I recently signed up for the Haravard OpenBio program which is a research program for high school students in grades 9-12. I’ve never really heard of this program before and the program is requiring an application fee of around 20 dollars. On top of that, the website said that the application fee was 15$ dollars so I was pretty suspicious. The research is additionally supposedly published on the Harvard undergraduate journal which when searched up, doesn’t have much information about it. On the flip-side, other than the application fee the program is free and has a 10% acceptance rate.
Ever since I started high school I’ve been suspicious of scam programs. Could anyone please enlighten me? This program seems too good to be true.
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For starters, you should be aware that the only affiliation with Harvard is that it’s run by Harvard undergrads.
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Looking thru its website, a few things to note:
https://soco.college.harvard.edu/00003/openbio-home/
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It has a harvard.edu address which means it’s affiliated/approved by Harvard. Harvard is very protective of its name.
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It is listed as being “free” and only cost is a nominal application fee of $20.
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70 spots.
4, New program.
I don’t believe this is a scam like “pay us and you may never see us again” type of deal. I also don’t see this to be a “pay for play” arrangement.
BUT, I do see this as more of an Outreach arrangement set up for Harvard Undergrads interested in biomedical research or pre-med to buff up THEIR resume by recruiting and mentoring HS students. In someway, this may be benefiting those UG students more than you.
Nonetheless, for some HS kids, this may be a way to get some Harvard exposure and link to drop the Harvard name into your own resume/EC. Since there is no cost like some youth summer programs that can cost $7000-12000, there is really no down side in applying and participating.
I suspect in 3-5 years, this program will become highly regarded as long the the UG that runs this doesn’t screw it up.
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Hey! I signed up for OpenBio too, and ill be attending the Conference on Saturday. Are you going to that? And do you know how competitive it is by any chance?
I didn’t know that there was a conference can you send me the link? Also I’m pretty sure a lot of people from my school applied, so it may be competitive since its nationwide
I tried emailing them, it bounced back twice
Ugh I was hoping it wouldn’t be that competitive. Nobody in my school knew anything even in my bio class.
Yeah theres a Conference at Harvard tomorrow, it’s run by OpenBio but as far as I know theres no direct correlation to the SRI program. It might be too late to sign up and it costs 20$.
Aww, thats too bad. Any program by a prestigious university will be competitive LOL. I go to a VERY competitive school so a lot of people including me signed up for the program
I question if it is legit, if the email isn’t working, just basic ?
Sorry! I’m not really sure! I haven’t attempted to email them but since the program is affiliated with Harvard I doubt the program wont run at all and is just scamming you out of your money. When I initially posed the question I was more so asking if it was another cash-grab program like 90% of the Lumire education stuff or pre-college programs where they make you pay 2,000 dollars on a “experience” which isn’t valuable for college. The email is probably just faulty or maybe you’re typing in the wrong one.
I am interested and would like to hear more about it.I wanted to know is a rising 9 th grader will be able to attend and hence, emailed them twice.If you know more details, please let me know. Thank you
Its very new, they only started it last year. Most people don’t know it exists. Not like hopp or simons. My school is pretty mid but there are smart people here (including myself) and im not gonna tell them about it till application date pasts. Don’t need more competition for myself
I heard of other people having problems with the email. I met the guy who runs the program communications in person, his name is Sean and he was super chill so I doubt he did something personally to prevent emails from going through
It is very new but its under the Harvard name so of course there would be a lot of competition. There will be a lot of competition from all over the country it isn’t just for people who live near Boston/Cambridge since its a virtual research program. I know my school has a lot of eligible candidates and I know for a fact that 50-100 kids here signed up. You’re going up against a lot of people, so no one at your school knowing about the program doesn’t really help. I personally think my essay’s were good, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to get in.
I know that. Maybe your school is just sweaty. Jks
Well known ≠ competitive. And i mean that in the sense that there will be a lot of people who apply with the assumption that they will automatically be accepted, and therefore dont put that much effort into the application, in comparison to students like me and you who know that you should spend a few days on these essays, etc. Same thing happened with HOPP, another program I applied for. I got in top 10% of 1200+ applicants and I am the definition of mid. Theres no way the 1000 ish students that didnt make second round all had 95+ averages. If yk what I am saying. Plus the people who run the program are chill asf.
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true, you have a point. Also thanks for telling me about HOPP I actually had no idea such a program existed until now. Definitely applying next year!
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It’s going to be a competitive program. Their website says that they are anticipating single-digit acceptance rates.
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Thanks for the heads up: I was looking for an acceptance rate but I couldn’t find any. Im glad they updated it, is it just on the general webpage?
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Yup. You can find it under program details.
No problem! And yeah it’s great, one of the few programs that aren’t pay-to-play and you get that legit experience. Im proud of how far I got and I don’t hold anything against them or myself for not making it. I hope they add more spots but since it’s so high-quality, I would understand if they did not.
Something else I realized is that they want a diverse student body, and that might not bode well for you since it includes regional diversity. I don’t think having half the program from the same school would look that great on their part, unless you guys are from Mass where then it would kinda make sense. Im from NYC so there will probably be a bunch of other people in my area applying too, but hopefully my essays might overcome that. I think you will be fine, though, just based on our conversation. More than me. And speaking of, definitely apply to HOPP! I know im breaking my own advice here by telling you but 1) you deserve to know and 2) its so competitive already it doesn’t really matter
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