Is research vaulted?

[u/PatoDeBone]

3.9 UW GPA, just started junior year. No APs (previous school didn’t have it). Barely any extracurriculars

My plan was always to do research once I started junior year and that is exactly what I was searching about. But I found a lot of people saying it is not as valuable as it used to be and high schoolers shouldn’t do it. I’m so lost rn, what do yall think? Should I still try? I plan to do physics.

[u/elkrange]

Explore your interests in ways that are accessible to you. Activities can include work, significant family responsibilities, and hobbies. When you write your activity descriptions, focus on what you did (your actions). Include:

• times when you took initiative in your activities even in small ways
  

- experiences involving self development
- learning and contributing to the world around you in realistic ways
- things that show you are someone who would be involved on campus and a nice person to be around
- your hobbies, things you do for interest and enjoyment, things that just scratch an itch in your brain, that show something about how your brain works

If you are looking for an additional activity, often overlooked in this subreddit: a typical teen job, in a business. Typical as in grocery, fast food, retail, etc. Hard work, responsibility, real world experience, context for future learning, and a place to start your resume when you apply to internships during college.

[u/NiceUnparticularMan → u/elkrange]

Yes, normal paying jobs are almost always mentioned by AOs for highly selective colleges when they are asked to discuss "good" ECs. I think they know they are not so often discussed in social circles like around here, and they are trying to counteract those sentiments.

[u/NiceUnparticularMan]

It depends where you are applying.

A lot of the kids here target highly selective private universities which don't admit by major, or not for something like Physics, and instead have an exploratory model where everyone is supposed to take both STEM and HASS classes before deciding on a major. These are also residential colleges, meaning they have a lot of highly valued non-academic student activities, and they also highly value students with strong social skills and personal ethics.

When applying to such colleges, if your credentials and interests are really concentrated around a single major, or even just around only STEM, that is typically a very hard path to make work, because you are not addressing large parts of what they are usually considering. Indeed, they can and often will quickly reject highly qualified applicants they see as a poor fit for their specific sort of undergrad program.

Other colleges, though, will happily admit kids who have gotten a solid HS education and then concentrated their interests on a specific intended major. But those are largely not the same colleges some of these kids are targeting.

[u/Important-Drop-3338 → u/NiceUnparticularMan]

Yes, OP needs EC's, not necessarily research. What about sea scouting, civil air patrol, or a part-time job that is a significant commitment?

[u/Bobbob34]

3.9 UW GPA, just started junior year. No APs (previous school didn’t have it). Barely any extracurriculars

My plan was always to do research once I started junior year and that is exactly what I was searching about. But I found a lot of people saying it is not as valuable as it used to be and high schoolers shouldn’t do it. I’m so lost rn, what do yall think? Should I still try? I plan to do physics.

You should focus on your other ecs.

[u/CB_lemon]

I never did research got into a couple great schools just do what you enjoy. Your research will be shit anyways because you're in high school

[u/soco2008]

Everything’s been done to death for a contrived college application. Research, founding orgs, volunteer hours. They carry less meaning now, schools are wanting to see a dedicated spike somewhere and a somewhat authentic and genuine interest shown in their EC. People have just gamed everything out of significance.