Why Teenagers Get Involved in Real Research

Authentic research develops the mindset and skills of intellectual leaders of tomorrow.

Perfect for high school, middle school, and homeschool students.

What is Real Research

Real Research is the process of asking a question no one has fully answered yet, and then systematically working to find out. It's not about memorizing facts or solving problems with known solutions. It's not exercises designed just to teach a concept. It's about exploring the unknown, questions that fascinate you AND matter beyond the classroom.

In practice, student research might look like testing methods to remove PFAS chemicals from drinking water, studying how charm quarks behave in particle collisions, or investigating how microbes can help remediate oil spills. Some projects have immediate practical applications, while others may seem useless in the short term but prove transformative later (see The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge). The topic can be anything: biology, chemistry, physics, environmental science. What matters is the process: forming a question, investigating it rigorously, and communicating what you found. Follow us on Instagram and subscribe on YouTube.

Unlike classroom assignments where teachers already know the answer, Real Research puts students in the driver's seat. They decide what to explore, figure out how to approach it, hit dead ends, adjust, and ultimately create something new. The answers are unknown and may not exist. There's no guarantee of success. We have built a process specifically designed for teenagers to develop this skill.

Students can showcase their research at science fairs, tournaments, and competitions - from local fairs to prestigious international events like Regeneron ISEF and Science Talent Search. They can also publish in media like our magazine or peer-reviewed journal. Our annual conference in Princeton is another opportunity to present and connect with other young researchers. See our list of programs and competitions for more examples.

Ten Reasons to Get Involved in Real Research

1Ownership & Self-Direction

Greater responsibility for the entire process, from initial question to final presentation. Stronger capacity to set priorities, assess progress, and determine next steps without constant guidance.

2Curiosity & Creativity

Greater freedom to explore questions that matter and design novel approaches. Space to open up internal genius.

3Comfort with Ambiguity

Better able to tackle open-ended questions and operate when data is incomplete, even situations where nobody knows if an answer exists or what it might look like.

4The Right Questions

Improved ability to formulate questions that are original, interesting, and feasible.

5What's Already Known

Better able to work with literature, evaluate sources, and use AI assistants as effective research tools.

6Critical Thought

Stronger ability to question assumptions and scrutinize evidence, one's own included.

7Opportunity Recognition

Sharper eye for unexpected findings and new directions that emerge from the work.

8Resilience & Long-Term Focus

Better able to persist through setbacks, treat failure as information, and work toward goals over weeks and months.

9Communication & Collaboration

Stronger ability to explain sophisticated ideas clearly, understand others, and work productively with peers through feedback and shared effort.

10Real Science Literacy

Deeper grasp of how science is actually done day to day, not just textbook problems with known answers. Clearer picture of what science careers look like.

Science and Beyond

These skills matter far beyond science: college applications, career challenges, and life decisions where there's no clear path forward. Research shows that students who do authentic research develop greater self-direction, comfort with uncertainty, and confidence in their ability to figure things out.

Within science, these skills matter in a way that's easy to miss: real research is rarely confined to a single discipline. A question that looks like physics turns into a chemistry problem; a biology project pulls in statistics, programming, and instrument design. You can't predict in advance which skills a project will need. The students who can pivot — who already have the experimental design, data analysis, writing, and reasoning toolkit ready — are the ones who can follow unexpected directions when they appear. Skills built now open doors you can't see yet.

From the peer-reviewed literature

A 2018 paper at the IEEE Integrated STEM Conference (co-authored by SoTS's Academic Director Dr. Samsonau, with colleagues then at PRISMS) argues that authentic research at the secondary school level offers distinct advantages over university-level research as a venue for developing scientific thinking. The reasoning: university labs face pressure to produce results, creating an inherent tension between research and teaching, while the lower-pressure secondary environment gives students freedom to develop their own questions, change them as the work evolves, and pursue knowledge for its own sake.^*

Drawing on a framework from Chinn and Malhotra (2002), the paper formalizes the cognitive processes that distinguish authentic research from classroom inquiry — generating one's own questions, inventing variables and procedures, employing multiple controls, reasoning across long chains of inference, and judging when results generalize. These processes map closely to the ten reasons above. The paper also illustrates how authentic student projects naturally bridge disciplines — a single research effort can move from physics to materials science to environmental chemistry — which is precisely why a broad foundation of research skills is what enables a student to follow where a question leads.

A companion paper by Spencer and Samsonau (2018) extends this argument back into the classroom. They show how laboratory courses can be redesigned, lab by lab, to deliberately build the foundational research skills students need before they take on independent work: designing experiments, dealing with unexpected data, and writing for peer review. Their observation from years of teaching: students who arrive with this preparation move further and faster once they begin authentic research.^**

^* E. R. Mohlhenrich, S. V. Samsonau, R. P. Spencer, “Integrating Science Through Authentic Research in Secondary Schools,” 2018 IEEE Integrated STEM Conference (ISEC), pp. 14–21

^** R. P. Spencer, S. V. Samsonau, “Preparing students for authentic research through open-inquiry laboratory courses,” arXiv:1808.02623, 2018

What about college admissions?

We know this is on your mind. Here's our honest answer: genuine research capability is increasingly valuable in admissions precisely because it's rare and hard to fake. Students who learn to think like scientists, who can discuss their work with depth and authenticity, stand out.

From the public court record

When Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard went through federal court (2014–2023), Harvard's internal admissions procedures became public. The record shows Harvard assigns each applicant four profile ratings on a 1–6 scale (academic, extracurricular, athletic, and personal), plus a separate holistic overall rating that reflects the officer's impression of the whole file.

In particular, the academic rating is broader than just grades. It considers “any submitted academic work.” The court record describes a rating of 1 as “a genuine scholar” with “unusual creativity and possible evidence of original scholarship.”^*

Top rating (rating of 1) in each category, Harvard 2014–2019.^** For context: the overall admit rate was ~5%.
Rating category	% of applicants who received top rating	Admit rate among them
Athletic	0.82%	86%
Academic	0.45%	68.9%
Extracurricular	0.31%	49.1%
Personal	0.03%	69.6%
Overall (holistic)	0.07%	100%

The First Circuit opinion also noted that faculty can review applications when they have relevant expertise. For example, “a Visual and Environmental Studies professor might review an applicant’s film.”^*** The record doesn't say research papers are routed to faculty specifically; we include this so you can draw your own conclusions.

^* SFFA vs. Harvard, Findings of Fact (D. Mass. 2019), p. 19

^** SFFA vs. Harvard, 980 F.3d 157 (1st Cir. 2020), p. 14 n.11

^*** SFFA vs. Harvard, 980 F.3d 157 (1st Cir. 2020), p. 13

Our read

Of the five categories above, the academic rating of 1 is the only one whose criteria (“genuine scholar,” “original scholarship”) map directly to authentic research. The overall rating of 1 has no public path, and the athletic rating of 1 is a separate recruited-athlete pathway. This doesn't prove the rating alone drives admission; many factors do. But the alignment is worth noticing.

If admission to schools like Harvard matters to you and you're genuinely curious about science, doing authentic research (and building a record of it) is a natural fit. It's rare, hard to fake, and closely matches what the court record describes as the highest-rated academic profile. Every SoTS member gets a Research Profile that builds a track record of their work; SoTS Research Labs participants may also earn a Certificate of Research Training.

Note, we don't optimize for admissions. We don't help students package projects for maximum impression. If that's what you want, there are services for that.

What we've seen over a decade of research education: students who pursue real questions for real reasons tend to have compelling things to say. The authenticity shows.

High and Middle School Research Ecosystem in NJ

Many high schoolers across New Jersey are involved in research programs. Some through school, others through competitive summer programs (limited capacity), others through independent opportunities. Year-round middle school opportunities are virtually nonexistent. Here are a few examples for high schoolers (not an exhaustive list).

Bergen County Academies

Public Magnet

Independent research labs • Hackensack, NJ

High Technology High School

Public Magnet

Pre-engineering academy • Lincroft, NJ

MATES

Public Magnet

Marine & environmental research • Manahawkin, NJ

Biotechnology High School

Public Magnet

Biotech research focus • Freehold, NJ

Princeton High School

Public

3-year research program • Princeton, NJ

PRISMS

Private

Boarding/Day School • Princeton, NJ

Competitive Summer Research Programs in Central NJ

Princeton Lab Learning (LLP): free, 5-6 weeks, ~40 students, sciences & engineering
Rutgers WISE: $2,200, 2 weeks, biology/DNA focus
Rutgers RITMS: free + stipend, 8 weeks, biomedical, 16+
Rutgers THED: $925, 1 week, ~24 students, toxicology

The Broader Research Programs Landscape

Year-Round Programs: Universities offer limited options during the academic year. For example, MIT PRIMES provides free hybrid mentorship (September-May) and is extremely selective. Most year-round programs are highly competitive.

Summer Programs: Summer research options are far more numerous. Most are free but highly competitive, like MIT RSI, Stanford SIMR, Texas Tech Clark Scholars, Jackson Lab, and Princeton University's Lab Learning Program. Some paid research programs exist, such as Boston University RISE (around $6,000-9,000) and UPenn Research Academies ($6,700-10,000), but these are limited in number. Overall capacity remains limited relative to growing demand.

Opportunities to present research, compete, showcase: Beyond mentorship programs, there are many opportunities to present and get recognition for your work. 500,000+ students participate in ISEF-affiliated fairs worldwide each year. See our listing of research tournaments, competitions, fairs & conferences to explore what's out there.

In Their Own Words

Reflections from former students of Dr. Samsonau

Jiamu Bai

PhD Student at Penn State University

AI for Scientific Research (which Dr. Samsonau organized) was my first real entry point into doing research. Instead of just absorbing information, I started thinking like a researcher to identify, break down, and solve the problems. The experience strengthened my problem-solving ability and, more importantly, ignited my interest in research, which eventually led me to a PhD path. I believe this program will be especially meaningful for high school students: as many of them have the potential to come up with creative ideas, this program will give them the opportunity to turn those ideas into concrete projects. It's a place to discover your potential and start seeing yourself as a young researcher.

Aziza Kurbonova

Research Associate @ Princeton University

I really believe every young person has something they're curious about. How far that curiosity goes is a matter of having the space and support to explore it. Reflecting back on my experiences in high school, I remember many students joining summer research programs primarily because it looked good on a college application. For me, the memories and impact that such programs had extended far beyond those summers and even far beyond college. What made the difference was finding programs and mentors that didn't treat research as a resume item, they really did encourage self-inquiry, to ask my own questions, test my ideas, and share my discoveries. It made the research I did feel real, doable, impactful, and much more personally significant than just a summer experience to check off. Not to mention, the confidence I built, the perspectives I've formed, and the connections I made carried into college and beyond. That's why I'm excited that ARP is creating this community, it's like the kind of support system I was lucky enough to have but even more accessible. This is a place where you can connect with mentors, collaborate with peers, publish your ideas, and get recognition for your work. If you have an idea, a question, a curiosity you're exploring or wanted to explore, I believe that this is the kind of place that'd help you take it as far as you can imagine.

Hazem Lashen

ML Researcher

Learning how to do research is very challenging, and that is compounded by the lack of good resources and mentorship. It is also one of the most useful and necessary skills in today's age. Dr. Sergey Samsonau was one of the foremost mentors who helped me learn how to do research and I've seen firsthand his dedication to democratizing access to research education and mentorship.

Laiba Mehnaz

Software Engineer

As a working professional who has been involved in research since college, I am certain this tool will accelerate the careers of many students interested in this field, primarily due to "access to guidance". It is understandably difficult for professors and teachers to dedicate time and provide personalized feedback to every student, which can leave a lot of students to feel unsupported and unsure of their ideas and themselves. That's why I think AI Research Mentor can significantly decrease this gap for anyone with even the smallest interest in research. Having a mentor who can provide guidance is extremely invaluable. While this tool won't replace professors or teachers, it can serve as a great stepping stone, where students are better equipped to approach professors or teachers, having already completed much of the foundational groundwork themselves. The tool itself is incredible but especially knowing the people behind this vision makes me very very excited for each and every student who will benefit from this.