<p>(rising senior. long time lurker, first time poster) Last summer I interned at Harvard Medical School and learned basic lab techniques/did some research. This summer I'm going back, and my mom is encouraging me to write a paper/create a powerpoint on the things I've learned. How would adcoms view this? Would they think that I'm being pompous and I'm trying to show off? I'm not even out of high school, what would I know about medical research (never participated in a science competition)? I'm definitely using the "describe one of your activities in more detail" section of the common app for this though.</p>
<p>I think it’s great to incorporate it into your application, esp your Harvard app, but perhaps a powerpoint would be too much. If I had to do one, I’d write a paper, since powerpoints are more a kind of thing you would have to present.</p>
<p>Hi George.</p>
<p>You state you are ‘barely out of high school’. Are you taking a gap year? That’s perfectly fine, often the best thing for some students. That would mean you are applying in the next application cycle. Otherwise, you’ve lost me on the timeline. I’m just trying to put this together.</p>
<p>Oh no, sorry. I’m not even out of high school*
1st internship: Summer between 10-11
2nd internship: Summer between 11-12 (this summer)</p>
<p>^ Gotcha. What would be the purpose of the paper? To include in your application package?</p>
<p>Don’t create a powerpoint describing what you’ve learned.</p>
<p>Getting a research article would impress admissions officers. No reason to do a powerpoint about what you’ve learned since adcoms don’t need the extra work of looking at something like that especially since there’s already a part of the application you can devote to that: your essay.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s pompous, but unless there’s somethin highly unusual, it sounds yawn provoking. Students need to be very careful about supplements-most are a negative.</p>
<p>My suggestion is to talk to your mentor/supervisor/PI about your research and the end goal. Is it a paper for you? A paper for the PI? </p>
<p>If your research will end up in your PI’s paper, then write your essay about your research and what your learned (eg dedication, work ethic, etc.). That’s it.</p>
<p>If your research will end up in your own paper (in other words you “own” the data), then talk to your PI about getting it published or recognized in some way. Ask if he/she knows any journals that would be interested in the work. Tell the PI about Siemens/ISEF/Westinghouse and what you would need to do to enter your research in those competitions and so on. Still write the essay about your research. IF AND ONLY IF your PI thinks the research is good and interesting enough and you wrote a scientific paper, THEN you can include your paper’s abstract but ONLY the abstract.</p>
<p>The last thing an overburdened admissions officer wants to is to wade through a PP presentation. Describe it on the common app, be prepared to talk about it in interviews. And, as HitMan says, if your name is on a published paper, make note of it.</p>