How can teenagers create such science projects?

[Anonymous]

Some of these projects really are a scam—just like volunteer work. I recently googled a few of the valedictorians in my area. Most names popped up with beautiful websites dedicated to the nonprofits they “started.” Designs of sites looked eerily similar as well. Says a lot about the colleges who fall for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://thecoastnews.com/international-science-fair-winner-from-del-mar-accused-of-fraud/

The game is also played by the above - take a published academic journal article; Take the data, results, and methodology and throw in AI to see if you get the same results. Boom! new project.

I saw some projects where I googled the title and found: Journal of Nature is a good source. Thanks - Prof who dedicated his life since Grad School to making it to the most prestigious journal.

The colleges have created this stupid game which encourages cheating and dishonesty. And seriously, if these are the kind of people getting into Ivy and other top schools, do you really want your kids to be around such dishonest people?

🎯

[Anonymous]

OP here. Should I write to the admissions office to tell them my impressions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We toured an Ivy and I googled our tour guide and his brother who us also in Ivy that he mentioned during the tour.

He said played a lot of sports in his small but very selective predominately Asian tech school.

In at the ripe age of 14 he presents a research that involves deep knowledge of environmental science, designs and builds a data collection device and build a web server to transmit data to, then developed neural networks to analyze the data.

His older brother a year earlier, in his junior year, also presented a similar project that also involved AI and a device to transmit environmental data. He won an ISEF award for this.

Their dad happens to be a CTO in a company that works with telecom hardware.

Please explain to me how is this humanly possible for 14-15 year olds to have time to play sports, get good enough grades and test scores for Ivies, have learn how to build hardware devices, web servers, neural networks and conduct research? How is this real?

In my previous company it took an entire company to build things like that.

I’m just curious. Please, explain this to me.

How is this relevant? You imply something negative about this family, and feel the need to bring up their race. I'm just curious. Please, explain this to me.

Predominantly Asian schools are more rigorous and competitive. I mentioned it to highlight that not only it’s requires a lot of time and effort to to get Ivy level grades, but also play sports and and also create such projects- I don’t see how it’s possible.

[Anonymous]

My kid who have done zero research and started zero non-profit is cooked. Deservedly so I guess, cynically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://thecoastnews.com/international-science-fair-winner-from-del-mar-accused-of-fraud/

The game is also played by the above - take a published academic journal article; Take the data, results, and methodology and throw in AI to see if you get the same results. Boom! new project.

I saw some projects where I googled the title and found: Journal of Nature is a good source. Thanks - Prof who dedicated his life since Grad School to making it to the most prestigious journal.

The colleges have created this stupid game which encourages cheating and dishonesty. And seriously, if these are the kind of people getting into Ivy and other top schools, do you really want your kids to be around such dishonest people?

🎯

The real question is: why do colleges promote and reward such blatant dishonesty? Because it serves them. It makes the college appear more competitive, exclusive, and desirable.

These students—and their families—who go to extreme lengths (publishing books, faking research, creating non-profits) will likely continue that same relentless hustle, often bending or breaking rules along the way. Their success, in turn, reinforces the illusion that these schools only admit “brilliant” kids.

Having gone through the admissions process twice with my own kids, I’ve seen it firsthand. Students admitted to Ivy Plus schools included athletes, legacies, one with a parent on the admissions board, and even one who falsely claimed to be Native American.

It all seems to come down to one thing: colleges aren’t necessarily rewarding honesty or merit—they’re rewarding whoever plays their game the best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate how cynical people are here. A lot of kids out there are gifted and capable of a lot

Those kids are not being admitted, don’t you get it?

I have a gifted, capable kid (now adult) that could not get into Ivy/top whatever. They went to a very good college, worked hard, did research under a professor and graduated. They are now in a very prestigious PhD program and are doing amazingly well. These kids rise on their merits regardless of where they go to college. Don’t stress about prestige in undergrad. If they go somewhere not as highly ranked, they will surely stand out. They just need to take some initiative and find the right opportunities and excel at them. For some kids (like mine) this is a better path. Mine is introverted and did not have the requisite confidence after high school. Being at an institution where they could stand out helped them learn to ask for and seize opportunities. They will leave their PhD with authorship on close to 10 articles (not all first author, obviously). I really think based on their current path, they will be a leader in their field. They had no research I. High school (and had not even expressed an interest in their particular field in high school). They went to a college that was great for them but many here would turn their nose up at. Bright kids excel in their own way and their own time if you let them create their own path. Pushing gifted kids just breaks them. Ivy may be the right path for some gifted kids but it’s not for others. Don’t sweat it. Let your kid lead.

[Anonymous]

Most of the stuff is made up as there are only so many hours in the day and when you look at their resume's there is no way they can fit all that in.

[Anonymous]

Many of those kids get lots of help. My own kid despairs at this because they do science competitions but her humanities parents are no use and we don’t have connections for an “internship” somewhere. Some schools also have programs aimed at helping get the kids connected to internships, do research that their program mentors help them convert into research papers/science fair projects, and have staff who help the kids move their work along, building that into their academic schedule.

There’s also garden-variety cheating. She knows a kid who won a prize for writing a program but he admitted to his friends that he lifted a massive chunk of it from preexisting code. Or, for example, a couple years ago, an ISEF winner was found to have massively cheated: https://thecoastnews.com/international-science-fair-winner-from-del-mar-accused-of-fraud/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate how cynical people are here. A lot of kids out there are gifted and capable of a lot

Those kids are not being admitted, don’t you get it?

I have a gifted, capable kid (now adult) that could not get into Ivy/top whatever. They went to a very good college, worked hard, did research under a professor and graduated. They are now in a very prestigious PhD program and are doing amazingly well. These kids rise on their merits regardless of where they go to college. Don’t stress about prestige in undergrad. If they go somewhere not as highly ranked, they will surely stand out. They just need to take some initiative and find the right opportunities and excel at them. For some kids (like mine) this is a better path. Mine is introverted and did not have the requisite confidence after high school. Being at an institution where they could stand out helped them learn to ask for and seize opportunities. They will leave their PhD with authorship on close to 10 articles (not all first author, obviously). I really think based on their current path, they will be a leader in their field. They had no research I. High school (and had not even expressed an interest in their particular field in high school). They went to a college that was great for them but many here would turn their nose up at. Bright kids excel in their own way and their own time if you let them create their own path. Pushing gifted kids just breaks them. Ivy may be the right path for some gifted kids but it’s not for others. Don’t sweat it. Let your kid lead.

My gosh, this made me feel better. It’s wonderful to hear your child’s success story! That’s fantastic. May I ask what undergrad they went to?

[Anonymous]

How come some teenagers are Olympic athletes? How how is it that some teenagers are professional musicians? How is it that some teenagers win international chess competitions? How is it that some teenagers get paid for any number of tasks that are also done by adults?

They have developed their talent for something at a young age. Not every young person is sitting around scrolling through tick tock all day. Some of them spend a lot of time and energy developing their assorted talents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
In at the ripe age of 14 he presents a research that involves deep knowledge of environmental science, designs and builds a data collection device and build a web server to transmit data to, then developed neural networks to analyze the data.

This is a Ph.D. level project that requires full time Ph.D. students working on the project. Even the kid has the intelligence, there is no way a high school kid would have the time to develop this kind of project.

Most of the STS Regeneron projects are done like this. Some Chinese and Indian professors are adding their kids names to their research or they get their friends to do it. STS should lose their funding but they want to stay relevant. It's become a scam.

https://www.societyforscience.org/press-release/statement-from-society-for-science/

Most of them are most certainly not done like the student mentioned there that was disciplined for fraud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How come some teenagers are Olympic athletes? How how is it that some teenagers are professional musicians? How is it that some teenagers win international chess competitions? How is it that some teenagers get paid for any number of tasks that are also done by adults?

They have developed their talent for something at a young age. Not every young person is sitting around scrolling through tick tock all day. Some of them spend a lot of time and energy developing their assorted talents.

Everything you describe requires a lot of individual talent and effort. Yes, some infrastructure is absolutely necessary but you don't need specialized knowledge and expertise to be an accomplished musician (Avery Gagliano, for example from the DC area). Just talent. On the other hand building a hardware device needs a lot of know-how, a deep understanding of technical aspects (say digital processing, filters, bandwidth) and this is just the beginning for OP's purported genius.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How come some teenagers are Olympic athletes? How how is it that some teenagers are professional musicians? How is it that some teenagers win international chess competitions? How is it that some teenagers get paid for any number of tasks that are also done by adults?

They have developed their talent for something at a young age. Not every young person is sitting around scrolling through tick tock all day. Some of them spend a lot of time and energy developing their assorted talents.

Those you cannot fake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How come some teenagers are Olympic athletes? How how is it that some teenagers are professional musicians? How is it that some teenagers win international chess competitions? How is it that some teenagers get paid for any number of tasks that are also done by adults?

They have developed their talent for something at a young age. Not every young person is sitting around scrolling through tick tock all day. Some of them spend a lot of time and energy developing their assorted talents.

Those you cannot fake.

Okay sure. Some young people don't even bother to complete college education and became billionaires with their talents. Look around. There are some very talented young people out there.