Looking for ways to get more involved in your academics, dive deep into one subject, and better prepare yourself for college? Let’s talk research.
In this guide, I’m going to outline how you can build a research project, find a mentor, and even publish your research—all while in high school. This comes from my experience studying for my PhD at Harvard Business School, directing the Lumiere Research Scholar Program, and doing research myself in high school.
What is an independent research project?
Independent research is basically a rigorous investigation into an academic question. What you study and the way you go about doing the research can vary widely between academic disciplines and scientific fields, but what connects all projects is a step-by-step approach to trying to answer the question. This might involve advanced data analysis, a review of dozens of scientific papers, or an experiment that you design and run.
In the research program I help run for high school students, we’ve had students who have written on many high school research project topics. These include climate change’s impact on the economy in Mumbai, non-viral delivery mechanisms for CRISPR/cas9, and an analysis of the AI strategy of the European Union. Do those sound way too impressive? Each of these projects were different in their approach and were built by high school students with no prior research experience.
In short, you can do it!
An independent research project:
Analyzes a scientific question
Uses a rigorous methodology to answer the question
Draws on existing literature/scientific research
Involves writing a research paper or similar academic output (e.g., poster, academic presentation)
(Usually) requires mentorship from a research expert in the field
Why should you do an independent research project?
I see two main reasons to do an independent project: 1) to explore an area of academic interest that you’re particularly excited about and go far deeper than you could in a class, and 2) to build a project that reflects your interests and abilities to the outside world (I’ll explain more in a second).
Reason #1: To learn about an area that excites you
Research is all about trying to discover something new. To do so, you have to go deep into a particular topic.
One high school student I mentored was interested in how organizations work. In particular, she was interested in her school system—the United World Colleges (UWC)—and how it came together to achieve its mission.
To research the school system, she decided on a qualitative (AKA interview-based) research project. To start, she made a list of 50 influential people in the UWC system (administrators, teachers, board members, and volunteers), found the emails and LinkedIns of each, and then reached out to them. She held over 25 interviews over Zoom, asking them about the school system and what challenges they faced. After a few interviews, she focused her research project on the topic of student selection. At the same time, we read research papers on related topics. She finally built a theory around the decentralized nature of the school system and how it influenced how students were selected.
In the end, she wrote a research paper that pushed her to go far deeper than any class on psychology! And you can too.
Whatever your interest, research will force you to go far deeper than you’ve gone on the topic. You’ll spend time learning about the cutting edge of the field. Then from there, you’ll try to build something new.
Reason #2: Showcase your interests & abilities to the outside world
Universities tend to think research projects reflect a student’s high level of academic ability and drive. For example, in a 2014 research project on which summer activities were important for admission officers, research was ranked as second most important, following internships. In the same report, The University of Chicago admission office said, “We give research prominence because as a research institution, we certainly like to see students engaging in research at the high school level.”
We conducted a research project exploring admission outcomes of students who took part in the Lumiere research program and listed research in their application. We found that students who did research as part of the program were 26% more likely to be admitted to a top 10 school than the average pool of applicants. Of course, we can’t claim that doing research means you’re more likely to get into any school—there are confounding factors such as baseline academic ability, intellectual curiosity, or parental background. But this is a useful data point to show that academically strong students often do research.
So how do you actually build it??
How to Build an Independent Research Project
Step #1: Identify a topic or area of interest
The first step is to identify an area that interests you. The more specific you can be the better, but you can be broad if you have a mentor who can guide you.
I usually recommend students try to get to the level of a sub-field when describing their interests. That means that you should be more specific than saying “economics,” but you don’t need to be as specific as saying, “I’m interested in the impact of Massachusetts state subsidies on consumption of electric vehicles in 2019” (an actual research project we’ve seen!). If you end up with, “I’m interested in the economics of climate change,” that’s enough to get started. In general, the more specific you can get, the better.
To narrow your interests, I recommend reading widely in your field, including books on the topic, online articles, and research publications. Unless you have experience reading academic papers, I’d start with more public-facing writing (e.g., in magazines or books) to help you understand the field before reading more dense academic articles.
For example, when I want to learn about business-related topics, I often read online magazines like the Harvard Business Review or research popular books on the topic by Googling. I then try to read the most popular book that comes up multiple times and that's (ideally) written by a professor. (Pro-tip: Books are nice because they’re usually written for a generalist audience and so are easier to start with. But, if they’re written by an academic, you can usually be confident that it’s rigorous!).
As I read the book, I’ll write down which papers and researchers get mentioned, then Google it/them to learn more.
Step #2: Find a mentor (if you can)
After identifying a broad area of interest, invest time in finding a mentor. Certainly, you do not need to work with a mentor to conduct research. But, in my experience, it’s hard to get started on a research project without some guidance. So, unless you’ve done research multiple times in the past, I recommend working with a mentor who can guide you.
If a mentor isn’t available, there’s still a lot you can do to get started. Read books in the field you’re interested in, join online communities for young researchers (Discord and Reddit have a few), and consider starting a blog that summarizes some of your learnings. These are all things you can do without a mentor.
How do you find a mentor? The best profile of a mentor is a current researcher in the field. For example, this could be a professor working in that topic area, a PhD student, or an employee at a private lab/think tank. A second-best option would be a teacher in your school who has experience in that field and is willing to work with you on it. Ultimately, having someone is better than not, so try to loop in someone to guide you, even if just for accountability!
You can find these researchers by attending a summer research program (here’s a list of 15 free summer research programs) or by doing outreach yourself. That outreach could be warm (e.g., talking to the teachers and counselors in your school about your interests, asking family to see whether they have connections to researchers), or it could also be cold. If you’re looking to do cold outreach, the key is to 1) cast your net wide (reach out to 25+ researchers), 2) show how you can add value to the researcher, and 3) be persistent! Ideally, your mentor is willing to meet with you at a minimum once every few weeks to help you work on your project. Anything less than that won’t be enough guidance.
Step #3: Define a research question
With a mentor onboard, the next step is to identify a research question. Now your readings need to go deeper than in step #1. The best research questions are:
Specific: You need it to be specific for you to contribute to research in that area.
Researchable: You have the resources and time to do the research.
Interesting: You should care about what you’re exploring.
I’ve found that research questions require multiple iterations. The key is to propose specific ideas early on, but to take regular feedback from your mentor to refine it. If you don’t have a mentor, try to search around to see whether the idea that you’ve proposed has been studied before. You can do this by Googling your research question or by using Google Scholar (the best free platform to find academic articles). You want an idea that other people are interested in (and, therefore, have searched for before) but that hasn’t been answered. This usually takes a few tries before you find a research question that fits your interests and that you can realistically complete.
Side Note: What about lab-based research? In a lab setting, you usually have less flexibility to pick the research question you’re interested in. That is because most labs are set up with a specific research purpose in mind, so they already have an area they want to explore. That’s ok! Just recognize that you’ll need to take more feedback from your mentor as to what topic to study in the lab.
Step #4: Do the research!
The next step is to do the research itself. Research can vary field-by-field—imagine how different physics research is from business research! Here are a few ways you can perform research:
Literature reviews
Data Analysis
Experiments
Interviews and Qualitative studies
Theoretical papers
You can find a ton of resources online to show you how to conduct each of these. If you’re wondering what each of these look like, below I show you a few example student projects to get you thinking.
Step #5: Write up your results (and rewrite … and rewrite)
As you do your research, you should start writing about your results. I suggest reading at least five other papers on similar topics just to see how those authors structure their papers. For first-time researchers, imitating the style and tone of other professional researchers will be a great way for you to develop a paper that looks and feels like other papers in the field. For example, in many experimental research papers, an academic paper will follow a structure that includes an abstract, context, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion format. You could follow that structure or create your own.
As you write, I highly recommend you get regular feedback from your mentor. Just like with your college essay, writing a great research paper requires writing and rewriting. The key is to write in the style of your academic field and to make your findings as clear as possible for an outside reader. You’re now an expert in your area of research, but your reader may not be!
Three High School Research Topics That Worked
Below, I profile three students who did research papers as part of the Lumiere Research Scholar Program.
Example #1
“Cap or No Cap? What Can Governments Do to Promote Production and Consumption of Electric Vehicles?”
Abstract
The importance of the federal electric vehicle (EV) subsidy—the United States’ largest EV purchase incentive—in combating climate change is controversial in part because of the lack of empirical evidence. Although intuitive economic theory suggests that subsidies generally increase sales, research on the actual effect of the federal subsidy remains limited. This paper examines the effect of the federal subsidy on EV sales. Employing historical time series data from the Department of Energy Alternative Fuels Data Center, EV units are separated into treatment and control units based on whether they are receiving the federal subsidy, allowing for a difference in differences (DiD) model structure including an initial estimate and regressions of linear and log-linear form. The federal subsidy has a substantial positive effect on EV sales, though the high standard error prevents rejection of the null at the 5% level. Above all, if, as the present study suggests, the high standard error is primarily due to a lack of sales data, then there is a need for future evaluations of the effect of the federal subsidy using more frequent time series data, as well as data from more units.
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Why it worked
This research paper, written by a junior in Massachusetts, investigated the impact of federal subsidies on the consumption of electric vehicles. They used a dataset collected by the Federal Department of Energy and used an advanced statistical model to measure the impact of the subsidy. The student submitted to and was ultimately published by the Cornell Undergraduate Review. The paper worked because it showed a deep knowledge of both the context of the electric vehicle market and the student’s comfort level with using statistical models common in economics research.
Example #2:
Using Novel Data Sources to Improve the Ocean Health Index of the High Seas
Abstract
This paper highlights the indispensable work of the ocean in sustaining life on earth, and particularly its role in climate regulation, through the framework of the Ocean Health Index (OHI). It focuses on the high seas, a region that covers half the earth’s surface but remains unexplored and much less understood than coastal waters. This paper critically evaluates data and evidence gaps in the OHI for the high seas and proposes the application of state-of-the-art climate change databases and technology, that if incorporated into the assessment, would reflect the ocean’s contribution in this sphere. Last but not least, this paper makes recommendations for the conservation of the high seas and its teeming wildlife.
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Why It worked
In this paper, a student analyzed the ocean health index (OHI) and proposed novel ways to improve its measurements in the high seas. This paper combined both a literature review, analyzing the origins and purpose of the OHI, and data collection to show additional data sources that the OHI could use to improve. The final recommendations were practical and showed a unique level of understanding of what the OHI is and could be.
Example #3:
The Forgotten Third: A Comparison of China, US, and the European Union’s AI Development
Abstract
In the 21st century, great power competition dominates the field of international relations. Much has been written about the US and China rivalry for technological dominance, specifically in artificial intelligence. But these analyses are missing one essential player: Europe. I ask will China use its advancements in artificial intelligence to overtake the United States as a superpower, disrupting the US hegemon, just as the United States once did in a post-cold war era with the USSR. Europe is developing its own strategy and capabilities to rival those of the US and China. I use a cross-country qualitative case study method to examine advancements in artificial intelligence across the US, China, and Europe, specifically France and Germany. To determine each states’ leadership and capabilities, I compare them across their AI dreams, hardware, research, and ecosystem. In this comparison I find that whilst China’s numbers outcompete the US and Europe in total output, there are multiple criterium, notably in top tier development, where there is still a significant gap China needs to close between its rivals. Thus, providing an opportunity for Europe, specifically France and Germany, to develop and lead certain criterium regarding core AI development. This paper contributes to existing scholarship on artificial intelligence and US-China relations by adding the European dimension.
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Why it worked
This paper involved a qualitative case study analysis of AI development across different countries. The paper works because it addresses a hot topic (AI development), but does so in a novel and interesting way (looking at Europe as the third player in a China-U.S. AI power struggle). The author concludes that there’s opportunity for European countries, particularly Germany and France, to play a role in the development of AI capabilities.
I’ve finished my research paper—now what? Publications, competitions, and ways to show off what you did
To showcase your research, you can consider submitting it to publications. Usually, publications will send your paper to a group of anonymous reviewers (usually researchers) who will offer comments and decide whether your work will be accepted or not. Usually, you’ll have time to resubmit revisions if you don’t get in the first time.
If you’re interested in a deep dive on publication, check out this guide on how to publish your research in high school. You’ll want to find a publication that caters to high school or college students and that has a rigorous peer-review process. In general, there are a few types of targets to consider.
Highly Selective High School & College Publications
The first type of journals that students should think about are highly selective high school and college-level publications. These journals include the Concord Review or the Columbia Junior Science Journal. For example, the above economics research paper was published in the Cornell Undergraduate Economic Review, a rigorous college-level journal for university-level economic papers. This student was the first high school student to ever be published in the journal, a clear signal of competence to others.
The most selective journals include both a rigorous review process and a limited number of spots in the journal. The Concord Review, for example, accepts about 45 student research papers each year out of an estimated 900 submissions. The Columbia Junior Science Journal, similarly, publishes between 10-20 papers each year. Most of these journals require original research or data collection of some sort.
Rigorous, Peer Reviewed High School Publications
The next level of journals are rigorous, peer-reviewed publications. These journals, such as the Journal of Emerging Investigators or the Journal of Student Research, have a peer-review process. These journals have requirements on the type of papers that are accepted (e.g., some will accept new data analyses, some will accept literature reviews). These journals do not have a certain number of slots predefined, but they do have a bar for what type of research they’ll accept.
For these journals, students will submit their paper and the journal will assign (or ask you to identify) a potential set of reviewers for the paper. These reviewers will be researchers in the field who have earned a PhD. The reviewers will then offer comments. The Journal of Emerging Investigators stands out here among these journals as being one of the most rigorous and providing the most in-depth, critical feedback to students.
Research Conferences
Another place to showcase your research is at research conferences. In some fields, like computer science, conferences are actually more common places to publish work than journals. One advantage of research conferences is that they often accept abstracts of research instead of full-length research articles, lowering the amount of effort required to get accepted. Also, many conferences want more researchers to populate the conference, again making the admission process easier. Example conferences for high school students to consider include the Harvard Science Research Conference and the Sigma Xi Annual Meeting. Search, too, for field-specific conferences based on your research paper topic, perhaps by Googling “student research conference + [topic area]” or “research conference + [topic area].”
Competitions
Finally, a common way to showcase your research is in the form of a student competition. Science fairs, such as ISEF Regeneron, are one common way for students to showcase their work. But there are dozens of others, including the Genius Olympiad, John Locke Essay Competition, and the STEM Fellowship Competition.
Competitions can be one of the most impactful ways to show your work because it’s a powerful signal if you win. As a bonus, competitions usually allow you to submit your research paper to publications and to competitions at the same time (check your publications requirements before doing that though!).
Conclusion: Research is a great way to learn and showcase what you can do
If you want to explore an area of interest deeply, there’s no better way to do it than by building a research project. Research is a great learning tool to help you become an expert in a particular field. As you build a project (and then show it off!), you’ll help create a spiky profile that can help in the admission process.
Special thanks to Stephen for writing this blog post.
Stephen is one of the founders of the Lumiere Research Scholar Program and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a PhD student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program where students work 1:1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper. In the 2020-2021 school year, over 1,500 students applied to the program.
