<p>If you do independent anthropological research, write a book on it, and get published, does that count as an outstanding EC?</p>
<p>I’d say yes, if it’s published by a reputable company. If you go the self-publishing route, then not so much.</p>
<p>Self-publishing? Qu’est-ce que c’est?</p>
<p>Bbbbbumpppppp.</p>
<p>It depends on how good it is. 
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<p>It will help some. It’s probably not a hook at highly selective colleges, but it’s definitely a good ec to have.</p>
<p>I think it really depends on the originality of it. If you had to travel to like Nigeria to analyze the bones of like holler monkeys, which I’d assume has never been done before, then it’d be a good EC.</p>
<p>You can’t even find howler monkeys in Africa, let alone Nigeria. So yes, obviously no one has taken that particular research track before. 
But I digress…</p>
<p>Having background in research (independent or not), is very valuable during college admissions. But it’s not even so much that you have to have work published to impress adcoms. You could participate (and do well) in science fairs or research-based science competitions (i.e. Siemens or Intel).</p>
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<p>I’m not sure that the question is serious, but to even read enough of the literature to know if what you’re doing is original research in some very narrow subspecialty of anthropology (let alone to know enough about methodology to do decent research) would be extraordinary. Most Ph.D dissertations, which involve years of coursework, reading, and research never find reputable publishers; at many colleges, professors can be tenured without having published anything longer than article length. I’d bet most adcoms never in an entire career see a HS student with legitimate published book-length research.</p>
<p>I was just giving an example that had a narrow scope of research.</p>
<p>You basically have to have research that is of state or national level, from what kryptonsa.</p>
<p>So it isn’t going to happen overnight.</p>
<p>It is a serious question, and I do plan on spending years on it. It’s not actually anthropological, I accidentally stuck that word in there since I had been thinking about anthropology literally as I typed.</p>
<p>It will actually be a study on less considered factors that cause good/bad economies and have caused good/bad economies in the past. It’s not a terribly original concept, but just going by my readings and some research, it’s a fairly original approach, especially in the factors I plan to consider. It will take considerable time and effort on my part, and I plan to spend time I’m not interning during summers working on it.</p>
<p>Sorry if I was unclear before.</p>
<p>Some of the responses I see on this website are amusing at best -</p>
<p>Yes, orgininal research is an outstanding EC - as long as quality time has been put into it, it was done correctly and it has been written up correctly. If it’s been published (a long shot for a HS student, but not impossible) , that’s even better. Find yourself some professors to advise you, look over your work and perhaps in the long run, maybe they will even write you a recommendation.</p>
<p>Pearl, would I be able to send you a private message?</p>
<p>I don’t know - I’ve never retrieved a pm from this website. You could try.</p>