Four years ago, overhearing your sister musing about a distinguished student who participated in research and got admitted to numerous colleges, you marvel at the idea of research, regarding it as a highly esteemed activity that only a certain few can accomplish. Now, as you scroll through your role models’ experiences on LinkedIn, you stare at experiences from top-tier universities or nationally acclimated programs, along with numerous awards from international contests and competitions. As you explore the rabbit hole of profiles, perusing new ones with every click, what strikes your attention the most is the number of high schoolers posing as research assistants at nationally acclaimed universities or nonprofit organizations. You think to yourself, maybe research can guarantee me a spot at a top college.

Over the past couple of years, research has been an increasingly popular—or at least known—extracurricular activity among many high school students, particularly those seeking to pursue a career in STEM. Whether that be through extremely competitive summer research programs at universities or cold emailing dozens of professors across the country, students have utilized many methods to partake in academic research. Even though research can help students pursue their passions, the more frequent reasons behind such efforts are not always as genuine as they may appear.

Fundamentally, real researchers aim to develop new solutions to decades-old problems, like gauging the effectiveness of education models or detail new discoveries for further investigation, such as observing new organisms or species. As researchers continue to invite more individuals to build on each other’s results, one particular demographic that has taken interest in research is high school students. As they work alongside professors, high school students gain insight as they explore new approaches that can transform the field of interest they are most interested in, guiding them as they plan for their future careers.

Recognizing some students’ interests in research, Stevenson does provide some resources that students can utilize to begin participating in research. For instance, Science REACH enables students to develop their own experiments and research projects, which are submitted to various science fair competitions like the Illinois Junior Academy of Science. STEM Professionals As Resource Knowledge (SPARK) is also another Stevenson-sponsored opportunity for students to work with professors and mentors in their career field of interest on experiments and research over the summer. 

More commonly, students interested in research seek opportunities outside of Stevenson. Students would apply to high school research programs like the Summer Science Program and Research Science Institute across the country at numerous institutions since the prestige of such programs, combined with their better quality, are much more appealing. However, because such programs are highly selective and feature large applicant pools with few positions open to students, most students end up getting rejected and instead resort to “cold-emailing” tens—or even hundreds—of college professors, begging professors to let them partake in their ongoing research.

However, are high school students interested in research because they want to make a meaningful impact on the world? Or do they do research just for the sake of putting research on college applications and resumes? Unfortunately, most students are more focused on using their research experiences as another checkbox on their extracurricular activity list for college applications, rather than truly valuing what they achieved through their research.

I myself have considered participating in research many times, applying to various research programs only to be rejected by all of them. My friends always encouraged me to “cold-email” professors in search of any research opportunities, but I also always found myself hesitating when drafting such “cold-emails.” While I liked the idea of adding research to my college applications and admired the cool approaches that my friends were exploring, I was unsure if research was meant for me because I lacked the expertise, commitment, and rigor needed for research.

Moreover, after hearing my friends’ experiences, I’ve realized that all research isn’t the same; rather, there are different “tiers” to the research that students do. At lower levels, students mainly handle the procedure and lab analysis portions, such as analyzing results in a spreadsheet but may also assume a more active role in collaborating with professors. At these levels, students publish some of their research online or in high school student journals, but even so, some of my friends still complain that research was practically labor without much say about the experiments.

At higher levels, students make their proposals and run their experiments, with or without mentors, having full control of how they want to investigate their matters of interest. These students, while only making up a small portion of high school researchers, gather data and results worthy of being published as papers. Despite the differences in research experiences and the degree to which students contribute, high school research is very much not as impressive as many perceive it to be. Although students can contribute to publishing papers, the results are far from groundbreaking.

However, take everything with a grain of salt. I’ve heard many people who conducted their own research and enjoyed publishing their results in papers, but also people who were unimpressed with their research experience and considered it a waste of time. Everyone’s experiences differ, so don’t take any single person’s views and opinions as absolute. The decision is up to you on whether you are interested in and prepared to work alongside researchers or become a researcher yourself.

Like any other extracurricular activity, if you find a valid passion for research (college applications are not), then searching for research opportunities is completely reasonable. Otherwise, you will find participating in research very boring and won’t get much, if anything, out of the experience. And if you are interested in research, don’t jump the gun; instead of chasing prestige, apply to local programs or sincerely cold-email a couple of local professors to get an idea of what research entails before pursuing more ambitious endeavors.

You may feel ready to partake in research, hoping to make a tangible impact on the world. Other times, you may feel that participating in research in the future is much more appropriate based on your current circumstances. Maybe, you may feel that research is just not right for you. In the end, follow your heart and what you are truly passionate about, not what others are passionate about.