As you get ready to apply for college, it’s important to show that you’re more than good grades and test scores. Colleges want students who love to learn and are eager to make a difference. So how do you show that? Getting involved in research is a great way. This guide will help you find research opportunities that strengthen your application and your chances of getting into your dream school.
Getting Started
There are two main ways I know of to get research opportunities:
- Independent research: pursue a topic that interests you, using online resources and potentially collaborating with experts later. Science fairs are a good way to present research done this way.
- Mentored research: cold-email professors or researchers to ask about projects. Attend lab meetings to learn about ongoing research, and eventually work with these researchers to write a paper or have them mentor your project.
This guide focuses on mentored research. There are many posts on this site about independent research and science fairs. I wrote one on how to win ISEF, the largest science fair competition, and those tips translate to other independent research opportunities.
Rishab has a video on this, which I’d recommend watching after you finish the post.
Warning
Expensive research programs aren’t the best way to get a strong research experience for college applications. The main requirement for many of them is simply that you have a lot of money. These programs often boast about the college results of their students, but it’s worth asking whether the program is actually the reason those students do well.
A program that costs thousands of dollars is only accessible to families with extensive financial means.
Extensive data shows that students from wealthy families are already much more likely to get into top schools. You might find a great research opportunity through a local university or college, or by doing independent research with a strong mentor.
Getting a Mentor
The best way to get into research is to find a mentor who’s willing to support your goals, and the best way to do that is to cold email researchers.
Any school, no matter how prestigious, will have some research going on.
You don’t have to attend an Ivy League or other prestigious university to do research. In fact, the more prestigious the university, the more likely its professors are already focused on their own undergraduates who want to do research. The most important advice here is to start early, since good research takes time.
If you’re rushing to finish before college applications are due, the quality will suffer. Your priority should be producing high-quality results for the lab you work with. That makes your mentor far more likely to write a positive recommendation, and makes it more likely you’ll co-author a publication together.
Here’s a guide I wrote on how to prepare effective cold emails:
Foundational Work
Start by choosing a subject that sparks your curiosity. Once you have a broad area, narrow it to a specific research question you can explore in depth within your paper’s constraints. You want your paper to be comprehensive but readable, so pick a specific niche. Use credible sources like academic journals, scholarly books, and reputable websites to gather evidence. Preprint servers and open access journals are free, which makes finding research easier. Document every source you read, since that makes citing everything much easier later.
BibTeX is great for organizing and generating citations for research papers.
Literature Reviews
The literature review is the foundation of your research project. It’s where you become an expert on your topic by exploring what others have already discovered. This helps you find gaps in existing research and land on an idea specific enough to write a paper about. Here’s how to approach it:
- Brainstorm keywords: identify key terms related to your topic. They’re your way into relevant sources.
- Hit the library (or database): use your school library’s resources and online databases to find academic journals, articles, and books. Look for credible sources from universities, research institutions, or reputable organizations.
- Read and take notes: skim as you read, focusing on the points relevant to your work and glossing over the rest to save time. Pay attention to the arguments different researchers make and any interesting connections between their work.
- Stay organized: note-taking apps, index cards, or a simple notebook all work. Organized notes make it much easier to find information when you’re writing.
Takeaways and further reading
The goal of the literature review isn’t just to summarize what others have done, but to identify gaps and build on them. That helps you develop your own research question and position your project within the bigger conversation on your topic.
I work for the International Research Olympiad, where I created a guide as part of the curriculum, available here. It’s geared toward Olympiad competitors, but these sections help any researcher:
Writing
Now it’s time to get whatever results you need to prepare the paper. This varies a lot by field and research question, and it’s where your mentor will guide you. As you do this, keep a few things in mind:
- Evaluate publishability: assess the significance of your research and whether it’s suitable for a peer-reviewed journal. Your mentor can help. If your work isn’t publishable, go back to your literature review and try other ideas.
- Preprint vs. paper: consider whether a preprint server (e.g., arXiv, bioRxiv) or a formal journal is the right venue. Preprints allow faster dissemination but don’t undergo peer review.
- Formatting and writing: follow your target journal or preprint server’s guidelines, and learn how to write a scientific paper, with sections like introduction, methods, results, and discussion.
Learn LaTeX, since it makes writing papers a lot easier and is the standard in many scientific fields.
Sharing Your Work
- Preprint or journal submission: submit your work to a preprint server or relevant journal once it meets quality standards. Some preprint servers (notably arXiv) require an affiliation with a research institution, which is another reason to have a mentor.
- Seek feedback: have your paper reviewed by peers or experts before submitting it formally. This can significantly improve your chances of acceptance.
A Word on High School Journals
Most researchers aren’t looking to read high schoolers’ papers when learning about discoveries in their field. They tend to read leading journals, often the same ones they publish in. In practice, that means your paper is unlikely to make an impact in the research world, and no impact is the best-case scenario. Many of these high school journals also charge a lot to publish.
Conclusion
Writing a strong academic research paper takes focus, organization, and a commitment to clear communication. By following the steps in this guide, you can develop a well-structured, informative paper that conveys your findings effectively. The process is a valuable learning experience that sharpens your research, analysis, and writing skills.
For more tips and resources, check out Rishab’s STEM guide. This free online guide is packed with information, including a cold email template. With dedication and the right tools, you can make an impact in academic research.
About Eashan Iyer:
I am a founding member of The Qurios Institute and an incoming student at Brown University. In 2023, I co-authored a research paper in the field of theoretical physics. I am also an Eagle Scout and a senior at The Academy for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering in Rockaway, NJ. Learn more about me on LinkedIn.
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