How to Do Research in High School, By An ISEF Finalist

Look, this is the biggest question I always get asked – how did I get to do research as a high schooler? And the reason why I’ve never answered it before is because I wanted to experience the full research journey in order to understand how to get involved in research from all different opportunities and backgrounds, or as best as I could. Contrary to popular belief, high school research often isn’t just “I asked my dad and he set up a position for me to work with his friend from college,” and there are still many ways to get involved in research without any connections. Since successfully doing research in an independent project, cold emailing, and summer programs, I finally have the experience of what it takes and how you can start doing research as well!

I have to stress – conducting high-level research on bacteria or chemical rings or number theory or whatever else you want to do isn’t something that you think a high school student would spend their free time doing. And as more and more students are doing “research,” colleges can see through that if you’re just doing it for college applications. I definitely don’t mean that all students who do research are frauds and just do it for a reward (in fact, there’s nothing further from the truth! The people I’ve met at high-level competitions have been some of the most passionate and truly interesting people that I’ve ever met), but I just want to discourage anyone who’s doing this for the sole intention of getting into college. “Research” is ridiculously common these days, so if you want to get into research just for college admissions, don’t even think about it. Just having a Petri dish-washing position won’t distinguish you from other students, so I strongly encourage you to do research because you love it, and do research that’s actually meaningful. I’ll talk about what this means later on in another post.

Anyway, moving on! So, here are the three ways to get involved in research, including my tips and reflections!

1. Conduct your own independent research project

This one is the easiest to start out with, and it’s what I recommend most students start out doing to get a feel of what research is and what the scientific process is like in a low-stakes environment. If your school has an established science program, take advantage of that! Many well-funded magnet schools or private schools have these amazing programs, so this is the perfect way to get involved with research through a structured and experienced program at your school. I don’t have much experience with knowing how to get into these programs or how they work since we don’t have this at my school, but I’ve heard from other schools that there’s usually a class that you can sign up for that helps students do research projects for science fairs. There’s also a class called AP Research that gives you the opportunity to conduct a year-long investigation and write a full research paper.

How do you start an independent research project?

However, most high schools probably don’t have these programs, so if that’s the case for you, independent research is still perfectly feasible! In fact, this was my first introduction to research as well. If you’d like, you can find a science teacher (or humanities teacher, if that’s your thing) at your school and ask them to be your mentor. It’s not a requirement, but they can definitely be helpful in guiding you throughout the process, even if they can’t help with the super complicated advanced scientific stuff. I didn’t have a teacher mentor, and I just began my process by reading a ridiculous number of scientific papers. I’d recommend starting with review articles because they typically contain the fewest technical terms and allow you to get a sense of current developments in the field as well as questions that still need to be answered. In the past two years, I think I’ve read over 150 scientific papers. Scientific papers are hard to get used to at first, but once you read more and more, you’ll get the hang of them, and they’ll be easy to comprehend after a while. Use these papers to understand the problem that you want to solve with your research.

Now here’s the hard part. The actual scientific experiment. Sadly, there’s no easy way out of this. There’s no way you can conduct high-throughput screening bioassays from your bedroom, so if you’re adamant about doing lab-based research, I recommend you skip down to the section about conducting research with professors at the end of this list. However, if you’re interested in computational work, a lot of this is very feasible to do at home! For example, I started doing work in computational biology because it was a project that I could do from home on my own computer, and many coding and machine learning projects are similar as well. There are plenty of online resources to teach you how the process works, so I’d recommend searching for resources on ResearchGate, Google Scholar, YouTube, and other websites as well. I’m going to warn you – it is a TON of trial and error. You probably won’t know what the heck you’re doing most of the time, and whether or not you’re doing things right. Which is why mentorship is helpful!

Before you say, “I’m literally doing independent research because I can’t get a mentor!”, internships with professors aren’t the only way to get mentorship from professionals in the field. In fact, one website to get help from professionals is called Science Buddies Ask an Expert, which is a forum where you can ask questions from experts in the field of science and science fairs. It’s helpful if you have questions about procedures, methodology, or how data analysis works, but less so if you want someone to guide you through your entire process. If you’d like a long-term mentorship connection, the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium has a mentorship program where you can connect virtually with tons of experts in all different fields of STEM around the world. It’s an awesome program, especially since you can actually get help from people who want to help students with research. It’s been super helpful for me as well. Also, I love ResearchGate and StackExchange. It’s basically like Reddit for researchers, and you can find lots of understandable explanations from seasoned experts in the field, and answers to the many stupid (clearly a first-time researcher) questions that you’ll definitely have (no shame in asking stupid questions! Honestly, it’s one of my favorite parts of research. After a while, I look over my old work and I’m thinking, “WTF…. Why did I try to calculate the electrotopological state of molecules by hand?”).

2. Apply for summer research programs

Summer programs are the most “direct” way of doing research, with the most clear-cut goals and plans. There are two broad categories of these programs, which are free or stipend-provided programs and paid programs. Free programs or programs that give you a stipend are typically more prestigious, because, after all, they can’t just accept everyone. Within these programs, you can look for ones that are open to all students, nationally or internationally, and ones that are local. As long as it’s free, the prestige between different programs shouldn’t matter too much, with some exceptions. There are some programs that are so well-known and prestigious that they probably make a difference in college applications, which are the MIT Research Science Institute, Telluride Association Summer Program (TASP), Stony Brook Simons Summer Research Program, and Texas Tech University Clark Scholars Program, and some more, but after that, prestige doesn’t matter as much, so just choose the programs based on what you’re most interested in. The value really is in what you make out of them.

The second category is paid programs. These typically aren’t as prestigious, and they can sometimes just be “cash cows,” including ones hosted by top universities. Most pre-college programs fall under this category, so you should only attend the program if you’re comfortable paying the cost and if you’re truly interested in the experience, since most pre-college programs aren’t that prestigious. However, there are some prestigious programs that do have a cost, and one is the Summer Science Program (SSP), which costs around $7,000. They have a generous financial aid program, so you can still often attend for a lower cost or for free.

For finding these programs, Google is your best friend for well-known programs open to all students regardless of where you live. You can just Google “best high school summer programs for [insert field that you’re interested in].” Of course, online forums are great too for searching for programs, seeing how popular they are, and finding alumni experiences. Just make sure to be careful that you absolutely know what you’re getting for your money’s worth if it’s a paid program, because not all programs are created equal. Also, each program is different. Some require you to take specific coursework, others allow you to conduct your own research project, then some others train you in laboratory skills through existing projects. I’ve found that the ones that allow you to fully do your own research project tend to be quite rare and quite selective though.

For local programs, try searching to see if your local university has any internship opportunities for high school students. You can ask your school as well for programs that previous students have applied to, and many local businesses will offer internship programs. This all depends on the industries in your city. If you live in the Bay Area, there definitely won’t be a shortage of tech internship programs, but if you live in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, there probably won’t be that many wet lab internships. In that case, try applying for national and international programs.

Here’s my experience with summer research programs

Last summer, I attended two local research programs, one hosted by a research organization and another one by a local hospital. Both were free, and in fact, I even got a nice stipend from the one hosted by the research organization. The programs were mainly science-learning programs, which gave me the opportunity to learn more about cancer research, immunology, and public health. I only applied to these two research programs that year, and I got into both of them. Junior year, on the other hand, is when things really start to open up.This year, I planned on applying to six summer research programs, three of which were extremely selective, including MIT Research Science Institute (RSI), Summer Science Program (SSP), and MIT MOSTEC, and three of which were local. Of the local ones, one was from the same research organization I interned for last year. Their program for juniors was even more selective, and it was what I had dreamed of going to for all of high school. But in the end, I didn’t end up applying to two of the three local programs, including my dream summer program. That’s because by mid-March, I got the news that I had been accepted into MIT RSI. Which was completely unexpected (fun fact: I screamed during history class when I got the email that I was accepted, and I never told anyone why, so everyone might just think I was crazy). I thought my RSI application was terrible; I’m 90% sure I misspelled the name of the final project presentation (is it really called the Final Symposium or did someone just put that on the Wikipedia page? ), and most of my major accomplishments came only after I submitted my application. RSI is very, very notorious for being harder to get into than any top university, so it took me a good few weeks to finally let it sink in that I was actually accepted into RSI. I had already submitted four out of the six applications, and I just ended up not applying to the other two applications. I got waitlisted at SSP, which was honestly fair, and most other students who were accepted to RSI were waitlisted at SSP as well.

How did I get into MIT Research Science Institute (RSI)?

So… What got me into RSI? I don’t think it was my stats or extracurriculars, because they were good, but not crazy impressive like many of the other RSI kids. Rather, I had a very specific research idea that I loved, and I was adamant about my idea. I think I portrayed a “theme” in my application that I really, really loved plasmids (yeah… If they couldn’t tell from my rant about plasmids), but coming from a very average public school, I didn’t have the opportunity to do as much as I wanted in my research on plasmids. If I was accepted into the program, they could give me this opportunity to do what I loved, which I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise, so therefore, I could gain a lot from the program. I think my demographics also helped. Not race or gender or anything like that, but a good majority of the other students I’ve met that got accepted into RSI come from expensive private schools, top magnet schools, or at least highly ranked public schools. I go to an extremely average public school with very average resources and average rankings, and they probably needed some of that “average public school kid” diversity.

I have an important tip for essays. I think these summer research programs care about “fit” way more than even colleges do, because, after all, they’re giving YOU an opportunity much more than they expect you to actually contribute to the program for your entire life. So, they want to make sure that you’d be a good fit for the program, even if you’re less academically qualified or less accomplished than someone else. That means showing a true passion for the subject is critical to successfully applying. Don’t be afraid to geek out! After I was accepted into RSI, I read over my essays, and honestly, it was ridiculously cringey, but I basically rambled on for an entire paragraph about how cool I thought plasmids were. At some point, I even basically wrote, “Isn’t this just so cool??!!” Yet, it helped show my passion for the subject, even as embarrassing as it was. And I think genuine passion has really carried me a long way. A lot of high schoolers can say that they want to do research, but not that many have highly specific research ideas on obscure topics that they’ve done literally everything they can to learn about for the past few years. Because of this genuine passion for a topic, people have been more willing to give me opportunities because they know I’ll make the most of them.

Also, make sure to strategically position yourself in a way that makes you seem like a good fit for the program. Not in a shady sort of way, but if you know that a program prides itself on giving students their first introduction into the field, don’t brag about all of your accomplishments in the field that you already have. If the program prides itself on bringing the top students in the field to the program, then you can write everything you can about your accomplishments. This is more important than you might think. For example, I heard about one student who was rejected from all the programs that he applied to, and many people said that he was rejected because he had prior research experience. I already had prior research experience as well, but I positioned myself in my essays to show what I was looking for from the program and what I could gain from it in addition to my prior experience, rather than just showing off how accomplished I was. Even though I was waitlisted for the Summer Science Program, I would call my “positioning” of my essays a success because, to be honest, I already had too much research experience that overlapped with what I would’ve done at the program (my research experience is in developing small-molecule inhibitors using computational drug design, which is basically what you do at SSP). Since they waitlist students who are qualified to attend and would still benefit from the experience, I think this was a fair decision for me. I would’ve voted to waitlist myself anyway, because I think I wouldn’t have gained as much out of it because I’ve already had the research experience. So, your goal in the essays is to first show your passion and, secondly, show that you would gain a lot from the programs.

Also, one unpopular opinion that I have is that the application process for these programs is great, and I would highly recommend doing it. Alright, I definitely didn’t think that while crying over the number of essays I had to write, but seriously, it’s such a good way to practice for college applications. Many research programs require personal statement essays and letters of recommendation from teachers, so applying to these programs is essentially a test run to see which essays work and which teachers to ask for recommendations. So, you should look at these applications as an opportunity! Of course, don’t automatically think you’re screwed if you don’t get into any of the programs. Summer programs have weird specifics for what they’re looking for in their applicants, because what you gain from a summer of doing research is different from what you bring to an institution you’ll be associated with for the rest of your life, so it’s certainly not exactly the same as what colleges look for.

3. Contact university professors to conduct research in-person or virtually

If you’re here from the independent research section of this blog post, great! If you’ve read the entire blog post and you’re now arriving at this section, I’d still recommend starting off at the same spot, which is to do your research beforehand. Now, I know a lot of people will say, “Oh, you can just cold email hundreds of professors about how cool they are, and you’ll get one or two that respond!” No…. Don’t do that. I mean, you will probably get one or two that respond like a brute force algorithm, but if you’d prefer NOT spending a couple hours of your weekends copying and pasting emails, here’s how you do it. For reference, I emailed nine professors total, and seven responded, out of which I got three professors who offered me a position at their lab. I know people who have emailed 500+ professors with no responses.

So firstly, DO YOU RESEARCH BEFOREHAND. Not like conducting a full background check on the professor and every single research project they’ve ever done, but finding a field that YOU’RE interested in, reading all of the literature that you can on the topic, and formulating a research idea that you’d like to research. Professors don’t want to have to hold your hand throughout the entire process, and they want to see that you’re self-driven and will be eager to learn and grow in the lab, and possibly be able to bring some new ideas and perspectives to the lab as well. In your prior research, your goal should be to have at least a background understanding of the field that shows why you want to work with this professor, and if you have a specific idea, show that your idea wouldn’t be possible without their help and the resources they have at their lab. Perhaps one of their existing projects fits perfectly into what you’re interested in studying and the idea that you came up with, so that’s why you want to join that professor’s lab specifically. It really shows some more initiative and creativity to be able to form your own ideas that you can propose to the professor.

Of course, that’s not to say you’ll be able to come up with a brilliant, earth-shattering research idea that professors will just be dying to get their hands on. In fact, your idea might turn out to be pretty bad, but that’s okay. The goal here is to show that you’ve taken the initiative to actually learn about the field and you’re truly, deeply, interested in it, not that you randomly decided one day that you want to pursue biology and now you’re expecting a professor to spend their time and energy mentoring you and giving you lots of opportunities in the field. 

A lot of people recommend talking about how much you love a professor’s work in an email. I think what this means is that you should include specific details about the professor’s work and why this fits your interests specifically, not that you should write a love letter to the professor stuffed with flattery. As with everything, the goal is to show your fit, and while it’s definitely important to talk about why the professor’s work is interesting, I think it definitely helps to show your competence as well, since just about anyone can write a nice email with lots of compliments.

Also, I’d recommend against asking to join the professor’s lab immediately. It’s kind of weird, especially if they’ve never met you and they’re just suddenly getting a random email from you, so ask them for a 20-to-30-minute conversation first before asking them for a lab position. I’ve included the email template that I used to reach out to professors below, and while you could just copy and paste what I wrote, you can do better than that (plus, it’d be kind of useless, since I realized there was way too much information that was specific to me that I blacked out of the template)! Use this as a reference, and write your own custom emails to the professors. Since you’re describing why your research idea fits the professor’s work, I hope it goes without saying that your emails should be customized for the professor, and you shouldn’t be able to send the same email to every professor. Also, don’t just email every single faculty member in the same department at the same school. They talk to each other, and they’ll know that you sent the exact same email to their colleague down the hall.

Here’s the email template I used to land my research positions!

“Dear [professor’s name],

I hope you’re having a great day! My name is [name], and I’m currently a [grade level] at [school name] in [city name]. I was fascinated with your work in [insert details about the professor’s work], and I wanted to reach out because I would love to learn more about your research! 

This year, I participated in the [insert relevant accomplishments]. In this project, [describe your prior work and knowledge]. I noticed that you have conducted research on [insert details of professor’s work], which I was fascinated by as my project researched [describe your prior work].

I was wondering, would it be possible for us to have a quick 15 minute conversation through Zoom about your research? I found your work to be fascinating especially with the important research in [insert details of professor’s work], and I was hoping to further discuss [insert what you want to learn more about]!

For more details about my background and qualifications, I’ve attached my resume below. I would also be happy to share the manuscript of my paper if you would like to hear more about my independent research project [or research idea]. Thank you so much for your time and consideration, and I hope you have a great day!

Sincerely,

[name]

What do you actually do in a professor’s lab?

I think this highly depends on your situation. Make sure to communicate clearly about what you’re hoping for from the internship. Some professors are willing to let you do a side project on your own after a couple months of working with them in the lab, while others will have you learn by doing basic laboratory procedures. It really depends, so make sure you have the same expectations. It’s also important to keep in mind certain laws regarding minors and work safety conditions. For example, in most places, minors can’t work with human tissue or potentially hazardous materials, and you really just can’t get around that. Of course, this is for in-person laboratory work. If you’re working with a professor virtually, you might plan on having weekly meetings and discussing how you’ll communicate about your project. Make sure that you’re responsible and that you stay on top of everything. For your own sake (and all of us high schoolers), please don’t piss off the professor. They’re doing this out of the kindness of their heart, so don’t take that for granted and miss deadlines and forget to respond to emails. You’re going to have to prepare for research to become one of your top priorities, so don’t reach out to professors before you prepare to fully commit to this.

Here are my honest and unfiltered reflections as a high school researcher

And that’s a wrap on some of the best ways to get involved in research! Personally, I’m really happy with the path I took, which was to start out with my own independent project, reach out to professors, and then attend summer programs. I recently saw a question from a high school freshman who said that they felt discouraged because they had just missed the deadlines for many research programs and the science fair, and I just wanted to say, seriously, there’s no “time frame” that you have to fit into in order to do research. I know I definitely felt that pressure, especially since I only began doing any research at all in my sophomore year, and I felt so inexperienced in comparison to many of the other students who had been doing research since middle school. When I conducted my first research project, it was honestly quite a bad project. It made no sense scientifically, and the methodology was just incredibly strange. Yet, I still got a lot out of the experience, and I kept working to improve my work and make it even better. A year later, I would never have imagined where I would end up now, going to high-level research competitions and attending the most prestigious summer research program in the world. And again, my high school is very average. There’s no expectation or prior experience for students to do research, so I’ve had to build my journey on my own. It’s sometimes lonely, confusing, and makes me cry, but I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything in the world.

Most of all, I just want all students to know that they can do it too, despite the cynicism that you might see about how you need wealthy and well-connected parents to land a research position at an Ivy League research laboratory. By that, I mean getting an awesome and meaningful experience out of it. There’s no guarantee in science that you’ll succeed, but the experience is what you make of it, and I can guarantee that you’ll get an experience that’s well worth it if you come in with the right mindset.

Ultimately, the goal of my blog was to share this journey, so I hope this blog post was helpful in giving more insight into how student research works!