Summer research - what should be the outcome?

[Anonymous]

My child is doing summer research at a University Lab. As we all know, research is very broad, subjective, and takes years from professionals to get to some point and publish a paper.

What should be the outcome of high school research? Are top colleges (MIT, Ivies, Hopkins etc) expecting to see a published paper or seeing how the kid is curious and what he learns from mentors from the research?

[Anonymous]

No. No they're not looking for published papers. Publishing a paper is not something you can do without any expertise in a summer. They're looking for them to be able to coherently describe how their menial labor contributed to the bigger picture, to be able to speak to their curiosity and interest.

[Anonymous]

To be a big plus in admissions, one would want the Principal Investigator to write a strong Letter of Recommendation referencing student’s summer work.

Such faculty would only write a *strong* letter if there really were merit, as that letter puts their career and professional reputation on the line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To be a big plus in admissions, one would want the Principal Investigator to write a strong Letter of Recommendation referencing student’s summer work.

Such faculty would only write a *strong* letter if there really were merit, as that letter puts their career and professional reputation on the line.

I thought most colleges would only accept up to three — one from the counselor and two from teachers. Is the university professor’s recommendation in place of one of the science/math teacher recommendation?