Science Research: Program v. Independently with Mentor

Perfectedxchaos
Sat, 19 Jan 2008 12:42:10 +0000

I recently went on a Brown interview and mentioned that I had been doing research independently this past year. I have some mentor guidance from my research teacher at school, and a postdoc at a local lab, but not “a mentor” from a specific program. The Brown interviewer was slightly more impressed by the fact that I took the intiative to do something that I was interested in, rather than in enroll in a program.

I’m not insulting those programs, because by all means, if you get in, that’s a fabulous opportunity.

I’m just making the point that you don’t need a specific program for it to “look good”. Just by doing the research, and applying to those competitions like INTEL and Siemens, looks “good”.

And that’s my $.02.