<p>For those of you whose D/S worked in a lab during the summer and then submitted papers/research to Intel, did theywrite the papers during the summer, or did they write the entire paper during the school year? </p>
<p>I posted this in High School Life, but didn't get any responses there.</p>
<p>S1 wrote most of his on a plane ride back from vacation in early August; by the end of August, he had gone through several further drafts and had a paper in substantially final form. He was not working in a lab, though, which makes a difference. His friends who were doing experiments were often still analyzing data and writing into late October. (His school was cool about giving folks time to go to labs if needed.) </p>
<p>If you are still doing data at the end of the summer, you can still start on parts of your paper: design methodology, hypothesis, assembling background info, and get that bibliography sourced and into shape.</p>
<p>Kids in our community usually don’t write in the summer. It is written between the start of school and when it’s due.</p>
<p>But…could have started on parts CountingDown mentioned at the end of her post.</p>
<p>Keep in mind there are quite a few essays that need to be written for the Intel /STS application that aren’t part of the actual research report. These could be started in the summer too. (Worked out great for one applicant I know…who was able to slightly modify the Intel/STS essays for some of the shorter college essays.)</p>
<p>Are the Intel essay questions consistent from year to year? S didn’t get to them until after the Siemens competition, so he did the reverse of your experience, 2boysima – he took parts of his EA application essays and modified them for Intel.</p>
<p>Fortunately the schools he applied to EA had prompts that jelled well with Intel’s questions.</p>
<p>S had a theoretical project, so once he had developed his findings, it was a matter of writing and fine-tuning the proofs. He was on a roll, so he just went ahead and wrote the paper instead of doing college essays.</p>
<p>I don’t think one could ever be absolutely certain that the Intel/STS essay questions would be the same from year to year, but the application is usually available well before the summer.</p>
<p>The process is entirely on-line/electronic submission this year. Their website says the essay questions are exactly the same as last year, and last year’s application is available to be viewed. I didn’t notice the essay questions in the 2011 instructions…may need to be in the online application to see them…</p>
<p>Aw…S’s school had a tradition of the research coordinator driving down to STS and hand-delivering a huge stack of 35-40 applications every year. Everyone would send the coordinator off with a big to-do and much laying of hands, kisses and small sacrificial objects. ;)</p>
<p>I’m a rising junior, so the Intel essays will be written way before my college essays. Could I reuse them when I apply to college, even if I wrote them early for Intel? I’m thinking of doing it the way CountingDown suggested in her first post.</p>
<p>The kid I know slightly revised Intel essays for schools that required mutiple essays. The main common app essays was not an expanded version of one of the Intel/STS essays - but it could have been.</p>
<p>I also think some kind of brief essay was required to get to finalist status of NMS. An Intel essay was definitely used for that…</p>
<p>I wouldn’t tailor EA app essays so that you can cut and paste them for Intel. If what you decide to share in college essays happens to work (with or without modifications) for Intel, fine. If not, fine. </p>
<p>Should you write your Intel essays late in the day, you may well find that the thinking and reflection you gave to the college essays make the Intel essay writing process easier, even if you cover different material.</p>
<p>(You should not write ANY essays without a good bit of introspection and consideration.)</p>