<p>And, do I have to actually have got something published, or can I just have done or discovered something new in a high-level academic context?</p>
<p>Thanks ^^.</p>
<p>Any univ will accept what you send but the conventional wisdom is to only send a one-page synopsis – the admissions officers won’t pass along any 40pp. document to someone else. It’ll be a waste of time and frankly, would just be annoying.</p>
<p>When I applied to colleges, I included my 200-word abstract, along with a short paragraph about why I was including it. (It was important to me, I hoped to continue research in college, etc) My paper had not been published, but had been submitted to the Siemen’s Science Competition and won an award. I would still think an unpublished or un-submitted paper could/should be included if it is something that represents a significant time investment. </p>
<p>All colleges seemed to except this except Stanford, which specifically asked for no additional information.</p>
<p>What exactly counts as “research?” Does it have to be totally innovative and new? And do you have to have done it all yourself? </p>
<p>I did a programming project recently. It was not too innovative, but it was around college-level. However, towards the end, I got stuck and eventually had to ask some of the professors at my local university for help. One of them corrected my code and sent it back to me; I understand why it now works, and managed to polish and finish the program, but it is still not all mine. How do I mention this in an abstract about it?</p>
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<p>Good questions. </p>
<p>I guess it gets down to what does “not too innovative” mean. Frankly, that’s a judgment call for others to make. If the project is simply to solve something successfully, that’s not research, that’s just progress developing your skills. </p>
<p>However, if the project is more about trying a new approach. I’d mention it. Colleges don’t expect you to be creating another computer language or scaling great cliffs of innovation within an existing programming language. One small different slant or approach can be innovative. If their is a kernel of an idea that is yours I would mention it. Top scientist have help solving their equations, so why shouldn’t you get help? The line between collaboration and help is very thin though. Either way, give credit for help received and if it is much more than that, cite the collaboration as well. Colleges will love people that can collaborate well with others. That is a plus not a minus.</p>
<p>Harvard actually looks for a writeup about the research in layman terms and
an abstract with a cover letter for supplementary submission - not the actual
body of the paper.</p>
<p>MIT does not like to receive the research paper- it will likely get tossed in
the recycle bin. Caltech on the other hand loves to receive the actual research
paper and even has submission guidelines.</p>
<p>Stanford does not care for the research paper but reacts positively to awards etc
you may have associated with your paper/research (Siemens, Intel STS etc.).</p>
<p>Princeton loves to hear about your research in a sentence or two as part of your
Engineering /Science specific statement but does not seem to care about the
paper itself. Siemens and Intel STS are particularly well received.</p>
<p>(I was accepted in all the above schools (EA @M,C) and matriculated at
Harvard last year)</p>
<p>OK… how does one write the research paper? Does it have to be published, or can it just be a long summary of what you did?</p>
<p>Bump. 10char</p>
<p>So what about research ideas that you have planned out and want to do in college, but can’t afford to do? I’ve got a few of those…</p>
<p>[link here](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools) is<br>
a classic example of what should and should not be in a research report.</p>
<p>Most student will not have published their research at the time of application.</p>
<p>Your thoughts and ideas on future research if you have accomplished none currently
would probably carry the same weight as you speculating about your future GPA? ;)</p>
<p>Hypothetically speaking, I wouldn’t be saying “I want to research AIDS”, I would be saying “I want to research AIDS; here’s how…” and give a skeleton of an experiment. Would that carry a little more weight if i gave an outline of an experiment I want do and how I would do it.</p>
<p>I want do psychological research, however, it’s hard to accomplish that without having money to pay participants or having other knowledgeable people to help me draw conclusions.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link. It’s nice to know there’s a fairly standard format I can use :).</p>
<p>@rk33: stop hijacking my thread (j/k :D). Seriously, though, I think the Stanford essay requires something on that topic, so you might want to use that essay for your other applications as well if it’s something that means a lot to you.</p>
<p>Yeah I figured I’d just work it into my essay. I didn’t even realize you could send research you’ve done with your app though. I’m going to try and get involved in research at UFlorida over summer if possible.</p>
<p>So what exactly did you do your research on? Unfortunately, there is no where local to do research on where I live.</p>