<p>I see a bunch of people who have conducted research in the Chances thread (sometimes with major, top-level Universities). Also, a few of my friends have done research and claimed to make some "discoveries" (dunno what they mean by that) -- either with private institutions or local colleges. </p>
<p>Just how much do the top colleges value high schoolers who have done research of that level? It seems to be rather common nowadays for aspiring HYPSM applicants. Is it worth doing it when so many others seem to also be doing it?</p>
<p>I never did research in high school, but the thing with research is that the quality of work can be really variable, and the opportunities that exist change a lot - there’s a big difference between a school that offers research classes or requires a research project to graduates and has a history of doing well in the Intel and Siemens contests, and a school where teachers and stuff have never heard of high schoolers doing research. But how much research affects college admissions probably depends on how much it contributed to the field, how much it affected you, and the opportunities that you had to be able to do something. So if your parents force you to work in a lab, and you just fool around all day because you’re bored, then obviously it could even hurt the applicant. But then if you get published, or win a big competition, then it could almost be a hook.</p>
<p>What if it’s somewhere between the two? You don’t fool around, but you don’t make any significant contributions such as winning a competition or getting published. What’s the view on research like that?</p>
<p>Don’t do research because you think it’ll get you into college, do it because you’re interested in the topic and want to learn more.</p>
<p>As for the quality, you don’t have to publish a paper or make a break-though discovery to learn something from the research. As long as you’re doing something that you’re really interested in, and working hard at it, it can only help you. The admissions committee can tell a lot from how you write about the research - if you write an essay about why you got involved in it / what you learned, even if the research ends up leading nowhere, they’ll be impressed.</p>
<p>A friend of mine interviews for MIT. If an applicant says he or she wants to go into math or science, he automatically asks, “Tell me about your research.” If they just give him a blank stare, it’s all over. The point is, as others have said, doing research just to pad your resume is like padding it with anything else. But when people talk about “demonstrated passion,” you can’t say you want to be an athlete, but you’ve never played a sport in HS, right? The same goes for the sciences. If that is your passion, what have you done about it? </p>
<p>Now, if its an issue of, “Yeah, but I didn’t get published; I didn’t cure cancer,” that’s another thing altogether. Adcoms are more concerned with seeing time spent on what the applicant claims is a passion. If you get big awards or published, great. If not, it’s not the end of the world. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>I just want to say that I’m going to be a freshman at MIT, and I never did research in high school, and I’m sure a lot of other people, if not the majority, also haven’t.</p>
<p>^ shravas is right of course. Many, many students in top math and science programs never did research in HS. I know Nobel Laureates that didn’t do research in HS. That’s not unusual. BUT, if you CLAIM to have done research in HS then you’d better be able to show how that fit your passions. I think the athlete analogy is appropriate. “I tried out for my HS team” just weakens your case.</p>
<p>“he automatically asks, “Tell me about your research.” If they just give him a blank stare, it’s all over.”</p>
<p>^That seems a bit extreme. Just because you like math and science doesn’t necessarily mean you do research in it. Many students don’t have the opportunity to do research in high school for one reason or another but are hoping to get involved in college. They shouldn’t be slighted for not doing any in high school though granted that is something MIT looks for and does look good. I go to MIT and I know that only myself and one other person out of my core group of ~15 friends did research prior to MIT.</p>