Speaker 1: In the increasingly competitive scene of college admissions, leaderships in clubs, nonprofit organizations or personal coding projects simply don't tip the scale in the eyes of admissions officers. You need to level up and take on research projects. And if you're interested in doing research in high school, you've come to the right video because in this video, you're going to learn each and every step of the way to getting your first research internship, as well as insight from a student who has published multiple research papers and over 30 artifacts at a Harvard medical facility. If you don't know who I am, my name is Shinwoo Lee. My team and I at Inspirit Consulting have gotten all our clients to an Ivy League school, so we know a thing or two about this process. Now, make sure to watch all the way through because competition is getting steep. Last year, there were 900,000 applicants to UCLA alone, 900,000. Before I get into the step-by-step process of getting a research internship, as well as an interview with a student who's done research at a Harvard medical facility, let's talk about why you should be spending the time to even get research under your belt in the first place. I've mentioned before that College Admissions is getting more and more competitive with 900,000 applicants to UCLA alone, and over 250,000 applicants to the UC schools. But to truly stand out of the sea of applicants, you need to be different. GPA-wise, you can only be so different with a few more GPA points, SAT and ACT scores are the same story, and your essays aren't enough of a factor to compensate for low-tier application. The lever you should be pulling as hard as you can is your extracurriculars. I don't mean the same old club leadership, nonprofits, and random-ass passion projects on the side. You're going to need something that truly makes you stand out head-over-heels above the competition. Think about it. For the big majority of you watching, within your school, how many of them do you think are doing research projects with research professors? Probably close to zero. See how having research experience in high school can easily differentiate you from them? So let's get into it. What's your name, grade, GPA, SAT, all that stuff?

Speaker 2: Okay, so my name's Ojak, I'm a senior currently, I'll be applying like in November, December, I guess. I got a 3.94 on weighted GPA, my school doesn't really do weighted, and I got a 1550 on math.

Speaker 1: What is your past experience with research so far?

Speaker 2: Three years of internship in the exact same lab, published one paper on social deprivation in healthcare and how that has to do with surgical outcomes, whether there's any sort of potential biases there. And then I published over 30 abstracts in just other medical research topics. I see. Abstracts are usually much shorter, hence the greater volume.

Speaker 1: What medical lab did you do the research at specifically?

Speaker 2: I worked for a biomedical engineering lab at Harvard Medical School.

Speaker 1: For you, what was the process like when you were trying to get these internships?

Speaker 2: All right, so initially, I was thinking, maybe it might be nice to do some research. So when I was a rising freshman, so like eighth grade to ninth grade, I sent out a bunch of emails to research professors. I didn't really not have great email etiquette then. But shocker, I got rejected from all of them. But the important part is that next year I applied to Harvard Medical School. I got rejected from all of them. But shocker, I got rejected from all of them. But the important part is that next year I applied to the same position. And despite my lack of any prior research knowledge, they liked my persistence. Because I did it so early, I had time to get rejected and then leveraged that the next year, which is kind of unusual. But it worked. It got my foot in the door. I got interviews. And then, yeah. Now, if you follow the steps that Ojak made by finding the emails of research professors or simply applying to open positions online and apply consistently, not just on the day to day, but also on the day to day, you'll be able to get the most out of your internship. Now, if you follow the steps that Ojak made by finding the emails of research professors or simply applying to open positions online and apply consistently, not just on the day

Speaker 1: to day, but year to year, then you'll eventually end up with a research position. If you recall what he said exactly, he was rejected his first time applying because he was an incoming freshman and had nothing to really prove himself. But by applying that second time, they felt more compelled to give him that chance. You need to be persistent to get the things that you want. People say rejection is redirection, but sometimes you just got to push through until they say yes. And when you were doing your research, what was that process like?

Speaker 2: I mean, all of it obviously starts with a vague idea. Usually it stays somewhat connected, but by the end, usually the paper is different based on your finding. But yeah, so it usually starts with the literature, if you can go over stuff published around your ideas. You don't need anything, anything like that you can base your idea upon because you need that to the siting of that paper. So I don't know. You say like someone used this technique in this surgery and you're not going to be the output, how can I apply it to this surgery? So it's just good to have like a basis to build your paper on. And the other thing is to make sure that no one else has done your paper before. There are so many published papers out there. You have to make sure that what you're doing is novel. And then another thing is if it's completely new, there's not much you can base it off on. You have to make your own methodology. So you use methodology that's like you sort of observed in like other papers that talked about like similar scientific discoveries. But if you have to make a new methodology, you can write a paper validating that methodology and then use that to produce the next like few papers.

Speaker 1: Now, like he says, research takes time, a lot of time. But in the midst of tests to study for, clubs to run, practice sessions to go to, sometimes you really don't have those two to three hours a week to contribute to the research paper, which can cost you your spot of being recognized as one of the research paper writers. But with Aforai, the sponsor of this video, you can do more while using the power of AI to increase your work quality. When you start your research paper, you do not want to be randomly writing about something before checking if someone else has already written about it. And with Aforai having access to 250 million peer reviewed research papers, you can find out whether the topic you want to write about has already been taken with a simple search. Say for example, you want to find out whether there's been a research paper about cost efficient methods of preventing injury to football quarterbacks and you select Semantic Scholar so it scours over 250 million peer reviewed research papers. You can also find the specific sources that Aforai has looked over by clicking Semantic Scholar results. Now, if you and your team choose a topic that doesn't have much research surrounding it to reference and get data from, it makes the process much, much harder as you have to actually do the trials, experiments and surveys to get data and prove it yourself. So it's best to have a research topic that isn't so obscure and has other research papers that have been written in the past that you can use to support your points and claims. Cross-referencing is key in research. You need to be able to back up every single claim with past research so you don't make baseless claims. To continue with our example, let's ask, are there any additional research papers that could add onto these claims? Now, you see this list of other research papers that we can reference back to when you start writing. And because referencing is such a big part of research paper writing, it isn't uncommon to see 50, 60 and even 70 references in a single research paper, which makes citations a pain in the ass. But with Aphorite's new Chrome extension, you can one-click cite every single reference you've made with over 10,000 citation styles so you can fit whatever requirement your research professor asks of you. Not only that, you can get your whole bibliography written with a single click. You can check out Aphorite with the first link in the description. It helps my team and I at Insight Consulting out, and of course, it will help you out during your research writing process. So yes, research requires tedious and meticulous work, but it doesn't have to be this way. With tests to prepare for us, clubs to run, SAT and ACT tests to study, time management is a big, big challenge, especially if you don't want to sleep four to five hours every day. Let's take a look. Of course, you have exams, homework, you know, things to prepare for, like the SAT extracurriculars and all that stuff, on top of research. So what are some tips and advice to have good time management?

Speaker 2: For me, at least, like most of my research was done like over the summer, right now I have like maybe like a month in it, like where I was in the lab like four or five days a week, just working on data collection and whatnot. Once you're outside of that lab, you really can't go back in unless you live next door during the school year. You can't use your help with the writing process, the revision process, the back and forth with the peer reviewers in the journals, we're saying like, we want to publish this, but we notice the holes in your manuscript, could you go back and fix that? That process takes like eight months to a year. So that's mainly what you'll be doing during the school year. It's actually not as much time as people think, because usually if you've gone in like a position in the lab, like they're pretty understanding of high schoolers' commitments these days. Everyone's doing like sports, clubs, whatever, but you still have to be able to dedicate a couple of hours per week. I've said maybe like two hours a week, and you can carve out like two hours on a Sunday. You're just sitting at your computer and nothing but like edit your paper, revise your paper, go back and forth with the other team members. That's good. You have to be able to show some level of commitment during the school year, because otherwise they'll just put other, you know, like medical students who are taking their gaps year on the paper, because they're more involved than you are. So you have to show some commitment, but usually they're pretty understanding. Yeah. I mean, you know, it is tough if you're doing like sports and you're taking like rigorous courses and you're running clubs. So sometimes you have to make like some sort of sacrifices. I think for most people that ends up being sleep. I don't know, maybe like you only go to like your sports practice like four days a week instead of five, and just tell your coach you have like some other commitment or something. I guess some coaches are more lenient to that, but you just have to find a way to create like, I don't know, maybe two hours a week. I see. Not nearly as much commitment as like a sport is, but it's over like an extended period of time, which is what makes it so difficult. You have to be consistent. Otherwise your name just won't be on the paper. Like, sure, you've contributed work to it, but there are other people who've contributed more work. So you have to keep it consistent.

Speaker 1: If you search up time management hacks or tips, you're going to get a lot of information and they all work. Every single one of them. But the one that will work for you is the one you stick to. It isn't about the time management hack you choose, but it's about the one you actually implement consistently. If you can't remember anything that I've mentioned in the past few minutes, then this is all you need to remember. Number one, reach out through cold email and apply constantly and make sure each email is personalized to the research professor and their previous work to show that you're actually interested. Even if you get rejected the first time, keep pushing. OJAC got rejected, but still reapplied the next year and look at them now doing research at a Harvard medical facility. And number two, take the time to check past research papers so you don't waste months of your time and make sure to consistently contribute to earn that spot on the bibliography and have your name on it. And number three, any time management technique or skill works, but the one that you stick to is what will work best. And throughout the process of writing your paper, take advantage of AI and use a 4i to make your research writing process that much faster. Now, if you're a motivated junior interested in joining our selective one-on-one personalized consulting program, join our other 650 students who've applied this year with the link in the description. And be sure to check out a 4i AI and secure a 30 day refund guarantee with the link in the description. Peace. I'm sorry about the previous recording. Okay. Good. My lighting is terrible, so I can't do shit.