<p>How would you proceed with this? Will it impress colleges?</p>
<p>One thing to do is definitly not mention that you are doing it for any kind of recognition. Show true interest, and be willing to wait to find a willing professor, I probably e-mailed 90+ and got 3 positive responses, and ended up working stuff out with 2 of them. Be very polite and respectful, and sometimes even the ones that turn you down will send your letter around to their colleagues. Mention that you can include letters of recommendation if needed and get a couple science/math teachers to write stellar recs.</p>
<p>Oh and it helps if you have very high test scores and can mention them, especially in the AP or SAT II field they work in, that seems to demonstrate interest to the profs.</p>
<p>It won’t impress colleges if you are doing it just to impress colleges. And if you are doing it because you love it, seriously, do you care about impressing colleges?</p>
<p>I think I can help you w/ this. Let me give you my story and see if that helps you any.</p>
<p>Around 10th grade I started taking a very particular interest in artificial intelligence. In particular, real artificial intelligence, the kind you see in movies. I tried to develop some models and my main resource was chatting around w/ other programmers and thinkers on online forums. After a lot of spleunking on CC i realized that I could turn this into research. I tried entering siemens w/ a horrible paper. Yeah, I got pretty upset when I didn’t get anything. Anyway, I spent a ton of time reworking the paper for the spring. I slowly started racking up awards. As I did, more and more profs started taking interest in me. Eventually I went to ISEF and won 3rd place. Not much, but when I mention it to profs, it convinces them that I might be worth something.</p>
<p>From what I’ve come to see, half of the professors just want to shove you in a lab, hope you publish and put their name on it. The other half see you as a chance for them to get into the whole watching their pupil become a prodigy. The other half idk about. That’s 3 halves make a whole. Think about it.</p>
<p>Doing this will not impress colleges. The reality is that there is a very high likely hood that whatever you do isn’t really impressive at all to the scientific community (which isn’t wrong, you haven’t taken the classes and worked in labs like most scientists who have published have). So what impresses colleges is that you have a true love for something and you follow true w/ it.</p>
<p>I totally see where you’re going with your three halves thing. But I agree with the last thing you said. Listen up, Masterus!</p>
<p>I designed my own research project (with a teacher as an advisor). I think ti will help me a lot for college. My school has the resources to allow me to pursue such a project; and it’s a great experience. If you can think up your own inquiry question, and design research around it, it’s quite an impressive undertaking.</p>
<p>make your own theory</p>