Question 1

How SRA supports undergraduate students

Accepted Answer

SRA's program is ideal for students with one of more of the following intentions: 
 • Strengthening your application to graduate school, law school, or medical school
 • Deepen your subject matter expertise in your selected major
 • Intellectually pursue another field of interest and demonstrate interdisciplinary talent 
 • Potentially do the most important work during the course of your university life and be forever proud of it
 • Choosing the topic that interests you and be the lead author of a research publication 
 • The acknowledgement that in addition to university degrees and a resume, a personal portfolio of advanced projects as a demonstration of merit and innovation is being increasingly valued for high-skilled jobs today and especially more so in the near future. 
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The vast majority of students never get to do undergraduate research and this severely limits their intellectual potential. Undergraduates often find themselves in the following situations: 
 • Competing for a handful of research opportunities at their school (the emphasis is towards marks rather than research passion and potential)
 • Being eligible for research opportunities only within one's select major within their school (i.e., a biology student at New York University isn't supported to work with a Harvard physics researcher)
 • Simply following instructions from a professor for performing data collection, measurements or lab work on their area of interest and not get any credit on the research paper
 • Limited background exposure provided by professor
 • Limited opportunity to do truly important work in a semester as it has less than 15 weeks
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Graduating from SRA's Program and publishing a paper in an academic journal has a significant return on investment as it brings much opportunity your way in academic and professional life.  
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Question 2

How SRA supports high school students

Accepted Answer

SRA's program is ideal for grades 9-12 students with one of more of the following intentions: 
 • Strengthening your application for admission into top universities or for obtaining major scholarships 
 • Confirming interests or solidifiying foundations in the subject you wish to study in university 
 • Aiming at publishing a university-level research paper and gain a letter of reference from an expert (this has a lasting impact on academic and professional life after university) 
 • Recognizing that in addition to university degrees and a resume, a personal portfolio of advanced projects as a demonstration of merit and innovation is being increasingly valued for high-skilled jobs today and especially more so in the near future. 
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Virtually all high school students do not have a dedicated access to an expert and a research success coordinator for conducting and publishing research. Consider the extraordinary story of Suganth Kannan who was only 14-years old when he formulated a mathematical model in 2014 to predict an earthquake. Kannan went through much intellectual struggle as he didn't have an expert mentor with a PhD in mechanical engineering or earth sciences. In the end, with much encouragement and support from teachers on the side, he managed to achieve a publication in Elsevier's prestigious Engineering Failure Analysis journal. His accomplishment stands orders of magnitude beyond a student that always gets straight A's.
However, the truth is that there are only a handful of Kannans in the world that have accomplished a research publication largely by themselves. University researchers at a practical level are mostly disinterested in investing time in high school students.
At SRA, our systematic program brings together passionate expert mentors and accelerates the process of student research mentorship, scientific growth, and publication.

Question 3

Format and technical requirements

Accepted Answer

Format
• All research mentorship and collaborative work between the student and mentor is done online. Google Meet is used for video conferencing.
 
Technical Requirements
• A reliable high-speed internet connection 
• Gmail for emailing and access to G Suite (i.e., Google Docs)

Question 4

General program information

Accepted Answer

Students admitted into SRA's Program can expect the following:
 
Program Duration and Offering
• 22-hours of video sessions + ~11 hours of email correspondence with a research mentor over a 6 to 12 month period
• Mentor and student only meet before or after school hours or during weekends (customized schedule)
 
Timings Considerations
• Approximately 4-8 hours per week of individual research
• Approximately 60-90 hours of individual dedicated time required  
 
Research Ethics
• SRA does not guarantee a paper will be published in a journal. The likelihood of the paper being published in a journal is increased based on the hours invested by the student.  
 
Assignment
• Only students that successfully pass the admissions assessment will be assigned to a Mentor (based on Mentor availability)

FAQ

How SRA supports undergraduate students

How SRA supports high school students

Format and technical requirements

General program information