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Finding ways to impress admissions officers with your passion is no exception for both American and Korean high school students. One way to demonstrate your passion and talent for admission to a U.S. university is to participate in and conduct college-level academic research during your high school years. It would be the best experience if the results lead to journal paper publication! Today, I will talk about the ‘high school student research experience’ in the process of preparing for the U.S. entrance exam.

[1. High school student research (research) type]

While you are in high school, you can participate in research in the following ways:

1) Literature review

A literature review is “a descriptive and analytical summary of existing material related to a specific topic or area of study.” You can demonstrate that you have reviewed and digested ‘all current knowledge’ that exists on a particular topic. This research does not create new or original knowledge. However, literature review is always the end and beginning of research, even in actual professional research. Although literature reviews are not often published independently in research institutes, they are an essential basis for research papers, so at the high school level, it is also a way to show that you have properly conducted a 'literature review'!

2) Research plan (thesis proposal)

A research plan is a formal proposal or plan for carrying out a project. It is most important to create a complete plan before starting a large-scale research paper. The plan typically consists of a project title, a research question or problem, and a brief overview of existing research on that problem. In many R&E competitions in the United States, only proposals are evaluated during the preliminary stage and finalists are selected! 

3) Research paper

A research paper begins with a research question. In every discipline, infinite new questions can be created. Once you have chosen your research question, first conduct a complete literature review using sources such as libraries, research journals, and theses. After deciding on the research methodology, and describing the methodology, write the main text! If you describe the hypothesis verification process and various evidence analysis synthesis processes according to a systematic outline, you can complete the body paragraph of the paper. The conclusion section reviews the methodology used, outlines the limitations of the study, and clearly outlines the findings as answers to the original research questions. Lastly, if you organize the parts that require additional academic research, you can come up with an excellent conclusion.

[2. Why should you do research starting in high school?]

Research experience allows students to build a tremendous amount of knowledge and skills that will help them stand out not only to college admissions officers but also to hiring managers after graduation. These skills include communication skills, organizational skills, wisdom, and creativity. Doing a full research paper is a successful experience that is difficult to achieve in life. Showing that you can complete this experience is the best way to show admissions committees that you have incredible persistence and passion. Research experience, especially during high school, proves to admissions officers that you are responsible, motivated, and focused to devote time to a subject over an extended period.

[3. Actual preparation examples of American high school students]

High school research experience is a sought-after opportunity for many American students. In the American educational curriculum, the importance of research increases as students progress through high school, undergraduate, and graduate school, so encountering and acquiring such experiences in advance is an invaluable asset to students in the long run.

Let’s look at a real-life example together!

“Many top undergraduate students undertake research, so if a student has already developed these skills at the high school level, they can have tremendous academic acceleration,” says Jamie Beaton, PhD in public policy philosophy at the University of Oxford. "Top STEM schools like Stanford, Caltech, and MIT, as well as many college programs, focus on high school research output. Based on my solid high school knowledge, I was able to conduct research at Harvard during my freshman year. I conducted independent research projects, first with economist Jeffrey Miron and then with Harvard Business School professors Mihir Desai and David Ager, and completed his senior thesis under the guidance of his advisors."

"During my high school years, I researched a variety of topics, from supply-side pricing in shared markets like Uber to liquidity in closed-end funds, the effects of urban heating in large cities, and the transmission mechanisms of return arrival behavior that affect risky assets during periods of low-interest rates.”

If you would like to participate in university thesis or higher-level research at GIRE, please leave an inquiry using the contact information.