A Fully Comprehensive Guide to High School Research Competitions
Participating in research competitions is a great way to fill the awards section on your Common Application and to maybe win some prizes as well! Not sure where to start? Don’t worry--you’re in the right place.
What is a Research Competition?
A research competition is the best place to let your passions shine, especially if those interests lie within the fields of STEM. Of course, you need to conduct research to participate in a research competition--if you don’t have any research yet, here’s a little guide for how to get started.
How to Conduct Research
Do Some Research
Why is the first step of conducting research doing research? Because it’s important to look into what you want your finished product to look like before you begin your projects. So you’re not going to start with experiments--rather, begin by reading research papers published by others previously and try to find an array of papers that interest you. Some good places to start your search are Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, and CORE.
Once you have a list of your top five or ten articles, you’re going to analyze them to understand what is similar between them. Do they all have abstracts? How long is the paper? How many pages detail the actual experiments conducted? Use this information to decide how your project will go--having a target to shoot for helps you keep motivated and stay on track for success.
Write a Hypothesis
Now that you know your goal, you need a research topic. What are you trying to figure out? Try to ask a question that doesn’t have a conclusive answer yet, and make sure you narrow your scope enough so your topic is actually researchable. For instance, rather than asking, “How does age show through appearance?”, ask “What is the relationship between wrinkles and age?”.
Scientists will often also make hypotheses on the questions that they ask, predicting the outcome before they conduct experiments. For the wrinkles correlation question, an example of a hypothesis might be, “There is a relationship between wrinkles and age; as a person ages, they develop more wrinkles regardless of external factors.”
Procedure and Materials
Once you have your question and predictions in mind, consider how you will go about answering that question. What experiments will you conduct? Do you have the materials you need to do them already? Will you need to contact a lab to get a microscope or any other equipment you might need? Do you need a mentor to guide you through the data collection process?
Even if you do not conduct your research with an adult, having a mentor to guide you through the process can be extremely rewarding when you reach a roadblock. If you have a professor or experienced student that you are working with, they are a wonderful resource! They can answer any questions you may have regarding the broad field you are researching, so try to get in contact with someone like a university professor or undergraduate who has conducted similar experiments before; lots of professionals are happy to help students who are eager to learn.
The Research Phase
Now that you have the logistics figured out, you’re all set to start experimenting! This is the exciting part, where you get to answer your question and hopefully make some contributions to the academic world. If you’re doing the research by yourself, make sure you have resources you can turn to if you run into issues--that might mean a parent or teacher, or even just a website detailing how to use the equipment you have.
Analyze Your Results
The real research happens after your experiments, when you’re looking back at what you got. Is there a pattern you can identify? Do your results prove or disprove your hypothesis? If you want to enter your research into a competition, you will need to write a research paper detailing your experiments and your conclusions.
Writing a research paper is also a physical way to demonstrate your learning through your research, so even if you don’t end up applying to any of the following research competitions, a paper is a valuable resource to have! You can use it to demonstrate your passion for a certain area on your college application, resume, or any other inquiry.
Why Compete in Research Competitions?
Like I’ve mentioned before, conducting research on its own is a valuable extracurricular to demonstrate your interest in a particular subject. However, when you write a paper and submit it to research competitions, that furthers your impression as someone who has drive and takes initiative.
And who knows? Maybe you’ll win, and that will be something put in the awards section of your resume or college application, or just a source of pride for you! Many of these competitions also offer some sort of cash prize to their winners.
Three of the Best Research Competitions for High School Students
Ok, so you’ve written your paper. Now what? It’s time to start competing!
Regeneron Science Talent Search
The Regeneron Science Talent Search is the biggest and best pre-college science and math competition in the United States. The program aims to support young innovators who are tackling global issues through their research.
To enter this research competition, students must submit their transcript, recommendations, optional test scores, answers to essay questions, and a research paper that is at most 20 pages long. As with any competition, Regeneron is constantly making changes to their application; but here is a full list of application requirements, as of the 2024 competition cycle.
Each year, around 2,000 high school students enter STS, out of which 300 scholars win $2,000 for themselves and their school. Only 40 finalists are selected to compete for a total of $1.8M at Washington, DC.
Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair
Another opportunity hosted by Regeneron, ISEF is an international version of the STS above. Applicant pool size and prizes are similar. However, to qualify to compete in ISEF, you must first participate in a Regeneron-affiliated science fair, since ISEF is the final science fair competition. If you compete at a smaller event, that fair may send your project to Regeneron, and that is when you would be invited to participate in the research competition.
Since this is an international research competition it will be much harder to place, but also much more rewarding if you do; so give it a shot and compete in a Regeneron-affiliated fair! You never know where that might take you.
Breakthrough Junior Challenge
The Breakthrough Junior Challenge is a bit different from the other research competitions on this list, because it does not require the submission of a research paper. Instead, participants must create a two-minutes-maximum video explaining any scientific or mathematical concept in a compelling and interesting way.
This competition showcases not only academic prowess, but creative ability as well--so if the idea of writing a 20+ page research paper on your experiments sounds daunting, this might be the research competition for you! Each year around 3,000 applicants participate in the challenge, and this number is steadily increasing. Out of all of these scholars, however, only 15 become finalists, and only one becomes the winner who gets a multitude of cash prizes--a $250,000 college scholarship, $100,000 for the student’s school, and $50,000 for the teacher who inspired the student.
Conclusion
Participating in these research competitions might be nerve-racking because you don’t even know what to research, let alone how to create a compelling article that contributes something new to the field of science or mathematics. If this is the case, try reaching out to teachers or university professors to ask for ideas--they’re always happy to lend a helping hand if someone wants to think deeper about their area of interest! Use this article as well to guide you through your research journey, because like the title said, I’ve included everything you really need to know to get started with individual research.
Once you stick your toes in, research truly is not a daunting topic. It’s quite fun to test out ideas that people may never have thought of before; and even if they have, it’s an amazing hands-on way to allow your learning to stick for years to come! So many opportunities open when you conduct individual research, like the possibility of winning an international research competition. You really have nothing to lose; so scroll back to the top of this article, come up with a compelling question, and get researching!
About Inspirit AI
AI Scholars Live Online is a 10 session (25-hour) program that exposes high school students to fundamental AI concepts and guides them to build a socially impactful project. Taught by our team of graduate students from Stanford, MIT, and more, students receive a personalized learning experience in small groups with a student-teacher ratio of 5:1.
