Becoming a Finalist in the MIT THINK Scholars Program
The MIT THINK Scholars Program is one of the most competitive research mentorship programs promoting student-led innovation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Rather than awarding students for fully completed research projects, THINK accepts proposals from high school students and provides mentorship and funding to students with winning project proposals.
These students will have done extensive research into the background of a potential project and are clear about what $1000 (USD) in funding and mentorship will do to advance their project. Finalists will also be invited to a four-day all-expenses paid trip to MIT’s campus in Cambridge, MA, to tour labs, present their research to MIT students and faculty, and get to know the members of the THINK team. Read on to learn more about this prestigious mentorship program and how to become a finalist.
An Overview of MIT THINK
THINK is led by a team of undergraduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as part of its largest technology club, TechX, aimed at promoting Technology for Humanity through Innovation, Networking, and Knowledge. Its mission is to make STEM research accessible to creative and motivated high school students who need help implementing it. It is open to all high school students residing in the United States that submit a written research proposal outlining a novel science, technology, engineering, or mathematics idea.
The THINK team reviews its application in two rounds. The team first chooses program semifinalists through an initial proposal review and then through video interviews with the semifinalists. After these rounds of review, six finalists will be chosen to receive an all-expenses paid trip to MIT, continued mentorship, and funding for your proposed project. Once finalists have completed their projects the following May, they will be designated as MIT THINK Scholars and join an impressive alumni network, several of which have gone on to attend MIT.
MIT THINK Program Details
Successful applicants will need to adhere to the following requirements and deadlines:
You must be a full-time high school student when applying
You must be U.S. permanent resident during the academic year when they apply (citizenship is not required, but you must be living in the country)
You can only submit one proposal per academic year
You can either write your proposal alone or with a partner
Applications will open in early November and close in early January
When selected, your project will be due in June
When selected, you will need to document your progress in weekly reports and a detailed final report by the end of the spring semester
MIT THINK Proposal Guidelines
You will need your MIT THINK proposal to follow the proper formatting or risk disqualification. The full list of guidelines can be found here, but here are some of the highlights. Your proposal should be divided into the following sections:
Title and abstract
Include the name, email, and affiliation of you and your mentor, if applicable
Describe the motivation, desired outcomes, and your plan for implementation
An explanation of your project’s motivation and approach
Clearly identify the need or problem you are trying to solve
Explain any background information and cite existing scientific literature/theory
Identify current state-of-the-art approaches and explain why they are insufficient
Describe your proposed solution and how it improves upon current technology
Project logistics and organization
Walk through the implementation of your proposal, show it is technically feasible
Specify the resources you will need to obtain to implement your project
Establish project milestones, deadlines, and how you will evaluate success
Identify three issues you might encounter and different solutions you could use
Describe how the funding and mentorship will help you achieve your goals
Provide a detailed budget in table form, estimating where needed
Your personal interest in the project
Describe your academic background, where you are coming from, if you have any research experience, and why you are interested in your area of interest
Describe the skills you have and those you will need to learn for the project
You will need to review the detailed guidelines above since each of these bullets needs to be addressed. In particular, you need to address how your project will benefit from the funding and mentorship from MIT THINK. Be sure to give extra attention to this section since proposals that are unclear about how MIT THINK can benefit their project will not be selected to advance in the competition.
Crafting a Competitive Proposal
The key to crafting a competitive proposal is to spend the extra time to put your best effort into it and keep the criteria and guidelines in mind. You will want to ensure that every bullet point in the guidelines gets addressed since you will not want your project to be immediately disqualified after all the effort you put into it. Beyond simply addressing the bullet points, you will want to make sure that your writing clearly demonstrates the interest, impact, and execution of your project. To see the projects that MIT THINK has demonstrated interest in and the level of clarity they look for in writing, you can look at the winners from past years here.
Further, you will want to pay attention to the MIT THINK review criteria while crafting your proposal, the highlights of which are listed here:
Impact – the level of relevance, importance, of interest in the identified problem
Innovation – how the work is novel and improves upon existing solutions
Clarity – the clarity of the goals, methods, timelines, and evaluation criteria
Feasibility – whether or not the project can be completed in one semester under $1000
Benefit – how much will the project benefit from MIT THINK funding and mentorship
In order to make your MIT THINK proposal as appealing to the reviewers as possible, ask others you trust to review your work to see how well it addresses the questions and review criteria. Outside reviewers will be able to recognize when your language is unclear, where your plan needs to be thought through further, and what context or definitions might be missing. Asking for help will not only benefit your proposal, but it will also show that you are able to take initiative with your project and make the most of the resources you have available.
If you are interested in applying to MIT THINK, consider applying to the 1:1 Mentorship Program at InspiritAI! Research experience will give you a significant leg up in your application, and our mentors – hailing from the world's top research institutions and tech companies – will walk you through an entire research project from start to end. Whether you are a coding novice or a virtuoso, our individualized mentorship program will help you develop an exceptional research project. For more information, do not hesitate to contact InspiritAI with questions.
