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?

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.

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.

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?