Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hey Science Buddies,

How prestigious is a high school student getting published in a science paper? Like, would it mean that they will get into a really good college, considering that they have good GPA and good SAT test scores?

Thanks,
Anoop Reddi

Hi Anoop,

Scientific publications are always good for your CV, but I have to qualify that by talking about two things--authorship and impact factor.

The corresponding author is usually but not always the principle investigator, and in most cases their name goes at the end of the author list. The name of the person who actually wrote the paper and did most of the work goes first on the list, at least in the peer-reviewed journals i read. The rest of the authors are listed more or less in decreasing order of the amount of effort they contributed. What i am trying to say is that first-authorship is a gold star on your record while third or fourth author doesn't mean much.

Impact factors are a way of measuring how often a journal's articles are cited by other journals over at least one year. A high impact factor means that the quality and significance of a journal's articles are so good that they provide the basis for other scientists to work from and they cite these papers in their publications. In the life sciences, the journals Science, Nature, Cell and a couple of others rank very high because they publish only the best papers.

If you have been author on several papers as an undergraduate, that demonstrates your ability and dedication to science and would certainly weigh in your favor when applying to an upper-tier university.

Another thing you can do is present your work at an international scientific meeting. Usually this means submitting a poster, but you may also be invited to present your data in one of the sessions, and that is a real plus, since that is what you have to do as a graduate student. Talk to your mentor. Many meetings have special arrangements for undergraduate presenters and you may qualify for a travel award that pays your airfare and hotel cost as well as the registration fee.

Good luck!

Sybee