Recently, an article was published in Propublica on pay-to-play high school research. The article points out many of the shortcomings in the field, and the ways in which its existence can negatively impact college admissions. The article raises a number of valid and relevant points about the challenges of doing impactful research as a high school student, and asks important questions about its place in college admissions.
In this article, we’ll go through the questions and points they raise. While we do agree with many of the conclusions they reach, our own outlook is less pessimistic. We believe there are valid contributions high school students are capable of making to the fields of academic knowledge, and those that do should let admissions officers know about what they have achieved.
Unscrupulous Journals
One of the conclusions from the article is that not all published research is created equal. Not all journals put in the work to review submitted articles, and not all publications care about the academic relevance of the works they publish. We agree with this completely, but wish to add some caveats.
The first, and most important, is that this is hardly a problem limited to high school journals. Academia is beset by low quality pay-to-play publications, which will publish articles regardless of quality or claims of peer review, so long as the publication fees are paid. The trick, as with all research, is differentiating between the legitimate journals and those with less to offer.
When we help students to publish their research, we always aim for legitimate journals, ones which engage in rigorous peer review processes, and which are respected in their fields. For example, we have helped students publish in several IEEE associated journals, and El Sevier. This is one of the important reasons to have a research mentor; much knowledge of which journals can be trusted is institutional, and preferences for publishing are passed down departmentally.
With the aid of a research mentor, our students are able to publish not just in high school journals, but in those used by professionals in the field. While there is no shame in publishing in a high school journal, we want our students to aim as high as possible, and we strive to help them reach those heights.
PrePrints
As a subsidiary problem, preprints blur the line between proper reviewed publication and meaningless award. A preprint is an article published before it has undergone a review process, but still carrying the attache and seal of approval of the publishing journal.
We do not help our students publish preprints, and make sure any research they do is able to withstand the scrutiny of peer review before we submit it for publication. Our research mentors have their own long experience as reviewers and editors, and know what journals are looking for when it comes to publishing.
Research “Mentorships”
Here, high school and academia have very different problems. The article points out that for the work done on many high school publications, the heavy lifting is done by the research mentor, usually a graduate student or post doc, while the student simply helps out a little, and puts their name on the finished paper.
This is of course the opposite of much of academia, where grad students still do most of the work, but then have their own research mentors put their name on the finished project, regardless of their own contributions.
Both cases are less than ideal, but we can understand why the first may be concerning to admissions officers. It is difficult to tell just from reading research papers who contributed what to the final project. This is an unfortunate reality of the field; the validity of the research done is almost entirely dependent on who you’re doing research with.
Our students work with research mentors much the same way they work with us as college consultants. We are here to serve as teachers and guides, showing them the paths and pitfalls on the climb to new knowledge. Our students learn how to find and analyze data, how to draw conclusions and write reports, and most importantly, how to generate good research. Their mentors help them, but our students have the skill and grit to succeed on their own; we just give them the tools they need to do so.
Academic Relevance
One of the major criticisms leveled against high school research concerns its relevance to the fields it purports to explore. As the article points out, many of the studies done by high school students do not fulfill the primary goal of published research: to substantively advance the collective knowledge within a given field.
This is not just true of high school research; as the replicability crisis has shown, many in academia struggle with this issue as well, and there is a lot of research out there which does not add majorly to any knowledge whatsoever. This, of course, does not excuse lax standards for high school research, but does point to a broader problem faced by any researcher.
Of course, part of what makes research alluring, and impressive, is the difficulty in accomplishing it. That’s what makes any accomplishment more notable; how hard it is perceived to be. Students must find a question worth answering, gather and analyze data which can provide an answer, and then create a summation of their findings, explaining what the data means in reference to their question.
The students work directly with their research mentors to find a question that interests them, while the mentors use their years of experience to guide the students on how to ask interesting questions. The mentors help the students find data from open sources which is relevant to their question, and then shows them the techniques needed to analyze it.
They also help when it comes to writing papers for publication, making sure analysis is coherent, and the students are able to review the relevant literature. Thus they are able to define the place of their research in the broader field, and show how it builds upon what came before, and provides another step for further exploration.
Research and Admissions
This brings us to the final point from the article we’d like to address, namely, how admissions officers interpret and assess high school research. The article rightly points out that in many cases, admissions officers lack the time, technical expertise, or both to properly assess research papers. Some schools allow the submission of an additional research portfolio to ameliorate this.
These research portfolios are not the full paper, but generally just the abstract, where you briefly outline what was done and what conclusions were drawn. These are not reviewed by admissions officers, but by faculty at the school, who have the needed expertise to weigh the research on its merits.
Of course, this varies by school; there is no standardization across colleges. This also holds true for faculty, some are far less impressed by high school research than others, while some question just how much was done by the highschoolers themselves, and how much was done by any listed coauthors.
Outside of these portfolios, research can be shown off on your activities list, or discussed in your essays. Many colleges want to know what drew you to your major of interest, and having done research in that field already is a strong sign for admissions officers of your passion for a subject.
We have taken steps to ensure the research our students do at Ivy Scholars is of the highest quality, but not all companies are so concerned. How admissions officers react as the trend continues remains to be seen. Of course there have always been trends in admissions, and we’ll make sure to update you regularly, as the best strategies to position yourself for acceptance evolve.
Final Thoughts
College admissions is a competitive field, with high school students feeling increasing pressure to perform, and looking for ever more ways to differentiate themselves from the crowd of their fellows. Doing and publishing research is the latest trend here, and the article in Propublica rightly points out problems that arise from it.
We hope that our article here has done a thorough job responding to their concerns. We share many of them, but still believe doing research is an incredible opportunity for many high school students, and will inevitably help them in the future, both when they apply to college and beyond. If you want to learn more about our research program, and see if we’re the right fit for you, schedule a free consultation today.
