<p>aruff, she did not “publish”. She did have a poster presentation of her research (that has won awards) and a very strong app otherwise. Her research career began as a freshman. Her lab is very well funded and well respected and has had Goldwaters (twice?) before. Her lab allows substantial individual initiative and I believe that is probably what won the day. That and she knows her field backwards and forwards. </p>
<p>She’s just a typical well-rounded science geek who is very active socially . I have spoken to one of her profs (last year) and if the prof’s opinion hadn’t changed then she wrote an absolutely stellar rec. </p>
<p>So…really I have no idea. She’s very smart but so are lots of kids. I’d say she got it on chutzpah. Sorry. I was a history major. What do I know? I don’t even understand the words in the title.;)</p>