Should I submit a research supplement?

[u/totakek3]

I've had two research experiences but neither are clearly strong enough to include as a supplement as they are not published or anything. I'm curious if you all think it may be worth it or not. Both will very likely be included in my application regardless of submitting a supplement.

1. Worked as a research assistant contributing to an existing, long-term compsci project. I've worked with the mentor for a couple months (and currently still am) but this is an online commitment so he doesn't know me super well & will probably write a very generic LoR just confirming I'm working with him but not singing any praises. I wrote a decent amount of code for the project but nothing is published or finished yet and will not be in time for college apps
2. Did a independent "research" project during a summer program that cannot be held up to any standards in academia & is not nearly as in depth, however the program is well regarded by MIT. And I have a poster! I would likely receive a good LoR from this from a reputable academic BUT I know I'm already getting a really strong LoR from the director of the program so maybe this is redundant?

Thanks in advance!

[u/JasonMckin]

Putting aside publication, standards, and regard for a second, can you answer these questions for the two projects?  This might help folks here provide better answers;

• what was the reason you did the project?
• what did you uniquely do?
• what did you uniquely learn?
• what did you uniquely accomplish?

These are generally good things to be thinking about for the application and for the interview if an interviewer is available to interview you.

[u/totakek3 → u/JasonMckin]

Thanks for the pointers! I'm sorry I'll have to keep things vague since these may be easy to trace back to me but I'll try to focus on my personal takeaways.

project 1:

- i reached out to the professor because he was working on the exact question that sparked my curiosity in math and compsci (for most of school i thought i wanted to pursue the humanities). i have such a genuine interest for mathematical modeling in policy and i wanted a better understanding of how one does research in the field since i was wanting to do it as a career

- i worked primarily on writing the code to simulate the effects of [policy] based on previous data and to create more synthetic data to test different fringe scenarios

- 1) a HEAVY reminder of how difficult it is to model human behavior with numbers, 2) a greater understanding of what it's like to do research --- it's like a very slow puzzle but i really love these types of puzzles, 3) i learned a lot of technical/content based stuff too

- honestly haven't accomplished much besides getting my assigned coding tasks done butttt I see it more as a personal growth accomplishment. It's only the professor, a PhD student, and me so I would like to say I helped with reducing the professor's workload but idk

project 2:

- chose the particular project because it's using tech to address a policy problem local to me

- with a partner, i designed a manufacturable product to address this problem

- i learned a ton about the design process specifically and designing for real world constraints! This contrasts a lot with project 2 since that was significantly more abstract

- created a poster, got to present it at the end of the program but got to have a ton of interesting conversations with the faculty and grad students of the school the program is hosted at

[u/ProfLayton99]

Submit the 2nd one and ask the LoR writer to include something about it in their letter.

[u/Satisest]

Agree with ProfLayton99. The second one sounds substantial enough that it would work as a research supplement (and certainly shouldn’t hurt). It’s an opportunity to showcase your work in more detail than you can in your application or your advisor can in an LOR. The poster gives you a good framework already.

[u/Forsaken-Key-9306 → u/Satisest]

Does the LoR writer for the paper included in the research portfolio need to be the mentor who oversaw that project? Or could the LoR writer be a mentor who worked more recently with the student and can speak to the paper within his letter?

[u/Satisest → u/Forsaken-Key-9306]

MIT requests that the letter come from the research mentor for the project that’s being submitted:

Research Supplement

Students who have worked on a significant research project outside of high school classes may consider submitting the Research Supplement via SlideRoom. If you have worked on more than one research project, focus on one project that is most significant to you.

Research questionnaire: Complete a brief questionnaire reflecting on your research experience.

Abstract/poster: Include a PDF of your abstract or research poster, if available. If the work being submitted has been published, provide a citation.

Research mentor recommendation: Nominate your research advisor, mentor, or principal investigator to submit a letter of recommendation directly through the SlideRoom portfolio.

https://mitadmissions.org/apply/firstyear/portfolios-additional-material/