research papers, letters from mentors, etc? Do you think it needs to be of publishable or Intel quality to have an impact on admission?
I have not, and probably will never, go to ISEF, or be a part of Siemens or STS with my school science research project.
My main research project is actually one where I’m PI with no mentor affiliation, and I work with professional researchers at Harvard and MIT. Yet, I didn’t ask someone from that phenomenal project who was less familiar with me for a recommendation, but I also felt no teacher in my school could speak fully to who I was without understanding my research side. So, when my mentor from my lab this summer offered to write me something, I was honoured to say yes. Was I exceptionally distinguished there(ex, curing cancer, solving world hunger?)? No, I came up with foundation experiments to help out the lab; I was, for heavens sakes, the bottom of the food chain, but I was working diligently (4 hours daily commute, all summer, 10 hour work days, reading, researching, contributing to the lab) at something I loved, and, despite my research not curing pancreatic cancer/ all neurodegenerative diseases/ HIV/AIDS with one pill, I knew that, without a letter from her (my mentor), Yale would not get a full perspective on who I was.
Did this dilute my application? Did it ruin my chances? I haven’t read the recommendation, so I can’t even say if it was good, and, as I’m a 2020 applicant, I can’t tell you until December 15th but I know, personally, I would not have felt comfortable applying without showing that side of myself. If it did hurt my application or me, then all I can say is I showed them who I was, and they decided that, despite my gut feeling, yale is not the true place for me. And, though it’s not going to feel great in the moment, I know I can learn to deal with that.
tl;dr: Yes, I felt my app would be incomplete without a mentor rec, despite not curing cancer/doing anything hugely notable research wise, because I knew my mentor knew and respected me as a scientist.
I submitted a letter of rec from my mentor because Yale recommended it on the website. I was very aware of potentially submitting too much, and my mentor described what I did in the letter, so I did not submit my abstract or paper. I actually saw the letter bc my mentor sent it to me - it was very positive but not like “she’s the best student of all time.” It explained that I had my own project and worked independently, which was probably the most important thing, and also said some nice things about my character. Who knows if it will help…