Doing research in high school is a great way to stand out in the admissions process, as we’ve discussed before. Research is a lot of work, and can make a meaningful impact on the world, far beyond just what you do. Both the AP Research course and independent research projects can help students get involved in this process, but how do the two actually stack up?
In this article, we’re going to explore in depth how AP Research (a class offered by some high schools)compares to independent research projects, both in terms of what it is, and for what it can offer you in terms of your college admissions journey. Our goal is to help you understand your options, and to see which of these may be the best fit for you. Let’s jump right in!
Comparing AP and Independent Research
Both of these opportunities allow you to explore the research process, so let’s look at how they compare on specific aspects.
| AP Research | Independent Research |
| Offered as a class through your high school, overseen by a teacher there. | Done on your own, with guidance from a research mentor you must find. |
| Takes place over the course of a single school year | Takes place for as long as you are willing to continue doing the work |
| Teaches basic research methods, but not at the level of collegiate and professional researchers | Teaches basic research methods at the level of professional researchers |
| Offers a venue to present your findings, but no guarantees of publication | You must find your own venues to publish or present your findings |
Overall, AP Research is still a high school course (even as College Board presents it as being college-level). It gives you a strong foundation for research methods and practices, more than you might otherwise see in high school, but often does not do research at the same level as actual professional researchers. As an example, laboratory research in most fields runs all experiments three times, to check for outliers. In AP Research, there’s generally only time to do a single set of experimental runs.
This doesn’t make AP Research bad; it simply has the same limits as many other AP courses. It offers a number of benefits too, including significantly more structure and ease of access than many students have to independent research projects. Not every school offers AP Research either; it’s far less popular than, say, AP Biology. This too limits who may take advantage of it.
AP Research and College Admissions
Pursuing and publishing research is quite impressive to admissions officers, who generally look quite highly on it. AP Research, however, only sometimes enables students to produce and publish research at that level. Taking the course itself, with no other followups, offers no more to your admissions chances than any other AP course.
Now, admissions officers do want to see that you have challenged yourself by taking the most difficult courses available to you, and AP Research can certainly be part of that, but doesn’t stand out much on its own. From a purely admissions standpoint, AP Calculus BC is going to be more important.
What matters is if you can turn the research project you do for AP Research into something more than just this, and that means publication, presenting and disseminating it somewhere outside of the AP Research environment. Some high school journals will publish AP Research papers, but professional journals rarely will. These may be interesting pieces of work, but they rarely meet the exceptionally high standards of the scientific community.
How to Combine Independent and AP Research Projects
There is a way to gain the benefits of both of these, and that’s by doing both at once. This seems like a simple concept (and indeed it is) but the logistics of combining the two can be rather more complicated. In this section then, we’ll discuss how to pursue a single research project through both of these avenues.
Project Ideation and Planning
As with any research project, your first step is to make a plan. Research is a lot of work over a long period, and having a plan makes completing it far more feasible. This should begin in your sophomore year; you want to take AP Research in your junior year, so that whatever research you do can be submitted for publication before you apply to colleges. Thus, planning begins in your freshman or sophomore year.
Start by finding a research mentor, and figuring out a topic for your research. This will begin like an independent research project, because at this stage, that’s exactly what it is. A single school year is too short for a full research project, so you’ll need to begin earlier; we advise the spring of your sophomore year at the latest, but earlier still is possible.
Integrating the AP Research Process
AP Research is a class which consists mostly of self-study, students pursuing their own projects under the guidance of a teacher when need be. This is exactly what you need for an independent research project; many dedicated hours to work on it, with support and resources near at hand if need be.
You should discuss this plan with the teacher at your school who oversees the AP Research course. Most will be quite happy to assist you; teachers join their profession because they like helping students, and most enjoy seeing students take the initiative in their own educations. They may even have suggestions to help with your plan, or to help you make better use of your time.
Data Collection and Analysis
As part of the AP Research course, you may have access to your school’s lab facilities (if any) to run experimentation. While this is an attractive idea, we generally don’t recommend doing this if you are combining it with an independent research project.
The standards of professional research is high, often to the point where it is impossible to replicate in a high school setting. All experiments must be performed in triplicate, there are very high standards for recording and presenting data, and the need to minimize errors is paramount. Add this to the often hit-and-miss equipment you find at most high schools, and gathering lab research is suddenly much harder.
Now, you can also do other forms of data gathering; psych surveys for instance. Here, you just need to be careful to meet the ethical standards that professional researchers adhere to, with all experiments involving human subjects reviewed by IRBs, to ensure you are following proper standards. This may be possible, but again, the bar is very high.
Working with a research mentor to find a project based on existing data can help, leaving your time in the AP Research course for review and analysis, something which is already very time consuming.
Writing a Research Paper
For both AP Research and the goal of publication, you will need to write a research paper. Now, AP Research does have standards for this, but those of academic publications are much higher. Working with an independent research mentor along with the instructor in an AP Research course will ensure that your paper meets these specifications.
Presentation and Publication
The version of your research you turn in for the AP Research course is unlikely to be exactly what you submit for publication, but it may be close. Unlike turning a paper in for a grade, however, submitting research for publication is a far more involved process, and one with significantly more uncertainty involved.
This is why you need a research mentor as well as your teacher for the AP Research course, to guide you through the publication process, and to help you achieve the final culmination of your many months of effort. You may need to do several rounds of revision on your research paper before it is accepted for publication.
Final Thoughts
Doing research in high school is a great way to show colleges just how dedicated you are to your intellectual interests, and the amount of work you’re willing to do to pursue them. AP Research can be good for this alone, but as we have seen in this article, works far better when paired with an independent research project, working on an effort that goes far beyond what is normally expected in the class. It is exactly this kind of extra effort that colleges like to see.
If you are looking for advice on undertaking your own research projects, or on whether or not publishing research is the best way for you to demonstrate your abilities to colleges, then Ivy Scholars can help. Our research mentorship program has helped students publish in multiple professional journals across a wide swath of disciplines. Schedule a free consultation today to learn more, we’re always happy to hear from you.
