Summer Research Opportunities for HS Students

cicero_oratore
Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:42:59 +0000

I was interested in pursuing some research opportunities over the summer, particularly in physics. I have not done any prestigious competitions such as Intel or Siemens, but I am also inclined to submit something into a competition next year (it is too late this year, and I wanted to do it with a few other people, but they bailed out on me and it ended up being too late to start anything). Currently, I am a junior in high school, and although I do not have any awards from competitions or such, I did participate in JHU’s CTY program (took the SATs in 7th grade and get a 650 on the math), and I have pursued computer programming at a young age as well (I started selling games that I would make in 6th grade and continued to do so, not as much now as back then though). If it helps any, I did take physics early in my school (I had a 104 average and beat out all of the juniors taking physics) and I self taught myself calculus and I am going to teach myself linear algebra or multivariable calculus soon.

So back to my point, I would like to do some research in physics over the summer, and I am sure that I would not be qualified enough per se for a program such as RSI, which is fine with me. However, I would like to find either a program or professor that could supply me with some research opportunities and help me along the way. I was just reading about some high schoolers’ research experiences (it was another thread on this forum) and how, for the most part, their research was somewhat open ended and original (partially). I live in the Boston area and do not want to travel too far (I’d like to stay in New England if at all possible), and I don’t want to enroll in a program where I am just someone’s lab assistant (I like the open ended mindset a bit better, and I think those would be generally better programs for people truly interested in pursuing the sciences in college). Are there any good programs out there that I could apply for or any professors who are willing to mentor high school students? Like I said, I have no prior research experience, but I did teach myself programming and calculus, and I do have all three sciences under my belt.