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The easiest way is if you have a local university nearby. Many people simply email professors during the year for work over the summer. I suppose it doesn’t have to be a local university; it just makes it much more convenient. I don’t think many people who do “research” do it at a high school as for most fields you just don’t have the proper equipment or personnel to do so. Does that make sense?</p>
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Well, during admissions only Axline and President’s scholarships are given out. The latter is given to minorities (not Asian) for recruitment, and you know about the former. Caltech does provide merit money to some returning students via Upper Class Merit Awards (see <a href=“http://www.finaid.caltech.edu/UpperClassMeritAwardMarch2006.html)%5B/url%5D”>http://www.finaid.caltech.edu/UpperClassMeritAwardMarch2006.html)</a>, where they give something like 50-60 students each year (returning sophomores, juniors, seniors so like ~5-10 percent of the returning students) anywhere from 3/4 tuition to full tution, room/board, fees, etc… It’s one of those things that it’s nice to get if you do get it, but it probably isn’t a safe thing to count on if you need the money.</p>
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I typed out this 10 page long explantion with numbered steps for achieving happiness, but stupid CC deleted my message. Anyway, I’m sure you can just wing it.</p>