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Hello, this is GIRE, a consulting firm specializing in research.

Many people are curious about research in high school and whether it can help them get into college. That's why we're going to explain it in detail in this article.

If you're in high school, you've probably heard a lot about doing lots of internships and extracurricular activities to get into college, but research is probably one of the newer options.

We investigated whether doing a research project in high school is related to getting into college. We analyzed data on the college admissions results of approximately 300 students. Data analysis looked at where students got admitted, how they applied research to their profiles, and compared student admission rates to the average applicant.

[Why did we do the research?]

Applying to U.S. colleges and universities is becoming increasingly competitive and changing, especially with the elimination of ACT/SAT scores for the 2022-2023 admissions season, making it more important to build a comprehensive portfolio of supplemental application materials such as creative projects, community service, and research portfolios.

Given the changes in the admissions cycle, we analyzed this data to shed light on the role that research, in particular, is playing. Of course, we can't confirm that research activity is directly related to acceptance, but we did find a clear strong correlation between research activity and acceptance at selective colleges.

[How can research help you get into college?]

Statistically speaking, students who conducted research were four times more likely to be accepted to top universities than the average applicant.

84% of top entrants mentioned their research project as part of their list of activities, and more than 40% of them further elaborated on their research project in their supplementary essay.

What's important to note is that by mentioning research and giving context, students demonstrate their motivation, skills, and interest in a field in their admissions applications.

This is because research can fully reflect your desire to learn deeper and your passion for learning!

Additionally, as more and more colleges are choosing to go the route of not considering test scores, you need to keep in mind the relevance and impact of your application independently of test scores.

[How do I position research on my college application?​]

1. Students not only mention their research in their activity lists, but also contextualize and explain their research in essays and interviews.
In particular, among top applicants to top schools, nearly 40% of students attached a link to a research paper to at least one application.

What makes these ways of positioning research useful is that they contextualize the experience rather than simply stating that the research was conducted!

To put it simply, it means explaining why you conducted the research, what you learned, and how it helped you.

2. GIRE Fellowship Program

Students were able to build a multidimensional profile through recommendations and evaluations from their research mentors.

Since the research mentors in our program are currently professors at ‘prestigious American universities,’ you can show universities that you are a highly capable student by receiving this additional certification from a professor mentor!

These letters of recommendation can go one step further than expressing yourself in an essay alone.

3. University interview topic: Research

A significant number of students shared that this research experience was particularly productive during college interviews, and they were shown to significantly increase their acceptance rates by talking about their projects.

Not only will it give you a unique topic that speaks to you in college interviews, but you can also use it as a way to more comfortably position your research as part of your application!

[How can you do research in high school?]

There are many different research opportunities, although they can be quite competitive.

For example, you might consider the Research Science Institute (RSI) at MIT or the Simons Summer Research Project at Stony Brook University.

If you're interested in working with college-level professors, you might also want to consider applying to the GIRE Internship Program, an Online Internship Program for high school students that partners with professors at more than 10 top universities in the US!

​So far, we have explained GIRE’s Internship Program. GIRE determines research topics that fit each student's interests and desired future major and career path and provides a variety of support and consulting services to help students write their papers.