College Essay Research Experience: Tips for Showcasing Your Work
Research experience can be a powerful asset for high school students applying to college. It provides an opportunity to delve into a subject of interest, develop valuable skills, and gain a clearer sense of future direction. However, it's crucial to effectively communicate the significance of this experience to college admissions committees. This article provides guidance on how to showcase your research experience in a compelling way, highlighting its impact on your personal growth and potential contributions to the academic community.
Understanding the Reader
Admissions readers are typically generalists, not experts in specific fields. Avoid overwhelming them with technical jargon. Focus on conveying the overarching importance and value of your research in a way that is accessible and engaging. College admissions officers read applications quickly, and while some of those shiny stats/facts about your project can grab someone’s attention, it’s fairly common for admission readers to see projects shared in applications-it’s less common to hear from students WHY the projects matter and HOW they were transformational. So capturing that spirit (while not writing thousands of words about it!) is the balance you should aim to strike.
Defining Your Goals
Before writing about your research, clarify your goals. What message do you want to convey to colleges? What aspects of your experience were most transformative? Showing colleges how this experience is part of your growth arc and how it shaped and contributed to your ability to problem solve, to work collaboratively, and to “dream big” in many cases, can often leave a favorable impression on those in the committee room.
What to Avoid
Avoid giving the impression that you only pursued the research project to impress college admissions officers. Ideally, the experience should reflect your genuine interests and passions. What you want to avoid is the impression: “I just did this research project because my mom told me it would look good to college admission readers.” Ideally, this experience was transformational for you and allowed you to sharpen (or pivot!) your skills, qualities, values and interests (which are the things you want to help a reader to see through the various elements of your application). Don’t let the name of the program, the names of the professors you worked with, or the selectivity “do the work for you.”
Know Your WHY and SO WHAT
Clearly articulate why the project is important to you and what issues or challenges it addresses. Make sure to communicate your project using digestible language! This is an important skill that college students learn well during their undergraduate education. It’s fine (and even useful) to get a bit jargon-y at times, but if you aren’t able to communicate the overarching importance and/or value of your research to diverse audiences and populations, it can get lost in translation and its potential for impact can weaken.
Read also: Comprehensive Ranking: Women's College Basketball
Demonstrating Skills and Values
Use language that highlights the skills and values you developed through your research. Whom did I collaborate with, and what did I learn from them? What values did I solidify? Did the research project help clarify my future goals?
Where to Write About Your Research
You have several options for where to incorporate your research experience into your college application. At minimum, your research should appear in your Activities List (and should generally do so regardless of whether you’re also writing about it in a supplemental essay or in your personal statement).
Activities List
The Activities List provides a concise summary of your involvement. When you’re writing these descriptions, do remember to keep the audience in mind: a person who may or may not have any experience with the content knowledge of your research topic.
Example:
"HudsonAlpha Institute LABS Program (Career Oriented) - (10th - 11th) 6 hours per week / 16 weeks over 2 years = 93 hours total Trainee (Launching Aspiring Biotech Scientists Program) HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology Performed CRISPR gene editing in bacteria (HDR & NHEJ repair), micropipetting, PCR, aseptic technique, tested foods for GMO presence; earned lab coat"
Improving the Description:
Focus on universal skills, qualities, values, and interests rather than technical jargon. Final tip: adding in more Epic Verbs to your description can also help you communicate more about the project, even in a short 150 character description. Did you manage a part of the project? What about presenting the information?
Read also: Phoenix Suns' New Center
Additional Information Section
If you need more space to elaborate on your research, use the Additional Information section. Putting your project in your Activities List (above) is a given-but you’re likely leaving money on the table if you only include it there. If you’re not planning on using your research project to write either some of your supplemental essays or your personal statement (more on those options below), we’d recommend expanding on your Activities List description using the Additional Info section.
Example:
"Over the past eight months, I produced a 10-minute documentary that unpacks the environmental consequences of snowmaking, an increasingly widespread technology that ski resorts use to make artificial snow during meager winters. Based on an AP English paper, my film was self-driven and every element of it was carried out by me. The project combines my interests in skiing, the outdoors, and documentary filmmaking. In the winter, I conducted research and filmed nearly 10 hours of cinematic footage. In the spring, I interviewed industry experts in Colorado, Washington State, West Virginia, and Vermont. In the summer, I began editing-fusing my research, footage, and interviews into a story. I drafted a script before sitting down with a podcasting microphone. I was the cameraman, editor, interviewer, director, and producer. I became a more experienced cinematographer and a stronger editor in Premiere Pro. But what I enjoyed the most was being able to meet the knowledgeable, helpful, and fascinating people I interviewed, because without them, there wouldn’t be a story to tell. My documentary is called Snowmaking: The Environmental Impacts of the Ski Industry’s Saving Grace. To see the documentary in its entirety, follow the second link below to watch it on YouTube. To view a short teaser-trailer for the film, follow the first link."
Key Takeaways:
- Use clear, straightforward language.
- Highlight the skills you gained (research, interviewing, video editing).
- Provide details about the project’s scope and scale.
Supplemental Essays
Many supplemental essays offer a chance to expand on WHY you pursued your research project and, through that context, offer greater insight into who you are through exploring some of the values, insights, skills, qualities, interests, and experiences you’ll bring with you to college (and thereby helping readers to see how you and the college fit together).
Strategies:
- The BEABIES Exercise: Brainstorm "What I Did," "Problems I Solved," "Lessons Learned/Skills Gained," "Impact I Had," and "How I Applied What I Learned."
- "Super Essays": Look for overlap between supplemental essay prompts to reuse content and save time.
Example:
"I stared at a picture of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) with annoyance. Despite its importance, its role in blocking most substances from the brain impaired my potential solution to anorexia nervosa: making up for low dopamine levels by injecting the hormone into cerebral fluid. After days of research, I found a new solution. Since the barrier’s semi-permeable nature allows for the diffusion of lipid-soluble molecules like barbiturates, I could deliver the dopamine via a preoperative sedative (a barbiturate), penetrating the BBB and allowing patients to get pleasure from eating. I was exhilarated. And hooked. I discovered the brain’s role in other disorders and developed a fascination for how it worked-or didn’t work. I soon realized that, though the brain was often the problem, it could also be the solution. So in every STEM class paper, I pitched an idea on how to use the brain. Bypassing the BBB with nanotechnology to target primary brain tumors. Increasing glucose levels to strengthen willpower. Using stimulants to activate the prefrontal cortex in autistic children. In researching ADHD and autism, I found that brain imaging data could be used to predict changes in symptoms. Imagine the power that could give doctors in preventing serious challenges like depression or anxiety. I learned to appreciate the power the brain had in other areas of my life, like processing the mind-boggling 0/0 in calculus, or the plane’s oscillation physics, or The Giver’s message on freedom. The brain is more than an organ. It's equipped me to be an innovator in my own home, and I’m excited to continue learning about all it does-and doesn’t do-at Dartmouth, whether it’s studying the theories behind groupthink in Social Psychology or researching the complex mechanisms of the medial frontoparietal network in Professor Meyer’s Social Neuroscience Lab."
Key Takeaways:
- Demonstrate how your research connects to other areas of your life.
- Share your emotions and challenges.
- Focus on the WHY to create versatile essays.
The Importance of Holistic Reading
Many schools, (and generally all highly selective schools) use some form of holistic reading-meaning they are looking at how each piece of your application comes together to create a whole. And while things like grades, test scores, etc.
Read also: About Grossmont Community College
tags: #college #essay #research #experience #tips
