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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, 113 great research paper topics.

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One of the hardest parts of writing a research paper can be just finding a good topic to write about. Fortunately we've done the hard work for you and have compiled a list of 113 interesting research paper topics. They've been organized into ten categories and cover a wide range of subjects so you can easily find the best topic for you.

In addition to the list of good research topics, we've included advice on what makes a good research paper topic and how you can use your topic to start writing a great paper.

What Makes a Good Research Paper Topic?

Not all research paper topics are created equal, and you want to make sure you choose a great topic before you start writing. Below are the three most important factors to consider to make sure you choose the best research paper topics.

#1: It's Something You're Interested In

A paper is always easier to write if you're interested in the topic, and you'll be more motivated to do in-depth research and write a paper that really covers the entire subject. Even if a certain research paper topic is getting a lot of buzz right now or other people seem interested in writing about it, don't feel tempted to make it your topic unless you genuinely have some sort of interest in it as well.

#2: There's Enough Information to Write a Paper

Even if you come up with the absolute best research paper topic and you're so excited to write about it, you won't be able to produce a good paper if there isn't enough research about the topic. This can happen for very specific or specialized topics, as well as topics that are too new to have enough research done on them at the moment. Easy research paper topics will always be topics with enough information to write a full-length paper.

Trying to write a research paper on a topic that doesn't have much research on it is incredibly hard, so before you decide on a topic, do a bit of preliminary searching and make sure you'll have all the information you need to write your paper.

#3: It Fits Your Teacher's Guidelines

Don't get so carried away looking at lists of research paper topics that you forget any requirements or restrictions your teacher may have put on research topic ideas. If you're writing a research paper on a health-related topic, deciding to write about the impact of rap on the music scene probably won't be allowed, but there may be some sort of leeway. For example, if you're really interested in current events but your teacher wants you to write a research paper on a history topic, you may be able to choose a topic that fits both categories, like exploring the relationship between the US and North Korea. No matter what, always get your research paper topic approved by your teacher first before you begin writing.

113 Good Research Paper Topics

Below are 113 good research topics to help you get you started on your paper. We've organized them into ten categories to make it easier to find the type of research paper topics you're looking for.

Arts/Culture

Discuss the main differences in art from the Italian Renaissance and the Northern Renaissance .
Analyze the impact a famous artist had on the world.
How is sexism portrayed in different types of media (music, film, video games, etc.)? Has the amount/type of sexism changed over the years?
How has the music of slaves brought over from Africa shaped modern American music?
How has rap music evolved in the past decade?
How has the portrayal of minorities in the media changed?

Current Events

What have been the impacts of China's one child policy?
How have the goals of feminists changed over the decades?
How has the Trump presidency changed international relations?
Analyze the history of the relationship between the United States and North Korea.
What factors contributed to the current decline in the rate of unemployment?
What have been the impacts of states which have increased their minimum wage?
How do US immigration laws compare to immigration laws of other countries?
How have the US's immigration laws changed in the past few years/decades?
How has the Black Lives Matter movement affected discussions and view about racism in the US?
What impact has the Affordable Care Act had on healthcare in the US?
What factors contributed to the UK deciding to leave the EU (Brexit)?
What factors contributed to China becoming an economic power?
Discuss the history of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies (some of which tokenize the S&P 500 Index on the blockchain) .
Do students in schools that eliminate grades do better in college and their careers?
Do students from wealthier backgrounds score higher on standardized tests?
Do students who receive free meals at school get higher grades compared to when they weren't receiving a free meal?
Do students who attend charter schools score higher on standardized tests than students in public schools?
Do students learn better in same-sex classrooms?
How does giving each student access to an iPad or laptop affect their studies?
What are the benefits and drawbacks of the Montessori Method ?
Do children who attend preschool do better in school later on?
What was the impact of the No Child Left Behind act?
How does the US education system compare to education systems in other countries?
What impact does mandatory physical education classes have on students' health?
Which methods are most effective at reducing bullying in schools?
Do homeschoolers who attend college do as well as students who attended traditional schools?
Does offering tenure increase or decrease quality of teaching?
How does college debt affect future life choices of students?
Should graduate students be able to form unions?

What are different ways to lower gun-related deaths in the US?
How and why have divorce rates changed over time?
Is affirmative action still necessary in education and/or the workplace?
Should physician-assisted suicide be legal?
How has stem cell research impacted the medical field?
How can human trafficking be reduced in the United States/world?
Should people be able to donate organs in exchange for money?
Which types of juvenile punishment have proven most effective at preventing future crimes?
Has the increase in US airport security made passengers safer?
Analyze the immigration policies of certain countries and how they are similar and different from one another.
Several states have legalized recreational marijuana. What positive and negative impacts have they experienced as a result?
Do tariffs increase the number of domestic jobs?
Which prison reforms have proven most effective?
Should governments be able to censor certain information on the internet?
Which methods/programs have been most effective at reducing teen pregnancy?
What are the benefits and drawbacks of the Keto diet?
How effective are different exercise regimes for losing weight and maintaining weight loss?
How do the healthcare plans of various countries differ from each other?
What are the most effective ways to treat depression ?
What are the pros and cons of genetically modified foods?
Which methods are most effective for improving memory?
What can be done to lower healthcare costs in the US?
What factors contributed to the current opioid crisis?
Analyze the history and impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic .
Are low-carbohydrate or low-fat diets more effective for weight loss?
How much exercise should the average adult be getting each week?
Which methods are most effective to get parents to vaccinate their children?
What are the pros and cons of clean needle programs?
How does stress affect the body?
Discuss the history of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
What were the causes and effects of the Salem Witch Trials?
Who was responsible for the Iran-Contra situation?
How has New Orleans and the government's response to natural disasters changed since Hurricane Katrina?
What events led to the fall of the Roman Empire?
What were the impacts of British rule in India ?
Was the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary?
What were the successes and failures of the women's suffrage movement in the United States?
What were the causes of the Civil War?
How did Abraham Lincoln's assassination impact the country and reconstruction after the Civil War?
Which factors contributed to the colonies winning the American Revolution?
What caused Hitler's rise to power?
Discuss how a specific invention impacted history.
What led to Cleopatra's fall as ruler of Egypt?
How has Japan changed and evolved over the centuries?
What were the causes of the Rwandan genocide ?

Why did Martin Luther decide to split with the Catholic Church?
Analyze the history and impact of a well-known cult (Jonestown, Manson family, etc.)
How did the sexual abuse scandal impact how people view the Catholic Church?
How has the Catholic church's power changed over the past decades/centuries?
What are the causes behind the rise in atheism/ agnosticism in the United States?
What were the influences in Siddhartha's life resulted in him becoming the Buddha?
How has media portrayal of Islam/Muslims changed since September 11th?

Science/Environment

How has the earth's climate changed in the past few decades?
How has the use and elimination of DDT affected bird populations in the US?
Analyze how the number and severity of natural disasters have increased in the past few decades.
Analyze deforestation rates in a certain area or globally over a period of time.
How have past oil spills changed regulations and cleanup methods?
How has the Flint water crisis changed water regulation safety?
What are the pros and cons of fracking?
What impact has the Paris Climate Agreement had so far?
What have NASA's biggest successes and failures been?
How can we improve access to clean water around the world?
Does ecotourism actually have a positive impact on the environment?
Should the US rely on nuclear energy more?
What can be done to save amphibian species currently at risk of extinction?
What impact has climate change had on coral reefs?
How are black holes created?
Are teens who spend more time on social media more likely to suffer anxiety and/or depression?
How will the loss of net neutrality affect internet users?
Analyze the history and progress of self-driving vehicles.
How has the use of drones changed surveillance and warfare methods?
Has social media made people more or less connected?
What progress has currently been made with artificial intelligence ?
Do smartphones increase or decrease workplace productivity?
What are the most effective ways to use technology in the classroom?
How is Google search affecting our intelligence?
When is the best age for a child to begin owning a smartphone?
Has frequent texting reduced teen literacy rates?

How to Write a Great Research Paper

Even great research paper topics won't give you a great research paper if you don't hone your topic before and during the writing process. Follow these three tips to turn good research paper topics into great papers.

#1: Figure Out Your Thesis Early

Before you start writing a single word of your paper, you first need to know what your thesis will be. Your thesis is a statement that explains what you intend to prove/show in your paper. Every sentence in your research paper will relate back to your thesis, so you don't want to start writing without it!

As some examples, if you're writing a research paper on if students learn better in same-sex classrooms, your thesis might be "Research has shown that elementary-age students in same-sex classrooms score higher on standardized tests and report feeling more comfortable in the classroom."

If you're writing a paper on the causes of the Civil War, your thesis might be "While the dispute between the North and South over slavery is the most well-known cause of the Civil War, other key causes include differences in the economies of the North and South, states' rights, and territorial expansion."

#2: Back Every Statement Up With Research

Remember, this is a research paper you're writing, so you'll need to use lots of research to make your points. Every statement you give must be backed up with research, properly cited the way your teacher requested. You're allowed to include opinions of your own, but they must also be supported by the research you give.

#3: Do Your Research Before You Begin Writing

You don't want to start writing your research paper and then learn that there isn't enough research to back up the points you're making, or, even worse, that the research contradicts the points you're trying to make!

Get most of your research on your good research topics done before you begin writing. Then use the research you've collected to create a rough outline of what your paper will cover and the key points you're going to make. This will help keep your paper clear and organized, and it'll ensure you have enough research to produce a strong paper.

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Christine graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master's from Duke University. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries.

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How To Write A Research Paper

Research Paper Example

Research Paper Example - Examples for Different Formats

Published on: Jun 12, 2021

Last updated on: Feb 6, 2024

Research Paper Example for Different Formats

A research paper typically consists of several key parts, including an introduction, literature review, methodology, results, and annotated bibliography .

When writing a research paper (whether quantitative research or qualitative research ), it is essential to know which format to use to structure your content. Depending on the requirements of the institution, there are mainly four format styles in which a writer drafts a research paper:

Letâs look into each format in detail to understand the fundamental differences and similarities.

Research Paper Example APA

If your instructor asks you to provide a research paper in an APA format, go through the example given below and understand the basic structure. Make sure to follow the format throughout the paper.

APA Research Paper Sample (PDF)

Research Paper Example MLA

Another widespread research paper format is MLA. A few institutes require this format style as well for your research paper. Look at the example provided of this format style to learn the basics.

MLA Research Paper Sample (PDF)

Research Paper Example Chicago

Unlike MLA and APA styles, Chicago is not very common. Very few institutions require this formatting style research paper, but it is essential to learn it. Look at the example given below to understand the formatting of the content and citations in the research paper.

Chicago Research Paper Sample (PDF)

Research Paper Example Harvard

Learn how a research paper through Harvard formatting style is written through this example. Carefully examine how the cover page and other pages are structured.

Harvard Research Paper Sample (PDF)

Examples for Different Research Paper Parts

A research paper is based on different parts. Each part plays a significant role in the overall success of the paper. So each chapter of the paper must be drafted correctly according to a format and structure.

Below are examples of how different sections of the research paper are drafted.

Research Proposal Example

A research proposal is a plan that describes what you will investigate, its significance, and how you will conduct the study.

Research Proposal Sample (PDF)

Abstract Research Paper Example

An abstract is an executive summary of the research paper that includes the purpose of the research, the design of the study, and significant research findings.

It is a small section that is based on a few paragraphs. Following is an example of the abstract to help you draft yours professionally.

Abstract Research Paper Sample (PDF)

Literature Review Research Paper Example

A literature review in a research paper is a comprehensive summary of the previous research on your topic. It studies sources like books, articles, journals, and papers on the relevant research problem to form the basis of the new research.

Writing this section of the research paper perfectly is as important as any part of it.

Literature Review in Research Sample (PDF)

Methods Section of Research Paper Example

The method section comes after the introduction of the research paper that presents the process of collecting data. Basically, in this section, a researcher presents the details of how your research was conducted.

Methods Section in Research Sample (PDF)

Research Paper Conclusion Example

The conclusion is the last part of your research paper that sums up the writerâs discussion for the audience and leaves an impression. This is how it should be drafted:

Research Paper Conclusion Sample (PDF)

Research Paper Examples for Different Fields

The research papers are not limited to a particular field. They can be written for any discipline or subject that needs a detailed study.

In the following section, various research paper examples are given to show how they are drafted for different subjects.

Science Research Paper Example

Are you a science student that has to conduct research? Here is an example for you to draft a compelling research paper for the field of science.

Science Research Paper Sample (PDF)

History Research Paper Example

Conducting research and drafting a paper is not only bound to science subjects. Other subjects like history and arts require a research paper to be written as well. Observe how research papers related to history are drafted.

History Research Paper Sample (PDF)

Psychology Research Paper Example

If you are a psychology student, look into the example provided in the research paper to help you draft yours professionally.

Psychology Research Paper Sample (PDF)

Research Paper Example for Different Levels

Writing a research paper is based on a list of elements. If the writer is not aware of the basic elements, the process of writing the paper will become daunting. Start writing your research paper taking the following steps:

Choose a topic
Form a strong thesis statement
Conduct research
Develop a research paper outline

Once you have a plan in your hand, the actual writing procedure will become a piece of cake for you.

No matter which level you are writing a research paper for, it has to be well structured and written to guarantee you better grades.

If you are a college or a high school student, the examples in the following section will be of great help.

Research Paper Outline (PDF)

Research Paper Example for College

Pay attention to the research paper example provided below. If you are a college student, this sample will help you understand how a winning paper is written.

College Research Paper Sample (PDF)

Research Paper Example for High School

Expert writers of CollegeEssay.org have provided an excellent example of a research paper for high school students. If you are struggling to draft an exceptional paper, go through the example provided.

High School Research Paper Sample (PDF)

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200 Easy Research Paper Topics for College Students in 2021

Writing research papers is a must-do step in any educational process at college. In many cases, professors allow students to be creative with choosing a topic to complete this type of academic assignment. This privilege usually sounds great at first glance. However, thousands of learners might feel overwhelmed with a wide choice of interesting research topics they can find online.

The truth is that you can easily get lost in countless research paper topics available on different websites. Moreover, exploring and narrowing down the solutions for your essay might appear too challenging. The reason is that many research topics for college available online are outdated or contain too broad concepts for the research. To make your investigation process easier, we’ve collected a list of 200 new and innovative topics for composing an impressive research essay, presentation, or report. No worries if you have little writing experience or creativity - this guide will help you choose a fresh solution for your assignments in no time.

How to Choose Research Study Ideas for College Students

If the professor gives you complete freedom to pick up a topic, we have good news for you. Now, you can select a field or niche according to your individual preferences and background knowledge! There is no need to compose a boring paper that will make you yawn during the entire writing process. However, make sure you follow some basic rules of choosing good research paper topics below.

Stick to Your Favorite Topic

Are you fond of cars? Feel free to research the benefits and drawbacks of electric automobiles. Can’t imagine your life without sports? Explore the dope issue in professional sports. The key to developing a successful paper is to write about the topic that makes you feel excited. If you write about something you show zero interest in, the process will likely slow down and become more challenging. Therefore, always try to find something inspiring.

Choose Understandable Solutions

Many students are interested in modern technologies or space exploration. However, writing on these topics requires having advanced knowledge in the corresponding areas. Still, few learners can boast of having a deep understanding of artificial intelligence, computer programming, or space technologies. That is why it is better to look for easier and more comprehensive topics to write about. As a result, you will reduce the amount of time for research and cope with the college task faster.

Make Sure You Will Find Enough Information

When choosing ideas for a research paper, you need to make sure there are at least several reliable sources you can use for researching. The fact is that if you pick a truly out-of-the-box solution, you might fail to find enough relevant information about it. The same rule works for outdated topics. In case you select a played-out idea, you will hardly find new and up-to-date sources to support your idea. Here is a little hint for you: if you are looking for the relevant information for a chosen idea but fail to find anything suitable, it is better to change your topic.

Look for Clear and Understandable Concepts and Issues

When searching for the best research paper topics, don’t forget to think about your audience. What does it mean? The fact is that it is necessary to pick up a solution that is completely understandable for both you and the readers. In other words, avoid sticking to extremely difficult or complex topics that might make your audience feel confused. In case you use some specific terms in your paper that might be unfamiliar to the common reader, it is better to explain them briefly.

Try to Be Specific

Picking up too broad topics for research papers is one of the most common mistakes of hundreds of students. To avoid this issue, it is better to stay away from too general solutions that can be described from dozens of sides. Otherwise, you might go down in tons of diverse data and arguments you can use for your paper. Being precise and choosing only the most powerful facts are among the features of any successful student.

Look For Something Unique

Picking up topics for a research paper some of your classmates are also writing about is never the best choice. It is better to select an idea you will be able to describe from an unusual perspective. If you prefer to cover simple and comprehensive topics, it will be great to try an innovative approach to describing facts. However, don’t experiment with the paper’s structure and focus on providing exclusive and original arguments only. The best research academic papers are intriguing and inspiring.

Be In Trend

There is nothing new that trendy topics attract more attention from the audience. The reason is that they have a huge unexplored potential and amazing research opportunities. If you pick up an emerging topic, you will likely get higher grades for your academic assignment.

Simple Research Topics: Education

If you are still wondering which idea is the best one for composing your research paper, it might be good to write about education . The truth is that this topic is one of the easiest to write about. Moreover, you will effortlessly find countless relevant sources to support your ideas related to education. Feel free to grab one of these handy solutions you can put into practice when writing your academic paper.

Are Standardized Tests Good to Evaluate the Student’s Knowledge?
How to Make Education More Accessible for Students With Disabilities?
Should Tuition Become Free at All Colleges in the United States?
How Can Schools and Colleges Support International Students?
Becoming a Student and a Successful Businessman: Is It Possible?
The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Education Sector
The Benefits of Social Networking at College and University
The Innovations in the Education System of the United States
Is It Possible to Start Building a Career During Studies?
How Can Schools Stop Violence Among Students?
Should American Learners Have a “Gap Year”?
The Analysis of the Finnish Education System
Homeschooling vs. Learning in the Classroom
British vs. American Education Systems
The Teaching Technologies of the Future
Should College Students Have a Part-Time Job?
Is There Any Discrimination at High Schools?
Should Schools Have Sexual Education Lessons?
Most Common Issues of Bilingual Education
Why Do Students Need to Learn Religion at School?
How to Stop Cheating on Exams
Student Loans: Pros and Cons
The Pros and Cons of Same-Sex Classrooms
The Development of Women’s Right to Education
Montessori Method: Advantages and Drawbacks
Effective Ways to Improve the Quality of Teaching
How Can the Issue of “Useless Classes” Be Solved?
Should Colleges Become Business-Driven?
How to Improve Modern Elementary Education?
Should School Children Wear Uniforms?
How to Stop Hazing at High Schools?

Unique Research Topics on Health

To put it short, these solutions remain topical among young learners for years. If you would like to select a comprehensive and brilliant solution for your research paper, choosing topics related to health might help you finish your essay fast. What to research? Here is a list of ideas you can start writing about right now.

The Impact of Drugs on the Human Body
How to Stop Consuming Too Much Junk Food?
How Much Fruit and Vegetables Should a Common Student Consume per Day?
The Correlation Between Mood and the Health of the Immune System
Is It Possible to Stop the COVID-19 Spread in All Countries?
Why Do Many Girls Suffer From Anorexia During Their Studies?
The Mental Issues of the Most Well-Known Criminals
The Impact of Classical Music on Overall Well-Being
Main Reasons for Facing Serious Allergies
The Importance of Regular Health Screenings
Ways to Prevent Serious Mental Diseases
Kids’ Vaccination: Advantages and Risks
Birth Control Issues in Developed Countries
The Impact of Breastfeeding on the Kids’ Health
The Impact of Insomnia on the Quality of Life
Most Effective Ways to Control Obesity
Top Reasons to Consume More Fats Regularly
Artificial Vitamins: Should Everyone Consume Them?
The Role of Nutrition for Maintaining Brain Health
How to Decrease Stress Levels of Teenagers
The Pros and Cons of Reconstructive Surgery
Acupuncture: The Hidden Health Benefits
The Most Important Aspects of Neonatal Nutrition
Impact of Emotional Stability on Human Health
Uncommon Solutions to Improve Short-Term Memory
Should Elementary Schools Have Homework?
The Psychology of Gifted People
Top Issues of Cardiovascular Care
How to Keep Your Brain Healthy
The Impact of Sports on Human Health
The Future of Natural Medicine
New Strategies for Coma Recovery
Basic Rules of Sun Safety
The Dangers of Low-Fat Diets
The Future of Antibiotics Therapies
Pros and Cons of Dietary Supplements
Non-Medical Cancer Treatments
Most Effective Ways to Make Your Brain Work Harder
Religion and Health
Benefits of Swimming
Eating Disorders

Easy Research Paper Topics: Environment

If you would like to follow the path of Greta Thunberg, it might be good to start your way with composing papers related to environment protection and ecology. Explore the main issues in this field and come up with an impressive research paper in a matter of a couple of hours.

The Main Dangers of Air Pollution
Greenhouse Effect: Myths vs. Reality
Ways to Stop Marine Pollution
Advantages and Drawbacks of Using Pesticides in Agriculture
GMO Products vs. Organic Food
The Importance of “Green Programs” in Developing Countries
The Problem of Radioactive Waste Disposal
Should Environmental Regulations Become Stricter?
Is the Problem of Global Warming Exaggerated?
The Problem of Water Deficit in Developing Countries
Ways to Protect Endangered Wildlife
How Can an Individual Help Save an Environment?
Why Should Children Learn About Global Warming?
The Advantages of Solar Technologies
The Main Dangers of Producing Too Much Plastic
How to Start Using Eco-Friendly Products?
The Changes in the Climate of Earth in the 21st Century
The Analysis of the Deforestation Levels in South America
How to Improve Access to Clean Water in All Countries Globally?
Is It Possible to Manage Overpopulation?
The Prospects of Nuclear Energy

Interesting Topics to Research: Technology and Media

Modern technologies are developing at a breakneck speed. The new solutions, apps, and approaches revolutionize different industries and elevate the quality of lives of millions of people. If you choose a nice solution about innovation and computing for your essay, you will definitely have a chance to attract the attention of the audience. Top research papers topics ideas are right here below!

The Possible Ways to Develop Artificial Intelligence Systems
How Will Smartphones Change in the Near Future?
The Benefits of Cloud Solutions in Storing Data
Top Areas to Use Drone Technologies
Ecommerce Solutions vs. Local Retailers
Online Currencies and Their Impact on the Global Financial System
How to Avoid the Dangers of the Dark Web?
Will Self-Driving Cars Become Common in the Future?
Privacy Issues Online
The Future of Blogging
Online vs. Offline Communication
Will People Colonize Mars?
Nanomedicine: Myths and Realities
Online Payments and Paper Money
Breaking the Sound Barrier
Is Social Media a New Technology?
Technologies That Might Impact Human Behavior
Safest Ways to Store Information in the 21st Century
How Do Modern Technologies Allow People to Work From Home?
The Impact of Modern Technologies on Globalization
The Perspectives of Online Gaming
The Impact of Advertisements on Kids and Teens
Newest Technologies Used in Surgery
Internet Addiction and the Ways to Prevent It
Censorship Control

Hot Topics for Research Paper: Family and Communication

Family is an essential part of our lives. How to set up healthy family relationships? What is the role of parents in raising children? Feel free to use any of these ideas for your research paper. By the way, good research topics related to communication are also collected in this paragraph.

Marital Rape and Its Impact on the Personality
Impact of Divorce on Kids and Teens
How to Stop Abusive Relationships?
How to Make Your Children Happier?
Effective Ways to Solve Conflicts in Families
How to Improve Communication Between Siblings?
Role of Grandparents in Raising Children
Lack of Communication Between Family Members
Why Do Children Kill Abusive Parents?
The Impact of Parents’ Depression on Their Children
Happy Childhood and Leadership
Advantages of Having a Big Family
Drugs and Alcoholism in Modern Families
Impact of Home Life on Child Development
Do All Children Need to Respect Their Parents?
The Criticism of Freud’s Theories
Important Parental Rights
Gender Roles in the Family
Basic Family Values
Domestic Abuse

Easy and Interesting Research Paper Topics

Many students face difficulties when choosing an idea for composing an academic paper. If you are not good at writing on education, health, business, or family relationships, it might be great to search for something more exciting. Here is a list of diverse topics you might find good-looking.

The Role of International Health Organizations in Modern Society
Corporate and Business Laws: Most Common Issues
Why Do Many People Watch TV Shows and Series?
Future of Chinese Economy
The Future of Video Streaming Services
Women’s Rights in the Modern World
How to Support Global Peacekeeping
Gender Stereotypes in Advertising
Classical Hollywood Cinema
Landmark Court Decisions
Possible Ways to Use 3d Printers
Portrayals of Superheroes in Movies
Cannabis Legalization: Pros and Cons
Should Companies Stop Animal Testing?
Criminalizing Protests
Socialism vs. Capitalism
How Has Feminism Changed Over the Years?
Origins of Racial Discrimination
Should Modern People Read More?
Top Effective Promotion Solutions for Startups
Crowdfunding & Outsourcing
Policies That Are Related to Transgenders
Role of Cultural Revolutions
How to Decrease Crime Rates in Big Cities?
What Are the Benefits and Drawbacks of Fracking?
Freedom of Religion: Basic Issues
Body Cameras for Police Officers: Pros and Cons
Should Penalties for Drunk Driving Become Stricter?
Abstinence Program: Do They Truly Work?
The Importance of Writing Research Papers at Colleges
Effective Techniques to Erase Bad Memories
Ways to Solve the Immigration Crisis
Stereotypes in Modern Culture
Gun Safety and Control Policies

Top Tips to Writing a Winning Research Paper

Picking up an excellent topic is only about 20% of the job you need to do to compose a flawless research paper. What’s next? Are there any prompts that might help you finish your assignment in no time? Sure! Our experts are ready to share some secrets on composing fantastic essays within the shortest terms.

Double-Check the Professor’s Instructions

The secret truth is that there are many types of research papers you might face during your studies. Consequently, these papers might have different requirements and writing rules you need to follow. How to find out how to compose your essay? The easiest way to discover all details is to read the instructions shared by the professor. Although it is a must step all students need to do before they start writing, many learners often forget about this easy rule. By the way, what information can you find in the college writing instructions? As a rule, you will find these types of data:

deadlines for completing assignments;
formatting styles;
the tone of voice you need to use;
assignment goals;
length specifications;
list of topics;
key features for your writing;
submission method;
most common mistakes you need to avoid.

It is recommended to read the instructions at least a couple of times to make sure you understand all the requirements and specifications of your research paper. Avoid starting to write your essay before you’ve learned its basic rules.

Be Realistic

Many students are very confident about their research and writing skills. Therefore, thousands of learners still believe they can effortlessly develop a top-notch research paper in just a couple of hours. However, even professional writers can’t compose a superior 3000-word essay in just an hour.

Therefore, it is vital to be realistic when setting up your individual deadlines and creating writing schedules to cope with your academic assignments. Even if you choose current research topics that are incredibly easy to write about, you will still need to do advanced research, choose trustworthy sources, and pick up the most impressive arguments for your paper. All these tasks might take you plenty of time.

It is also not recommended to write research papers at the last moment. First, you might fail to meet the deadline. Second, you might easily come up with poor quality writing because of being unattentive. Third, you will hardly have enough time to proofread and edit your essay. Fourth, when in a hurry, you might copy and paste data from different sources into your paper. This will inevitably lead to extremely high plagiarism levels. All these issues might lead to receiving low grades for your academic assignment.

Follow the Rules

There are many writing rules you will need to follow. However, the basic one is to choose a traditional structure of an academic paper. In other words, your research paper will need to have an introduction, body paragraphs, and the conclusion. Avoid being creative when choosing the structure of your paper - it is the worst place for showing off your innovation. If you would like to stand out from the crowd of other learners, it is better to select an out-of-the-box topic for your assignment.

Proofread and Edit Your Paper

Many students are so tired of doing the research and writing that they often forget to proofread their papers. However, this is an important step in completing any type of academic assignment. If you proofread your essay, you can easily detect dozens of inconsistencies, mistakes, and typos. Moreover, you can also find some repetitive phrases, sentences, or facts in your paper. All these issues can drastically worsen your quality of writing. Even if you are sure your writing is 100% excellent, make sure to proofread it before passing it to the professor.

Check Originality

Plagiarism is a true nightmare of any diligent student. How to avoid this serious issue when composing your academic paper? First, make sure to share the results of your analysis uniquely and uncommonly. Second, use citations carefully. Third, check your essay for plagiarism online! You can find dozens of plagiarism detecting tools and utilities designed for students on many websites. Feel free to use a couple of solutions to make sure your essay is fresh and original. If you suddenly find out your paper has a high plagiarism level, make sure to make significant modifications and be more original. After that, double-check your essay once again.

The Best Way to Get a Perfect Research Paper

There are plenty of important research topics you can use in your academic writing. But what if you’ve chosen a great idea but fail to compose a unique and flawless paper? Is there any solution if you don’t have enough time to meet the professor's deadline? Sure!

Thousands of students fail to deliver college or university assignments on time. The reasons for this issue might significantly vary. Some learners are not skilled writers, while others might not have a deep understanding of the chosen field. Moreover, many students are trying to build careers or dedicate all their free time to sports. Anyway, failure to meet deadlines might worsen the student’s academic performance and other problems related to studies. The good news is that you can avoid facing all these issues!

Our professional writers are always ready to help you complete any type of research paper within the shortest terms. You don’t need to provide any reasons for asking for writing help - we understand the students’ pain and can provide you with pro assistance anytime. Just place an order on our website, choose the deadline, and forget about all your learning issues. You will get a perfectly written academic paper right when you need it. We have thousands of happy customers and impressive guarantees, so you can always trust our service. We value each customer and always deliver superior papers to each of our clients.

How To Write A Research Paper

Step-By-Step Tutorial With Examples + FREE Template

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Expert Reviewer: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | March 2024

For many students, crafting a strong research paper from scratch can feel like a daunting task – and rightly so! In this post, we’ll unpack what a research paper is, what it needs to do , and how to write one – in three easy steps. 🙂

Overview: Writing A Research Paper

What (exactly) is a research paper.

How to write a research paper
Stage 1 : Topic & literature search
Stage 2 : Structure & outline
Stage 3 : Iterative writing
Key takeaways

Let’s start by asking the most important question, “ What is a research paper? ”.

Simply put, a research paper is a scholarly written work where the writer (that’s you!) answers a specific question (this is called a research question ) through evidence-based arguments . Evidence-based is the keyword here. In other words, a research paper is different from an essay or other writing assignments that draw from the writer’s personal opinions or experiences. With a research paper, it’s all about building your arguments based on evidence (we’ll talk more about that evidence a little later).

Now, it’s worth noting that there are many different types of research papers , including analytical papers (the type I just described), argumentative papers, and interpretative papers. Here, we’ll focus on analytical papers , as these are some of the most common – but if you’re keen to learn about other types of research papers, be sure to check out the rest of the blog .

With that basic foundation laid, let’s get down to business and look at how to write a research paper .

Overview: The 3-Stage Process

While there are, of course, many potential approaches you can take to write a research paper, there are typically three stages to the writing process. So, in this tutorial, we’ll present a straightforward three-step process that we use when working with students at Grad Coach.

These three steps are:

Finding a research topic and reviewing the existing literature
Developing a provisional structure and outline for your paper, and
Writing up your initial draft and then refining it iteratively

Let’s dig into each of these.

Need a helping hand?

Step 1: Find a topic and review the literature

As we mentioned earlier, in a research paper, you, as the researcher, will try to answer a question . More specifically, that’s called a research question , and it sets the direction of your entire paper. What’s important to understand though is that you’ll need to answer that research question with the help of high-quality sources – for example, journal articles, government reports, case studies, and so on. We’ll circle back to this in a minute.

The first stage of the research process is deciding on what your research question will be and then reviewing the existing literature (in other words, past studies and papers) to see what they say about that specific research question. In some cases, your professor may provide you with a predetermined research question (or set of questions). However, in many cases, you’ll need to find your own research question within a certain topic area.

Finding a strong research question hinges on identifying a meaningful research gap – in other words, an area that’s lacking in existing research. There’s a lot to unpack here, so if you wanna learn more, check out the plain-language explainer video below.

Once you’ve figured out which question (or questions) you’ll attempt to answer in your research paper, you’ll need to do a deep dive into the existing literature – this is called a “ literature search ”. Again, there are many ways to go about this, but your most likely starting point will be Google Scholar .

If you’re new to Google Scholar, think of it as Google for the academic world. You can start by simply entering a few different keywords that are relevant to your research question and it will then present a host of articles for you to review. What you want to pay close attention to here is the number of citations for each paper – the more citations a paper has, the more credible it is (generally speaking – there are some exceptions, of course).

Ideally, what you’re looking for are well-cited papers that are highly relevant to your topic. That said, keep in mind that citations are a cumulative metric , so older papers will often have more citations than newer papers – just because they’ve been around for longer. So, don’t fixate on this metric in isolation – relevance and recency are also very important.

Beyond Google Scholar, you’ll also definitely want to check out academic databases and aggregators such as Science Direct, PubMed, JStor and so on. These will often overlap with the results that you find in Google Scholar, but they can also reveal some hidden gems – so, be sure to check them out.

Once you’ve worked your way through all the literature, you’ll want to catalogue all this information in some sort of spreadsheet so that you can easily recall who said what, when and within what context. If you’d like, we’ve got a free literature spreadsheet that helps you do exactly that.

Don’t fixate on an article’s citation count in isolation - relevance (to your research question) and recency are also very important.

Step 2: Develop a structure and outline

With your research question pinned down and your literature digested and catalogued, it’s time to move on to planning your actual research paper .

It might sound obvious, but it’s really important to have some sort of rough outline in place before you start writing your paper. So often, we see students eagerly rushing into the writing phase, only to land up with a disjointed research paper that rambles on in multiple

Now, the secret here is to not get caught up in the fine details . Realistically, all you need at this stage is a bullet-point list that describes (in broad strokes) what you’ll discuss and in what order. It’s also useful to remember that you’re not glued to this outline – in all likelihood, you’ll chop and change some sections once you start writing, and that’s perfectly okay. What’s important is that you have some sort of roadmap in place from the start.

You need to have a rough outline in place before you start writing your paper - or you’ll end up with a disjointed research paper that rambles on.

At this stage you might be wondering, “ But how should I structure my research paper? ”. Well, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution here, but in general, a research paper will consist of a few relatively standardised components:

Introduction
Literature review
Methodology

Let’s take a look at each of these.

First up is the introduction section . As the name suggests, the purpose of the introduction is to set the scene for your research paper. There are usually (at least) four ingredients that go into this section – these are the background to the topic, the research problem and resultant research question , and the justification or rationale. If you’re interested, the video below unpacks the introduction section in more detail.

The next section of your research paper will typically be your literature review . Remember all that literature you worked through earlier? Well, this is where you’ll present your interpretation of all that content . You’ll do this by writing about recent trends, developments, and arguments within the literature – but more specifically, those that are relevant to your research question . The literature review can oftentimes seem a little daunting, even to seasoned researchers, so be sure to check out our extensive collection of literature review content here .

With the introduction and lit review out of the way, the next section of your paper is the research methodology . In a nutshell, the methodology section should describe to your reader what you did (beyond just reviewing the existing literature) to answer your research question. For example, what data did you collect, how did you collect that data, how did you analyse that data and so on? For each choice, you’ll also need to justify why you chose to do it that way, and what the strengths and weaknesses of your approach were.

Now, it’s worth mentioning that for some research papers, this aspect of the project may be a lot simpler . For example, you may only need to draw on secondary sources (in other words, existing data sets). In some cases, you may just be asked to draw your conclusions from the literature search itself (in other words, there may be no data analysis at all). But, if you are required to collect and analyse data, you’ll need to pay a lot of attention to the methodology section. The video below provides an example of what the methodology section might look like.

By this stage of your paper, you will have explained what your research question is, what the existing literature has to say about that question, and how you analysed additional data to try to answer your question. So, the natural next step is to present your analysis of that data . This section is usually called the “results” or “analysis” section and this is where you’ll showcase your findings.

Depending on your school’s requirements, you may need to present and interpret the data in one section – or you might split the presentation and the interpretation into two sections. In the latter case, your “results” section will just describe the data, and the “discussion” is where you’ll interpret that data and explicitly link your analysis back to your research question. If you’re not sure which approach to take, check in with your professor or take a look at past papers to see what the norms are for your programme.

Alright – once you’ve presented and discussed your results, it’s time to wrap it up . This usually takes the form of the “ conclusion ” section. In the conclusion, you’ll need to highlight the key takeaways from your study and close the loop by explicitly answering your research question. Again, the exact requirements here will vary depending on your programme (and you may not even need a conclusion section at all) – so be sure to check with your professor if you’re unsure.

Step 3: Write and refine

Finally, it’s time to get writing. All too often though, students hit a brick wall right about here… So, how do you avoid this happening to you?

Well, there’s a lot to be said when it comes to writing a research paper (or any sort of academic piece), but we’ll share three practical tips to help you get started.

First and foremost , it’s essential to approach your writing as an iterative process. In other words, you need to start with a really messy first draft and then polish it over multiple rounds of editing. Don’t waste your time trying to write a perfect research paper in one go. Instead, take the pressure off yourself by adopting an iterative approach.

Secondly , it’s important to always lean towards critical writing , rather than descriptive writing. What does this mean? Well, at the simplest level, descriptive writing focuses on the “ what ”, while critical writing digs into the “ so what ” – in other words, the implications . If you’re not familiar with these two types of writing, don’t worry! You can find a plain-language explanation here.

Last but not least, you’ll need to get your referencing right. Specifically, you’ll need to provide credible, correctly formatted citations for the statements you make. We see students making referencing mistakes all the time and it costs them dearly. The good news is that you can easily avoid this by using a simple reference manager . If you don’t have one, check out our video about Mendeley, an easy (and free) reference management tool that you can start using today.

Recap: Key Takeaways

We’ve covered a lot of ground here. To recap, the three steps to writing a high-quality research paper are:

To choose a research question and review the literature
To plan your paper structure and draft an outline
To take an iterative approach to writing, focusing on critical writing and strong referencing

Remember, this is just a b ig-picture overview of the research paper development process and there’s a lot more nuance to unpack. So, be sure to grab a copy of our free research paper template to learn more about how to write a research paper.

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Harvard Undergraduate Student Research into Higher Education

Higher education through student eyes: a collection of student research papers.

The present collection of research papers reflects students’ perspectives on today’s changing higher education landscape and the challenges or controversies they observe in contemporary higher education. Student research papers featured in this collection are a testimony of students’ genuine interest in studying and contributing to the established and emerging areas of higher education studies, and their commitment to achieving equity and excellence in higher education.

Recent Publications

“Playing Your/The Part: Examining The Optimal Leadership Structure For Kirkland Drama Society”
A Case for Higher Education: Addressing Financial Sustainability in Community Colleges
SOCIOL1104 Fall 2021 Course Review Student Handbook
The Efficacy, Impacts, and Limits of Harvard College’s Title IX Policies
Too Rich for Aid, Too Poor for Tuition: The College Affordability Dilemma for the Middle and Upper Middle Class

Ultimate List of 265 Research Topics for College Students

How often do you freeze up after receiving an assignment to write a research paper? We know how tough it can be, particularly in a flood of possible research topics for students. Choosing that one idea from plenty of research proposal topics for college students is the foremost step in any academic project.

Lack of inspiration? We made an ultimate list of research topics for college students. You will find art, biology, social science, education, and even more fun research topics for college students. Don’t scour the tons of outdated or dull topics anymore. A much better alternative would be to look at essay examples instead. 

What’s more, we prepared three main steps to start converting the chosen topic into a successful research paper. Besides, we will dispel any uncertainty in research importance. 

Is Research Important?

Art Research Topics
Biology Research Topics
Educational Topics
Environmental Topics

Gender Research Topics

Law Research Topics

Literature Research Topics

Music Research Topics
Psychology Topics
Religion Research Topics
Science Research Topics
Social Science Topics

Sports Research Paper Topics

How to start a research paper, top 10 research topics for college students:.

Human impact on biodiversity loss
Internet’s effect on freedom of speech
Is isolation a cause of child abuse?
Negative effect of pop culture trends on youth
Pros and cons of free education
Is AI a threat to humans?
The impact of modern technology on ecology
Can nuclear power be safe?
Economic impact of GMO food
Negative effect of climate change on economy

Before getting into the importance of research, let’s understand what kind of work it is.

Research is an analysis aimed at discovering of new facts or revising existing theories. It consists of several steps. The most common are:

Research methodology setting
Research problem statement
Data extraction and gathering
Assessment of the gathered data
Conclusions summarizing

What Are the Purposes of Research?

The intentions are countless, but here are the general ones:

✨ to accept or reject a hypothesis; ✨ to gather information on a phenomenon or subject; ✨ to initiate further research or to “dig deeper.”

Why Is It important?

Research makes our life easier. The underlying cause of new discoveries is to understand how things work. If we acquire that data, we’ll know how to get practical value out of it.

Think of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. As we meet our deficiency needs, its level grows. At the same time, the demand for new knowledge increases. That is why discovering new is a never-ending process.

That is all clear. But you may ask: why do I need research skills in my day-to-day life?

After graduation, you will most likely still need research skills at work. No matter what the industry is. Either you decided to excel in science or form a hi-tech startup. If you want to achieve success, you should have strong research skills.

All in all, having research skills is one of the core elements of personal and social growth. It helps to generate additional findings or set new questions around existing knowledge.

Now let’s move on to the list of research topics.

Art Research Paper Topics

We’ll start from the study area, which is difficult to measure. We talk about art. For some, it may seem easier to study than exact sciences. But still, the number of questions about various genres, forms, and art styles is beyond imagination.

Why should we not overestimate the importance of studying art ?

Art is not just something for connoisseurs. It has always been and still is vital for the whole of society. What affected humanity’s development? Of course, the way people express their everyday life or feelings through art.

Besides, thanks to art, we can see things from different perspectives. It makes us open-minded and helps to develop critical thinking. And, most apparently, art fills our lives with beauty and elegance.

Art is so diverse that students may struggle to choose from a myriad of research areas. Here are some of the hottest art research paper topics for you:

The influence of the internet and social networks on art.
Researching of Greek mythological painting.
The comparison of modern art in the United States and Europe.
The representation of art in Lars von Trier’s films.
The influence of African-American cultural heritage on modern American art.
What are the features of contemporary art ?
Frida Khalo and her sources of inspiration.
The role of Kazimir Malevich in abstract art development.
Art in the early renaissance and today’s European society .
Art therapy techniques: what are they and are they effective?
The difference of women’s representation in ancient and modern art .
Comparative analysis of modern and classic cubism .
The history and main features of abstract expressionism .
The relationship between art and globalization .
The influence of art on the fashion industry in Japan.

Biology Research Topics for College Students

Let’s move on to biology. This science deals with vital processes of living organisms. We’ve gathered a list of topics from different biology fields. You’ll find essay ideas from the fields of botany and zoology to genetics.

Research in biology has one distinctive feature. It is the use of research lab equipment. If you don’t use it and base your research on other sources — make sure they are credible.

What are the attributes of a research paper in biology?

Molecular biology, cellular, and other categories of biology imply accurate measurements. There is no place for mistakes here. Otherwise, the relevance of research results would be insignificant. A researcher should be scrupulous in calculations and statements.

So, feel free to pick up any topics from the list below. Study them thoroughly!

The impact of global warming on marine life.
Extensive research of photosynthesis aspects and functions.
Thyroid hormones and their impact on the female body.

DNA structure, modifications, and genetic disorders .
Is it ethical to test cosmetics on animals ?
The ability of living organisms to adapt to changing environments.
The need for the protection of rare and endangered species .
The role of sustainability in biology.
Advantages and disadvantages of organic farming .
The role of neurobiology in artificial intelligence development.
The discovery and impact of Darwin’s theory .
The discovery, history, and importance of vaccination .
The role of microbes and microbiology in health .
Neurobiology and its association with emotional trauma .
Biology: mechanical signals regulating development .
Cultural variations in environment and biology: AIDS .
A review of the ecology and biology of the whale shark.
Performance and quality assessment of methods for detection of point mutations.
Optical imaging techniques in cell biology .
Computational methods in molecular biology .

Educational Research Topics for Students

What can be trickier than studying how to study? Education research papers evolve at a rapid pace as the world changes every day. That is why new techniques and approaches are in demand.

No other discipline will answer the milestone questions as well as education. And the most important is about human nature.

What can make a precious contribution to society? The definite answer is — driving innovations in studying .

Want to remain in history as an author of a revolutionary breakthrough? Explore educational research paper topics for college students:

Language distribution issues in bilingual schooling .
Critical thinking as the primary goal of the educational process.
Role-playing games as a learning tool .
Pay-for-performance scheme for teachers .
Moving from compliance to performance-based schools .
Bilingual learning: advantages and disadvantages.
Educational approaches in retrospective.
Aspects of multicultural educational practices.
The importance of inclusivity in teaching .
Popular modern educational techniques: a comparison.
Arithmetical problem-solving difficulties .
Learning methods for blind children.
The role of technology in lesson planning .
Role-playing as an educational practice.
The need for parents’ involvement in the educational process.
Tools to develop the best teaching strategy .
The efficiency of gamification .
Individual approach to students.
Popular educational mobile apps.
Peculiarities of teaching disabled children .
Same-gender and mixed-gender schools: a comparative analysis.
Understanding the causes of school violence and bullying.
The importance of sex education at schools.
The educational system in America : problems and prospects.
Cloud computing in educational institutions: an impact on the educational environment.
Ethical behavior in higher educational institutions.
Cooperation of educational institutions and businesses: successful cases.
Information technology as a means of educational process improvement.
Homeschooling and its influence on communication skills.
Comparative analysis of distance learning and face-to-face education efficiency.
Individualized versus group learning.
The necessity of higher education for all students.
Best practices of top higher education establishments.
Peculiarities of teacher’s education in America.
Preschool education versus tertiary education .
Teacher as a researcher. Cross-age peer tutoring .
Multicultural and monocultural education programs: a comparison.
Comparison of advantages and disadvantages of tablets and printed textbooks .
Should education be free?
Education unification: reasons to apply in high schools.

Environmental Research Topics

Our day-to-day comfort is an inherent cause of environmental problems. We may drive a car and have no idea how we harm nature.

Eco activism is a growing trend. Ecology issues acquired a more frequent and lucid coverage. Regardless, people tend to overlook the environment. They got the idea that we should protect our planet, but not all of them are ready to act.

That is why we need to be aware of more facts and measures. This can’t be obtained without decent environmental science research papers.

Do you want to be a part of it? Use our list of environmental research topics for college students:

Risks of climate change and global warming .
Aspects and perspectives of Kyoto protocol .
Green hydrogen in automotive industry : is it a great alternative?
The origin of the carbon tax .
Amazonian deforestation , its causes, and trends.
The greenhouse effect : process, components, and risks.
Types of pollution : air, water, and soil.
Alternative energy in Europe.
Water scarcity in the Middle East .

Wind energy as an alternative source .
Benefits of sustainable technology and living .
Vulnerability of hazardville to flooding disasters .
Environment protection authority and chemical waste .
Population control in China.
Geoengineering principles.
Acid rains : the cause and current measures.
Radioactive waste disposal.
The protection of wildlife .
E-mobility as an environmental protection measure.
Ecological conservation.

Gender roles and aspects are one of the central social questions nowadays. Studies in this field are as relevant and necessary as never before. It pushes our society forward, eliminating gender inequality and discrimination.

Do you want to contribute to gender knowledge but don’t know where to start? Here is the list of most relevant gender studies essay topics:

Public policy analysis on gender inequality in education in South Sudan.
The history of gender concept.
Gender imbalance in the developing countries.
Sex reassignment in treating gender dysphoria : a way to psychological well-being.
Employee issues: gender discrimination, sexual harassment , discrimination.
Gender roles in couples and sex stereotypes in society.
The diversity of gender and sexual orientation identities of transgender individuals.
MeToo movement as sexual harassment fight measure.
Feminism : the contraception movement in Canada.
Maternity and paternity leaves .
The correlation between gender and cognitive abilities .
Transgender people and healthcare barriers .
Race and gender in public relations .
Gender stereotyping in American media .
The health and well-being of LGBTQA+ young people in Australia.
Cancel culture in America.
Transgender healthcare issues.
Transgender person in professional sports.
Female genital mutilation.
Gender roles in media.

Law Research Paper Topics

We cannot imagine a civilized society without law. Even though the fundamental rights and obligations in different countries are mostly similar, there is still a great scope of differences to research.

We gathered the list of law research paper topics to explore:

Human rights violations in CIS countries.
A self-enforcing model of corporate law .
Corporate strategies and environmental regulations : organizing framework.
The benefits of decriminalization .
International criminal law and measures .
Discrimination in the workplace in legal practice.
Welfare legislation for families .
Intellectual property law: copyright law, trademark law, patent law.
Enforcement of civil rights law in private workplaces.
The establishment of foreign and international law in American courts. A procedural overview.
Family law : spousal support after a divorce in Canada.
Employment law and workplace relations in Saudi Arabia.
Applicable real estate laws and policies for sustainable development in South Africa.
Retrospective of the immigration crisis in Europe.
The need for a domestic violence law in Russian Federation.
Religious crimes and religious laws.
Terrorism in different countries’ law systems.
Grievance procedure in the European court of human rights.
Cybercrimes in legal practice.
Human trafficking and slavery in the modern world.

When it comes to literature, there is a vast ocean of ideas to research. The topics can be classified into a large number of categories. Those can be literature genres, awards, trends in literature, different social aspects of literature, etc.

To make finding the best fit easier, we conducted a list of the world literature research topics:

Golden Age writers and their impact on literature.
Feminist literature authors.
Y. Zamyatin’s “We” as the origin of dystopian literature.
Trends of modern literature .
Ancient Greece literature.
Is best seller always good literature?
Tricksters in literature.
Post-modernism in literature .
Sexual violence in the “Handmaid’s Tale” by Atwood .
Children literature.
The works of J. D. Salinger .
Social perception of modern literature .
Philosophy, literature, and religion in society: a comparative analysis of the impact on human life.
The portrayal of racism in the literature of the 21st century.
Censorship in literature.
Professional literature trends.
Central themes in American literature .
The impact of digitalization on literature.
The role of the main character in literature.
Literature: print versus digitalized?

Music Research Paper Topics

Research is something we can do not only in astronomy or molecular biology. We need it in the music too. Music shapes our life in a way we can’t even imagine. It’s a tremendous social and cultural phenomenon to explore.

These are 20 potential topics for your research in the music industry :

The effect of music on a human brain .
The evolution of rap music .
TikTok as the most efficient promotional channel for new music.
The origin of music theory.
The music industry and information technology .
The influence of Kanye West performances on the music industry.
Music journalism : the most influential music media.
Feminism and sex in hip-hop music .
Opera and instrumental music .
The origin of music festivals .
Reggae music and its aspects .
Latin American women and trap music .
Streaming services prospects.
Music as the way of promoting new trends.
Features of punk music.

Psychology Research Paper Topics

Psychology is a multidisciplinary kind of field. That means there’s a wide range of potential research questions.

Do you need to write a psychology paper? Explore the list of possible topics:

Cross-cultural psychology: research and application.
The psychology of self-esteem .
Aspects of industrial and organizational psychology .
The psychology of learning and motivation : skill and strategy in memory use.
Description of remarkable experiments and their results in psychology.
The influence of meditation on people’s health .
Analyzing psychological disorders: disorders treatment and research .
Personality psychology and zen Buddhism .
Perception of psychology in society .
Organizational behavior. Emotion and personality .
Children’s emotional development .
Predictors of postpartum depression.

Symptoms, causes, and treatment of schizophrenia.
The social, political, and religious reasons of homophobia .
Eating disorders in males: current progress and challenges.
The side effects of antidepressants .
Cognitive psychology : best cognitive scientists’ practices.
Social anxiety as a constraint in learning.
Alzheimer’s disease : working strategies for disease modification.
The relation between the aging process and psychology.

Religion Research Paper Topics

Religious institutions, beliefs, and customs also get explored in papers quite often. That is rather a controversial sphere of education, so we gathered the most relevant religion paper topics below to help you.

The religious significance of the Bible .
The place of women in Islam .
The history of Christianity in Indonesia .
Assessing a crisis of faith and making a pastoral crisis intervention.
Forced religion: cause and effect on children.
The problem of creation mythology in the study of Indian religion.
Existence of God : a philosophical introduction.
Religion and mythology: concepts, differences.
The role of religion in attitudes toward LGBT individuals.
Issues and traditions in western religion .
Theology in the concepts of nature, time, and the future.
Religion and government interaction in the US.
The history of the Christian church in East Europe.
Religion freedom and its limitation .
Hinduism and Buddhism: similarities and differences .
Baptism in Christianity .
The impact of religion on terrorism .
The God of Israel and Christian theology .
Culture and religion: how they interact.
Religion and social morality.

Science Research Topics for College Students

What is a better way to uncover the mysteries of our universe than through science? As it comprises multiple types and directions, there is a vast number of questions to answer.

We suggest you the following science research paper topics:

Paris climate agreement perspectives.
Ethical aspects of cloning .
Political science in the US: past and present issues.
Genetic engineering and cloning controversy .
The development of life on Earth .
The current state of nuclear energetics in America.
Nuclear weapon -free zones: a history and assessment.
Solid earth dynamics and the evolution of the Antarctic ice sheet.
Natural hazards : local, national, global.
Geophysical fluid dynamics: atmospheric dynamics, dynamo theory, and climate dynamics.
Data science as a key element of data-driven decision-making.
Robotics & mobility systems in agriculture: successful cases.
Legal models of space resources exploration and utilization.
The social context of recycling : factors influencing household recycling behavior.
Trends in consumer attitudes about agricultural biotechnology .
Theory of turbulence: a mathematical model that illustrates it.
Dual-mode infrared and radar hardware-in-the-loop test equipment.
Essentials of computational chemistry: theories and models.
Genetic algorithms in astronomy and astrophysics.
A fundamental relation between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies.

Social Science Research Topics

Sociology is an umbrella term that covers dozens of branches. It studies family, social movements, mass media, class theory, race, ethnicity, levels of income. We could go on and on.

As you can see, the options for research are endless. Don’t waste your time trying to understand the peculiarities of each social or cultural branch. Use our list of social science research paper topics for college students.

Social movements of 21 st century.
Strauss–howe generational theory in marketing.
Social media as a “hotbed” of narcissism .
The nutritional status of vegans and vegetarians .
Gender identity and community among three transgender groups in the United States: MTFs, FTMs, and genderqueers.
Social causes of anorexia in young women.
The civil rights in South America.
#BlackLivesMatter movement and its influence on society.
Gay marriage in America : current debates.
Dependency of the children mortality level on the anti-vaccination movement development.
Judaism in the first centuries of the Christian era.
School choice and segregation by race, class, and achievement.
The correlation between race and wealth.
Freedom and social status of blacks in America .
The problem of abortion .
Causes and effects of drug addiction .
Horizontal and vertical gender segregation in employment .
Effects of domestic violence on children.
The poverty level in the US: a retrospective analysis.
Women leadership and community development.

We are approaching the end of our ultimate research paper topics list. To wrap it up, let’s take a look at sports research ideas.

It has been present in our lives for a long time and is still developing. That’s why we need to answer new questions and build new knowledge. Explore the list below:

How does globalization affect sports?
History of doping scandals in the Olympics .
Team sports as a socialization tool for children.
The origin and history of ice hockey.
Organizational aspects of Paralympic games.
Aspects of independent Olympians at the Olympic games .
The unique history of Pelé.
Risk factors for injuries in football.
Short interval versus long interval training.
Sport as a communication medium .
Nutritional support of young athletes .
Mental training during competition preparation.
Philosophical conflicts between the practices of sport and cybersport.
Running as a treatment for heart diseases .
Typical traumas of soccer players.

After getting familiar with the list of topics, let’s discuss the essential steps before beginning research.

Narrow Your Topic

Let’s say you selected that one topic from the list. What’s next? It’s time to outline the boundaries of the research. It should not be too broad or narrow . Its scope must strictly correspond to the problem’s scope under exploration.

What is the difference between a narrow and a broad topic?

Let’s look at three research topic examples:

Eating Disorders. The topic is too general and comprehensive. If your research paper requires to be short, then there is no sense in choosing this topic. You better narrow it down.
Eating Disorders in Young Females. In this topic, we try to segment the subjected populations to specify the research question. It is still rather broad but more focused.
Anorexia in Young Females and Its Impact on Society. Here, we distinguish a particular type of eating disorder and leave a population segmentation. That is a perfect example of a narrowed topic. Now, it’s easier to ask specific questions, uncover insights and contribute to further research.

Focus on your narrowed topic and form a central research question. After that, research the existing data and find supporting facts. Don’t let your exploration be one-sided: explore different points of view. Compare and analyze counterpoints and draw conclusions.

After a profound studying, create a thesis statement to support your narrowed topic in a specific way.

To make things clear, use this step-by-step guide on finding and narrowing your topic.

Evaluate Sources

It takes a second to get access to billions of search results on any topic in Google. Most of the time, we jump through the first two or three links, and that’s it. If you seek quality, then it’s not the proper approach. You should acquire the skill of processing the sources.

What are the tips for source evaluation?

Forget about Wikipedia as a scientific source. Wikipedia is a free platform where any user can make edits. Extracting information from wiki without fact-checking isn’t a good academic practice. Great alternatives to Wikipedia are College e-libraries, scholarly databases, Google Scholar, etc.
Explore well-respected professional research journals. They contain up-to-date research data and conclusions which shape the most relevant views and understanding of what is going on in the modern world.
Visit libraries. We tend to overlook them in our digital era. But you can find super valuable sources for research there.
Avoid personal blogs, opinion articles, and self-published books . There can be heavy use of bias.

3 Main Tips on Writing a Thesis Statement

After you decide on a research topic and sources, it’s time to write a thesis statement.

Ask a question. Here are two options. In the first one, your professor can assign you a concrete question. If it’s not your case, then ask what interests you. What would you like to explore?
Give an initial answer. Try to answer the question before in-depth topic exploration. Work out some hypotheses.
Enrich the initial answer. Prove the initial hypothesis by detailing the research. Use the calculations and quantitative data to make your thesis credible.

To back up these tips, let’s look at a couple of example thesis statements from the StudyCorgi essay database:

You’ve just explored an ultimate list of research paper topic ideas and important steps to turn those topics into excellent research papers.

Did you find our topics compilation helpful? Save it for a future reference or share with friends!

What Is Research? — Hampshire College
Definition of Research — Western Sydney University
The Importance of Research to Students — Cleveland University Kansas City
Guidelines for Writing Art History Research Papers — UA Little Rock University
Areas of Research in Biology — Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Environmental Science: Current Research — Herald Scholarly Open Access
Thesis Statements — University of North Carolina
Thesis Statement Tips — Purdue University
What Is Education Research — National Center for Education Research
Research in the Faculty of Music — University of Cambridge
Research: Religion and Society Specialism — University of Birmingham
Sociology Research Areas — Cornell University
Narrowing a Topic Idea — UCS Libraries
Developing a Research Question — The University of Arizona
Organizing Academic Research Paper — Sacred Heart University
How to Write a Conclusion for a Research Paper: Indeed
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How to Write a Research Paper

Use the links below to jump directly to any section of this guide:

Research Paper Fundamentals

How to choose a topic or question, how to create a working hypothesis or thesis, common research paper methodologies, how to gather and organize evidence , how to write an outline for your research paper, how to write a rough draft, how to revise your draft, how to produce a final draft, resources for teachers .

It is not fair to say that no one writes anymore. Just about everyone writes text messages, brief emails, or social media posts every single day. Yet, most people don't have a lot of practice with the formal, organized writing required for a good academic research paper. This guide contains links to a variety of resources that can help demystify the process. Some of these resources are intended for teachers; they contain exercises, activities, and teaching strategies. Other resources are intended for direct use by students who are struggling to write papers, or are looking for tips to make the process go more smoothly.

The resources in this section are designed to help students understand the different types of research papers, the general research process, and how to manage their time. Below, you'll find links from university writing centers, the trusted Purdue Online Writing Lab, and more.

What is an Academic Research Paper?

"Genre and the Research Paper" (Purdue OWL)

There are different types of research papers. Different types of scholarly questions will lend themselves to one format or another. This is a brief introduction to the two main genres of research paper: analytic and argumentative.

"7 Most Popular Types of Research Papers" (Personal-writer.com)

This resource discusses formats that high school students commonly encounter, such as the compare and contrast essay and the definitional essay. Please note that the inclusion of this link is not an endorsement of this company's paid service.

How to Prepare and Plan Out Writing a Research Paper

Teachers can give their students a step-by-step guide like these to help them understand the different steps of the research paper process. These guides can be combined with the time management tools in the next subsection to help students come up with customized calendars for completing their papers.

"Ten Steps for Writing Research Papers" (American University)

This resource from American University is a comprehensive guide to the research paper writing process, and includes examples of proper research questions and thesis topics.

"Steps in Writing a Research Paper" (SUNY Empire State College)

This guide breaks the research paper process into 11 steps. Each "step" links to a separate page, which describes the work entailed in completing it.

How to Manage Time Effectively

The links below will help students determine how much time is necessary to complete a paper. If your sources are not available online or at your local library, you'll need to leave extra time for the Interlibrary Loan process. Remember that, even if you do not need to consult secondary sources, you'll still need to leave yourself ample time to organize your thoughts.

"Research Paper Planner: Timeline" (Baylor University)

This interactive resource from Baylor University creates a suggested writing schedule based on how much time a student has to work on the assignment.

"Research Paper Planner" (UCLA)

UCLA's library offers this step-by-step guide to the research paper writing process, which also includes a suggested planning calendar.

There's a reason teachers spend a long time talking about choosing a good topic. Without a good topic and a well-formulated research question, it is almost impossible to write a clear and organized paper. The resources below will help you generate ideas and formulate precise questions.

"How to Select a Research Topic" (Univ. of Michigan-Flint)

This resource is designed for college students who are struggling to come up with an appropriate topic. A student who uses this resource and still feels unsure about his or her topic should consult the course instructor for further personalized assistance.

"25 Interesting Research Paper Topics to Get You Started" (Kibin)

This resource, which is probably most appropriate for high school students, provides a list of specific topics to help get students started. It is broken into subsections, such as "paper topics on local issues."

"Writing a Good Research Question" (Grand Canyon University)

This introduction to research questions includes some embedded videos, as well as links to scholarly articles on research questions. This resource would be most appropriate for teachers who are planning lessons on research paper fundamentals.

"How to Write a Research Question the Right Way" (Kibin)

This student-focused resource provides more detail on writing research questions. The language is accessible, and there are embedded videos and examples of good and bad questions.

It is important to have a rough hypothesis or thesis in mind at the beginning of the research process. People who have a sense of what they want to say will have an easier time sorting through scholarly sources and other information. The key, of course, is not to become too wedded to the draft hypothesis or thesis. Just about every working thesis gets changed during the research process.

CrashCourse Video: "Sociology Research Methods" (YouTube)

Although this video is tailored to sociology students, it is applicable to students in a variety of social science disciplines. This video does a good job demonstrating the connection between the brainstorming that goes into selecting a research question and the formulation of a working hypothesis.

"How to Write a Thesis Statement for an Analytical Essay" (YouTube)

Students writing analytical essays will not develop the same type of working hypothesis as students who are writing research papers in other disciplines. For these students, developing the working thesis may happen as a part of the rough draft (see the relevant section below).

"Research Hypothesis" (Oakland Univ.)

This resource provides some examples of hypotheses in social science disciplines like Political Science and Criminal Justice. These sample hypotheses may also be useful for students in other soft social sciences and humanities disciplines like History.

When grading a research paper, instructors look for a consistent methodology. This section will help you understand different methodological approaches used in research papers. Students will get the most out of these resources if they use them to help prepare for conversations with teachers or discussions in class.

"Types of Research Designs" (USC)

A "research design," used for complex papers, is related to the paper's method. This resource contains introductions to a variety of popular research designs in the social sciences. Although it is not the most intuitive site to read, the information here is very valuable.

"Major Research Methods" (YouTube)

Although this video is a bit on the dry side, it provides a comprehensive overview of the major research methodologies in a format that might be more accessible to students who have struggled with textbooks or other written resources.

"Humanities Research Strategies" (USC)

This is a portal where students can learn about four methodological approaches for humanities papers: Historical Methodologies, Textual Criticism, Conceptual Analysis, and the Synoptic method.

"Selected Major Social Science Research Methods: Overview" (National Academies Press)

This appendix from the book Using Science as Evidence in Public Policy , printed by National Academies Press, introduces some methods used in social science papers.

"Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: 6. The Methodology" (USC)

This resource from the University of Southern California's library contains tips for writing a methodology section in a research paper.

How to Determine the Best Methodology for You

Anyone who is new to writing research papers should be sure to select a method in consultation with their instructor. These resources can be used to help prepare for that discussion. They may also be used on their own by more advanced students.

"Choosing Appropriate Research Methodologies" (Palgrave Study Skills)

This friendly and approachable resource from Palgrave Macmillan can be used by students who are just starting to think about appropriate methodologies.

"How to Choose Your Research Methods" (NFER (UK))

This is another approachable resource students can use to help narrow down the most appropriate methods for their research projects.

The resources in this section introduce the process of gathering scholarly sources and collecting evidence. You'll find a range of material here, from introductory guides to advanced explications best suited to college students. Please consult the LitCharts How to Do Academic Research guide for a more comprehensive list of resources devoted to finding scholarly literature.

Google Scholar

Students who have access to library websites with detailed research guides should start there, but people who do not have access to those resources can begin their search for secondary literature here.

"Gathering Appropriate Information" (Texas Gateway)

This resource from the Texas Gateway for online resources introduces students to the research process, and contains interactive exercises. The level of complexity is suitable for middle school, high school, and introductory college classrooms.

"An Overview of Quantitative and Qualitative Data Collection Methods" (NSF)

This PDF from the National Science Foundation goes into detail about best practices and pitfalls in data collection across multiple types of methodologies.

"Social Science Methods for Data Collection and Analysis" (Swiss FIT)

This resource is appropriate for advanced undergraduates or teachers looking to create lessons on research design and data collection. It covers techniques for gathering data via interviews, observations, and other methods.

"Collecting Data by In-depth Interviewing" (Leeds Univ.)

This resource contains enough information about conducting interviews to make it useful for teachers who want to create a lesson plan, but is also accessible enough for college juniors or seniors to make use of it on their own.

There is no "one size fits all" outlining technique. Some students might devote all their energy and attention to the outline in order to avoid the paper. Other students may benefit from being made to sit down and organize their thoughts into a lengthy sentence outline. The resources in this section include strategies and templates for multiple types of outlines.

"Topic vs. Sentence Outlines" (UC Berkeley)

This resource introduces two basic approaches to outlining: the shorter topic-based approach, and the longer, more detailed sentence-based approach. This resource also contains videos on how to develop paper paragraphs from the sentence-based outline.

"Types of Outlines and Samples" (Purdue OWL)

The Purdue Online Writing Lab's guide is a slightly less detailed discussion of different types of outlines. It contains several sample outlines.

"Writing An Outline" (Austin C.C.)

This resource from a community college contains sample outlines from an American history class that students can use as models.

"How to Structure an Outline for a College Paper" (YouTube)

This brief (sub-2 minute) video from the ExpertVillage YouTube channel provides a model of outline writing for students who are struggling with the idea.

"Outlining" (Harvard)

This is a good resource to consult after completing a draft outline. It offers suggestions for making sure your outline avoids things like unnecessary repetition.

As with outlines, rough drafts can take on many different forms. These resources introduce teachers and students to the various approaches to writing a rough draft. This section also includes resources that will help you cite your sources appropriately according to the MLA, Chicago, and APA style manuals.

"Creating a Rough Draft for a Research Paper" (Univ. of Minnesota)

This resource is useful for teachers in particular, as it provides some suggested exercises to help students with writing a basic rough draft.

Rough Draft Assignment (Duke of Definition)

This sample assignment, with a brief list of tips, was developed by a high school teacher who runs a very successful and well-reviewed page of educational resources.

"Creating the First Draft of Your Research Paper" (Concordia Univ.)

This resource will be helpful for perfectionists or procrastinators, as it opens by discussing the problem of avoiding writing. It also provides a short list of suggestions meant to get students writing.

Using Proper Citations

There is no such thing as a rough draft of a scholarly citation. These links to the three major citation guides will ensure that your citations follow the correct format. Please consult the LitCharts How to Cite Your Sources guide for more resources.

Chicago Manual of Style Citation Guide

Some call The Chicago Manual of Style , which was first published in 1906, "the editors' Bible." The manual is now in its 17th edition, and is popular in the social sciences, historical journals, and some other fields in the humanities.

APA Citation Guide

According to the American Psychological Association, this guide was developed to aid reading comprehension, clarity of communication, and to reduce bias in language in the social and behavioral sciences. Its first full edition was published in 1952, and it is now in its sixth edition.

MLA Citation Guide

The Modern Language Association style is used most commonly within the liberal arts and humanities. The MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing was first published in 1985 and (as of 2008) is in its third edition.

Any professional scholar will tell you that the best research papers are made in the revision stage. No matter how strong your research question or working thesis, it is not possible to write a truly outstanding paper without devoting energy to revision. These resources provide examples of revision exercises for the classroom, as well as tips for students working independently.

"The Art of Revision" (Univ. of Arizona)

This resource provides a wealth of information and suggestions for both students and teachers. There is a list of suggested exercises that teachers might use in class, along with a revision checklist that is useful for teachers and students alike.

"Script for Workshop on Revision" (Vanderbilt University)

Vanderbilt's guide for leading a 50-minute revision workshop can serve as a model for teachers who wish to guide students through the revision process during classtime.

"Revising Your Paper" (Univ. of Washington)

This detailed handout was designed for students who are beginning the revision process. It discusses different approaches and methods for revision, and also includes a detailed list of things students should look for while they revise.

"Revising Drafts" (UNC Writing Center)

This resource is designed for students and suggests things to look for during the revision process. It provides steps for the process and has a FAQ for students who have questions about why it is important to revise.

Conferencing with Writing Tutors and Instructors

No writer is so good that he or she can't benefit from meeting with instructors or peer tutors. These resources from university writing, learning, and communication centers provide suggestions for how to get the most out of these one-on-one meetings.

"Getting Feedback" (UNC Writing Center)

This very helpful resource talks about how to ask for feedback during the entire writing process. It contains possible questions that students might ask when developing an outline, during the revision process, and after the final draft has been graded.

"Prepare for Your Tutoring Session" (Otis College of Art and Design)

This guide from a university's student learning center contains a lot of helpful tips for getting the most out of working with a writing tutor.

"The Importance of Asking Your Professor" (Univ. of Waterloo)

This article from the university's Writing and Communication Centre's blog contains some suggestions for how and when to get help from professors and Teaching Assistants.

Once you've revised your first draft, you're well on your way to handing in a polished paper. These resources—each of them produced by writing professionals at colleges and universities—outline the steps required in order to produce a final draft. You'll find proofreading tips and checklists in text and video form.

"Developing a Final Draft of a Research Paper" (Univ. of Minnesota)

While this resource contains suggestions for revision, it also features a couple of helpful checklists for the last stages of completing a final draft.

Basic Final Draft Tips and Checklist (Univ. of Maryland-University College)

This short and accessible resource, part of UMUC's very thorough online guide to writing and research, contains a very basic checklist for students who are getting ready to turn in their final drafts.

Final Draft Checklist (Everett C.C.)

This is another accessible final draft checklist, appropriate for both high school and college students. It suggests reading your essay aloud at least once.

"How to Proofread Your Final Draft" (YouTube)

This video (approximately 5 minutes), produced by Eastern Washington University, gives students tips on proofreading final drafts.

"Proofreading Tips" (Georgia Southern-Armstrong)

This guide will help students learn how to spot common errors in their papers. It suggests focusing on content and editing for grammar and mechanics.

This final set of resources is intended specifically for high school and college instructors. It provides links to unit plans and classroom exercises that can help improve students' research and writing skills. You'll find resources that give an overview of the process, along with activities that focus on how to begin and how to carry out research.

"Research Paper Complete Resources Pack" (Teachers Pay Teachers)

This packet of assignments, rubrics, and other resources is designed for high school students. The resources in this packet are aligned to Common Core standards.

"Research Paper—Complete Unit" (Teachers Pay Teachers)

This packet of assignments, notes, PowerPoints, and other resources has a 4/4 rating with over 700 ratings. It is designed for high school teachers, but might also be useful to college instructors who work with freshmen.

"Teaching Students to Write Good Papers" (Yale)

This resource from Yale's Center for Teaching and Learning is designed for college instructors, and it includes links to appropriate activities and exercises.

"Research Paper Writing: An Overview" (CUNY Brooklyn)

CUNY Brooklyn offers this complete lesson plan for introducing students to research papers. It includes an accompanying set of PowerPoint slides.

"Lesson Plan: How to Begin Writing a Research Paper" (San Jose State Univ.)

This lesson plan is designed for students in the health sciences, so teachers will have to modify it for their own needs. It includes a breakdown of the brainstorming, topic selection, and research question process.

"Quantitative Techniques for Social Science Research" (Univ. of Pittsburgh)

This is a set of PowerPoint slides that can be used to introduce students to a variety of quantitative methods used in the social sciences.

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ResearchWorks Home

Student Research Papers

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Built environments, college of [0], communications, department of [14], comparative history of ideas program [20], disability studies [1], earth and space sciences [89], english, department of [1], foster school of business [0], friday harbor laboratories [705], gender, women and sexuality studies, department of [22], geography, dept. of [5], henry m. jackson school of international studies [108], history, department of [8], ischool [3], japan studies [4], linguistics [7], materials science and engineering [25], mathematics, department of [0], oceanography, school of [337], speech and hearing sciences department [1], summer institute in the arts and humanities [26], uw law school [1], collections in this community, archaeological heritage master's capstone projects [0], daniel j. evans school of public policy & governance [4], library research award for undergraduates [176], museology master's theses [81], physiology and biophysics, department of [2], population health research award for undergraduates [3], uw school of medicine [1], recent submissions, effects of vessel disturbance on harbor seal (phoca vitulina) abundance and behavior at yellow island and goose island, wa, usa , compliance to the voluntary no-go zones off lime kiln point state park: efficacy of a southern resident killer whale (orcinus orca) conservation strategy , assessing the abundance and movement of marine birds during a range of tidal currents at cattle point, san juan island , comparative behavioral and diversity studies of shorebirds in marine and freshwater habitats at san juan island , effects of time, tide, and currents on pacific great blue heron (ardea herodias fannini) abundance, behavior, prey, and strike rates at false bay, san juan island , implications of bald eagle (haliaeetus leucocephalus) predation on the goose island glaucous-winged gull (larus glaucescens) nesting colony , impact of time and tidal current speed on alcid abundance and behavior in san juan channel , floating kelp rafts as indicators of aggregation zones within the san juan archipelago , characterizing seasonal dormancy and the physiological threshold for survival in pacific sand lance (ammodytes personatus) , exploring mixed layer dynamics and light as limiting factors in the diatom community in the sji , assessing marine heatwave impacts on the pelagic ecosystem of the san juan archipelago , dietary and spatial analysis of salmon in san juan archipelago, puget sound, and alaska , wall obstacles impact escape response latency and directionality in pacific staghorn sculpin , mechanisms of resilience: contextualizing the health of subtidal zostera marina meadows around the san juan islands, washington , summer fog frequency patterns and impact on intertidal organisms around washington coast from goes-17 satellite imagery, field photos, and field sensors , comparing the impacts of human disturbance and marine preserve status in the intertidal community , why are you so defensive investigating the correlation between risk-taking behaviors and defensive morphology of marine three-spined stickleback, gasterosteus aculeatus , physiological responses to water temperature and flow in three marine mussel species , assessing the impact of heatwave exposure on the swimming performance, kinematics, and metabolism of a nearshore marine fish, cymatogaster aggregata , efficiency is not always the name of the game: pile perch prefer to swim slower than their optimal speed .

Journal of Student Research

Journal of Student Research (JSR) is an Academic, Multidisciplinary, and Faculty-reviewed Journal (Houston, Texas) devoted to the Rapid Dissemination of Current Research Published by High School Edition , Undergraduate and Graduate students.

Articles Indexed in Scholarly Databases

The journal seeks articles that are novel, integrative, and accessible to a broad audience, including an array of disciplines. The content of the journal ranges from Applied research to Theoretical research. In general, papers on all topics are welcome to submit. The journal uses an automated process from manuscript submission to publication. Manuscript submission, peer review, and publication are all handled online, and the journal automates all clerical steps during peer review.

Trusted By Student Authors Globally

Focus and Scope

Students strive to be successful at publications, and with JSR, authors aspiring to publish will receive scholarly feedback after the reviews of their submissions are received. This feedback will help authors identify areas of improvement to their submission and help them better understand the process to be successful at publication. Once published, we strive to provide a global platform for our authors to showcase their work.

Faculty-Refereed Review Process

This journal uses a double-blind review, which means that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process. Authors need to ensure that their manuscripts do not give away their identity to facilitate this. To find out more about the review process, please visit the Author Guidelines page. We invite teachers and faculty interested in reviewing articles for this journal; please visit our Reviewers page for more information.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides access to its published content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Learn more about Open Access .

Authors Retain Copyright

Articles published in this journal are under a Creative Commons License , and the authors retain the copyright to their work.

Announcements

Call for papers: volume 13 issue 3.

If you are an undergraduate or graduate student at a college or university aspiring to publish, we are accepting submissions. Submit Your Article Now!

Deadline: 11:59 p.m. May 31, 2024

Are you seeking one-on-one college counseling and/or essay support? Limited spots are now available. Click here to learn more.

62 Best Research Opportunities for High School Students

June 2, 2024

Hands-on laboratory-based research experiences are coveted by just about every STEM-oriented teenager on the planet. Of course, this level of demand renders research opportunities for high school students a valuable and rare commodity. Fortunately, there are a number of reputable summer programs run by universities, government agencies, and private research laboratories that afford young scientists this highly sought-after experience. Research opportunities during the actual school year are more challenging to locate as colleges are, at that time, catering to their own students, and the rigidity of the high school calendar makes participation a further challenge.

What type of research opportunities can a high school student have, anyway?

Research opportunities for high school students can range from introductory to highly advanced. Some programs focus on teaching students the fundamental skills required for research while others place students with a real working research group and allow them to contribute to legitimate experiments and papers. Your level of involvement will depend on the university or organization’s policies, your mentor, your lab team, and the type of research being conducted.

What types of research experiences look best on college applications?

Authentic, laboratory-based research experiences that you get paid for are the hardest types of positions to nail down, primarily because very few of these spots are available. Moreover, such research groups are conducting serious work—consequently, they’re looking for serious, high-achieving students who will positively enhance their dynamic. Additionally, these positions typically require a longer time commitment, with students working full-time (or close to full-time) hours for several months or even years. As such, accepting one of these positions may limit the other types of summer opportunities that you can participate in. Finally, due to safety concerns and restrictions, you will likely need to be at least 16 years old to participate in many types of lab-based research.

On the flip side are research opportunities that you pay to be involved in, with some being more selective than others. Many families wonder if these programs offer legitimate research experience or are simply another way to capitalize off of the college admissions craze, and the answer is that you have to do your homework.

Although some research opportunities offer little in the way of experience, others are truly authentic opportunities to work with a mentor and delve into an area of interest for academic enrichment—no different than any other cost-based summer program. In these cases, the fact that a student prioritized their intellectual curiosity and spent several months seriously pursuing a topic of interest will be an excellent addition to their application. We’ve gone ahead and done the hard work for you—any one of the opportunities listed below is legitimate and worthy of investing your time and resources into.

How do I decide what types of research opportunities to apply for?

If conducting research is important to you, we recommend applying to a mix of highly selective and lesser selective programs to maximize your chances of being accepted to at least one. Beyond selectivity, it’s important to consider additional several factors:

Time commitment —Some programs may require a multi-week, full-time commitment over the summer. Others may require nights and weekends during the school year.
Time frame —Some programs are only available in the summer while others run year-round (sometimes for multiple years).
Cost/stipend —Do you have to pay for the program, or does the program pay you? Research whether the program will be a good fit for your financial situation, including how much it costs and if you’ll receive compensation for your work, either via academic credit or a paycheck. Note that many residential programs are cost-based while commuter programs that only accept local students are more likely to be fully funded and/or offer a stipend.
Location —Evaluate whether you’d like to attend a local program, are willing to travel to a residential program, or would prefer a virtual option.
Level of mentor interaction —During some programs, you’ll be closely supported by PhD faculty members, while others may be run by graduate or postdoc students and require students to be more independent.
Opportunity to publish or enter research competitions —If publishing research or submitting your project/paper to a research competition is important to you, you’ll want to look into whether the program prepares you for that venture.

Our list includes a bevy of summer program choices as well as year-long internships and apprenticeships. We’ve divided the list into three sections: Virtual, Residential/Multi-Location, and Location-Specific.

For each entry, we list the geographic location of the program, the time frame and length of the program, any associated costs or stipends, and the eligibility criteria for participation.

Virtual Research Opportunities for High School Students

Virtual research opportunities for high school students offer ultimate flexibility, in regard to time commitment as well as subject matter.

1) Polygence

Location : Virtual
Timeframe : Academic year and/or summer
Length: 2-6 months
Cost : $495-$3,695
Eligibility: No age restrictions

For high school students who want to showcase authentic passion on their college applications, Polygence offers the most personalized and flexible online research program that helps students turn their interests into unique research projects. Accordingly, they pair intellectually curious students with PhD-level mentors to design experiments, build robots, create podcasts, write original screenplays, and publish in peer-reviewed journals in all fields from the humanities to STEM. All 1:1 programs include ten meetings with a mentor in your chosen field as well as a self-selected project topic and outcome, which could include a research paper, a prototype, or a creative piece of work.

A multitude of personalized options are available, including additional brainstorming sessions, time with a specialist who will guide the student through the publishing or research competition process, and academic credit through UCI x GATI. Moreover, Polygence’s Pods program allows students to work with like-minded peers in a group setting.

Sound like a good fit? College Transitions readers can save $50 on their Polygence package.

Research areas available include:

Computer science, engineering, AI, & game design
Biology, biotech, chemistry, neuroscience, and physics
Medicine, surgery, dentistry, and public health
Business, finance, and economics
Math, statistics, sports analytics, and quantitative analysis
Psychology, psychiatry, cognitive science, and social sciences
Creative writing, history, philosophy, and literature
Animation, the arts, fashion, photography, and dance

Residential/Multi-Location Research Programs

In the following section, we’ve outlined programs that are residential or offer opportunities in multiple locations, making them more accessible to a wider array of students.

Programs are organized alphabetically by discipline.

Biology Research Opportunities for High School Students

2) university of chicago research in the biological sciences (ribs).

Location : Chicago, IL
Timeframe : Summer
Length: 4 weeks
Cost : $14,000
Eligibility: Current sophomores and juniors

In UChicago’s highly selective RIBS program, students practice a range of molecular, microbiological, and cell biological research techniques. The goal? To prepare them to work in a research laboratory. Accordingly, for the first two weeks, students undergo basic training in lab skills and techniques. Then, they spend the final two weeks of the course immersed in an independent research project. At the end of the course, they present the project during a research forum. Moreover, students can expect weekly writing assignments and seminars. To be competitive, students should have a demonstrated interest in science as well as top grades in those classes.

Biomedical Research Programs for High School Students

3) rosetta institute of biomedical research molecular medicine workshops.

Location : Berkeley; San Diego; Columbia; London; virtual
Length: 2 weeks
Cost : $3,580-$4,180 (residential); $2,280-$2,480 (commuter); $430-1,050 (online)
Eligibility: High school students aged 14-18

Curious about biomedical research but not ready to pursue a full-blown lab internship? Rosetta Institute offers a number of residential and online two-week programs that introduce high schoolers to topics in medicine, drug development, pharmacy, and nursing. For example, current workshops include Medicinal Chemistry, Neurological Bioinformatics, and Molecular Biology of Cancer. All students are taught by PhD-level instructors and complete an original research project.

Chemistry Research Opportunities for High School Students

4) american chemical society — project seed.

Location : Multiple
Length: 8-10 weeks
Cost : Free, and students receive a $4,000 stipend
Eligibility: All high school students whose families meet annual income requirements, but preferably current sophomores, juniors, or seniors

Having been operational for more than fifty years, Project SEED (Summer Experiences for the Economically Disadvantaged) runs programs at over 350 institutions and has served over 12,000 students. The goal of the program is to empower a diverse cohort of high school students to conduct hands-on research experience in the chemical sciences. Accordingly, all students work full-time on meaningful independent or small group projects, are closely guided by a mentor, and either write a report or do a poster presentation at the end of their fellowship.

Genetics Research Opportunities for High School Students

5) jackson lab summer student program.

Location : Bar Harbor, ME or Farmington, CT
Length: 10 weeks
Cost : Free, and students receive a $6,500 stipend plus funded room, board, and travel
Eligibility: High school seniors can apply to the Bar Harbor program, while eligible undergrads can apply to either program.

Hoping to design and execute an original independent research project? You’ll be able to do just that through Jackson Lab’s Summer Student Program, which immerses students in one of seven areas: bioinformatics and computational biology, cancer, developmental biology and aging, genomics, immunology and infectious disease, metabolic diseases, and neurobiology and sensory deficits. Moreover, students are closely guided by a mentor and present their research at the end of the summer. Finally, the application process is intense and competitive, requiring two letters of recommendation, a transcript, a resume, evidence of a strong interest in genetics and genomics, and four essay responses.

Pre-Health Research Opportunities for High School Students

6) national institutes of health high school summer internship program.

Location : Research groups are available at many of NIH’s 27 institutes and centers , including the main campus in Bethesda, MD
Cost : Free; all students receive a stipend
Eligibility: High school seniors age 17+

Through their HS-SIP Program, the National Institutes of Health places high school students in full-time research positions within their many active research groups. Subject areas include biomedical, behavioral, and social sciences, and are geared toward students who are interested in pursuing research and healthcare. Moreover, students can take part in Summer Poster Day, where they present their research to the NIH community. They also have access to professional development programs and educational/career advising.

Note that this research opportunity for high school students is extremely competitive; approximately 7% of applicants are ultimately accepted. Finally, if you are under the age of 18 when you participate in the program, you will need to live within 40 miles of the campus that you’d like to intern at.

STEM/Humanities Research Opportunities for High School Students

7) army educational outreach program—high school internships.

Location : Various
Timeframe : All Year
Length: 3 months
Cost : Free, and all interns receive a stipend
Eligibility: All current high school students. Some sites may have additional eligibility requirements.

With programs currently available in twenty states, the Army Educational Outreach Program places high school students in university research labs or at a US Army Research Laboratory/Center. Each site has its own technical focus, from biology and materials science to cybersecurity and AI. Regardless of specialty, all interns receive formal mentorship from a professional scientist or engineer, have access to high-tech equipment, and work on relevant research that addresses a current major challenge.

8) Boston University RISE

Location : Boston, MA
Length: 6 weeks
Cost : $5,350 plus room & board
Eligibility: Current high school juniors

A residential program located on the Boston University campus, RISE offers high school students the opportunity to conduct laboratory research in one of two tracks: Internship or Practicum. Students in the Internship track work full-time on a research project that aligns with their interests, and are mentored by a faculty member, postdoc fellow, or grad student. 15 subject areas are available, including astronomy, mechanical engineering, medical laboratory research, and nutrition. Alternatively, Practicum students work in small groups on structured research related to systems neuroscience and neurobiology.

Research Opportunities for High School Students—Continued

9) michigan state high school honors science, math and engineering program.

Location : East Lansing, MI
Length: 7 weeks
Cost : $4,000

HSHSP is a highly selective, residential program where students can pursue research opportunities in science, engineering, and mathematics. After learning more about the research process, students deeply explore a problem of interest while engaging in an authentic (not “fail-proof”) research experience. Along the way, they’ll work with professionals and peers in their field of interest. Finally, many students have gone on to publish their work or be recognized at prestigious research competitions.

10) MIT Research Science Institute

Location : Cambridge, MA
Cost : Free
Eligibility: High school juniors

With a combined focus on academic coursework and hands-on research, RSI students first take one week of STEM coursework with MIT professors. Here, they’ll learn about current research topics in biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, physics, and the humanities. Then, for the remaining five weeks, students “experience the entire research cycle start to finish.” During this time, they participate in an intensive, mentored individual project experience that culminates in a written and oral presentation.

The program looks for students who are exceptionally academically talented. As such, the application process is quite intensive. PSAT Math scores must be over 740 and ACT Math scores must be over 33. In addition, students must write several essays, acquire teacher recommendations, and provide transcripts. Ultimately, only 100 students are accepted.

11) NASA Internship Programs

Location : Various; there are 15 centers and facilities in the US. Remote opportunities may also be available.
Timeframe : Available during the fall, spring, and summer
Length: 10-16 weeks, depending on session
Cost : Free; the majority of interns receive a stipend, but some are unpaid
Eligibility: High school students aged 16+

NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM) offers a number of internship opportunities for high school students. Available projects change each year and are location-specific, and not every NASA center will offer internship opportunities every session. That said, current projects span a range of subject areas, including Climate Change in the Hudson Estuary and Characterizing the Urban Land Surface Temperature. During the research internship, students will be closely mentored by a research scientist, engineer, or other professional. Note that you will need to make your own housing arrangements if you are not a local student.

Are you an undergraduate student? Check out NASA Pathways , which can provide a direct transition into full-time employment at NASA.

12) Smith College Summer Science and Engineering Program

Location : Northampton, MA
Length: 2-4 weeks
Cost : $4,745 (2 weeks); $8,082 (4 weeks)
Eligibility: Female high school students in grades 9-12; some programs have specific prerequisites

Fun fact: Smith was the first women’s college to create a program in engineering science. As such, their summer programs are an excellent place for young women to participate in hands-on, introductory research experiences. Two-week sessions are offered, and students can take one or both. Each session offers six distinct course choices. For example, the first session offers Chemistry of Herbal Medicine, Designing Intelligent Robots, and Novel Bacteriophage Discovery. Second session courses include Where the Body Meets the Mind, Supercontinents, Rocks, and Fossils, and the Art and Science of Microcontrollers. Students spend five days a week in class, attending lectures and conducting experiments & fieldwork. Additionally, the program is team-based, allowing students to learn from each other’s ideas and perspectives.

13) Stony Brook University Garcia Center Research Experience for High School Students

Location : Stony Brook, NY
Timeframe : Summer (with possible academic year continuation)
Cost : $4,000 plus room & board

At the Garcia Center for Polymers at Engineered Interfaces, high school students can design an original research project in polymer science and technology during an intensive seven-week summer program. Uniquely, the research can then be continued during the academic year under the guidance of a faculty mentor. Students should be highly motivated and high-achieving, with at least three upper-level science courses under their belt. Finally, past participants have regularly published their research and won recognition in national competitions.

14) Stony Brook University Simons Summer Research Program

Cost : Students need to cover transportation costs (if commuting) or room/board (if residential). Room/board is $2,781. Stipends are also awarded at the end of the program.

After being matched with a mentor and research team, students are fully immersed in the research process. Placement availability varies from year to year, but typically about thirty projects are available across over a dozen disciplines. These include biochemistry, computer science, geosciences, and pharmacological sciences, among others. Moreover, some have prerequisites, such as specific AP courses or previous programming experience.

All students participate in weekly faculty research talks, workshops, events, and a culminating poster symposium.

15) Summer Science Program

Location : Astrophysics: UNC Chapel Hill, University of Colorado, Georgia College & State University, New Mexico State University; Biochemistry: Purdue, Indiana University; Genomics: Georgetown, Purdue, New Mexico State; Synthetic Chemistry : Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Cost : $8,800 max; all program fees are scaled according to what each family can afford
Eligibility: Current high school juniors and exceptional sophomores

The Summer Science Program offers four different immersive research programs that take place on different college campuses around the country. These include programs in astrophysics, biochemistry, genomics, and synthetic chemistry. Each program has its own research focus. For example, astrophysics students will dive into Asteroid Orbit Determination while genomics students explore Antibiotic Resistance and Directed Evolution.

Students spend six days a week in class deeply investigating their research topics and learning more about general experimental science. They also take part in guest lectures and other special programming.

16) Texas Tech University Anson L. Clark Scholars Program

Location : Lubbock, TX
Cost : Free; all students receive a $750 stipend upon completion of their projects
Eligibility: High school juniors and seniors aged 17+ by the start of the program

The Clark Scholars Program is one of the only programs on this list with research disciplines in the sciences as well as the humanities. For example, current research areas include everything from nutritional sciences and mechanical engineering to history. Over the course of seven weeks, students work closely with a faculty member to complete a research paper in their discipline. They also participate in weekly seminars, discussions, and field trips.

17) University of California Santa Barbara Research Mentorship Program

Location : Santa Barbara, CA
Cost : $11,874 (residential); $4,975 (commuter)
Eligibility: High school sophomores and juniors

During this intensive program, students work 35-50 hours per week on an interdisciplinary research project of their choice. Nearly thirty research areas are available in both the STEM disciplines and humanities; current topics include biochemistry, computer science, history, music, and anthropology, among others. Over the course of the program, they also take two courses: Introduction to Research and Presentation Techniques. Finally, students occasionally continue their research remotely during the academic year, depending on their mentor’s availability.

18) University of California Santa Barbara Summer Research Academies

Cost : $8,224 (residential); $2,575 (commuter)
Eligibility: High school sophomores, juniors, and seniors

Running for four weeks, the UCSB Summer Research Academies allow students to earn up to four credits. While taking a university-level course that teaches fundamental research concepts, students spend the first two weeks of the program developing a research question & framework via hands-on labs. They’ll then spend the final two weeks of the course analyzing their results and building presentations. Overall, they’ll spend about 25-40 hours per week working. Finally, twelve different tracks are available; each involves multiple disciplines. For example, “Bionic Creatures” combines mechanical engineering, materials science, soft robotics, biomanufacturing, and collective motion.

19) University of California Santa Cruz Science Internship Program (SIP)

Location : Santa Cruz, CA
Length: 9 weeks (two weeks virtual, seven weeks in-person)
Cost : $4,750 plus room & board
Eligibility: High school students aged 14+, although some research groups require students to be 16+

UCSC’s SIP Program offers a wide range of research focus areas, including science and engineering as well as social science, humanities, and art. For example, over 100 projects are currently offered that include everything from “Eating Insects in Silicon Valley: Cultural Gaps Between Food-Tech and Tradition” and “Future Projected Changes in the Distribution and Variability of Ocean Chlorophyll in Climate Simulations.” Before you dive in, you’ll spend two weeks doing online research prep (this part is conducted remotely) followed by seven weeks of in-person, mentored research. Students get to engage in authentic, open-ended projects that fully immerse them in the academic research experience. Moreover, they’ll present their findings at a symposium at the end of the program.

20) University of California Davis Young Scholars Program

Location : Davis, CA
Cost : $6,750
Eligibility: High school sophomores and juniors who will be 16+ by the start of the program

Interested in biological, agricultural, environmental, or natural sciences? If so, UC Davis is a stellar place to explore those interests through research. All students have the opportunity to work on independent, original projects while receiving one-on-one faculty mentorship. Moreover, they each produce a journal-quality paper and symposium presentation. In addition to research, students also participate in a lecture series presented by UC Davis faculty; past topics have included forensic entomology and nutrition, among others. Finally, field trips to educational facilities like the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Bodega Bay Marine Laboratory round out the experience.

21) University of Florida Student Science Training Program

Location : Gainesville, FL
Cost : $5,200
Eligibility: Rising seniors aged 16+

Thinking about a career in science, medicine, math, computer science, or engineering? UF’s Student Science Training Program could be the right fit. For thirty hours per week, you’ll work with a faculty mentor and lab team on university-level, ongoing research. Moreover, you’ll participate in a science lecture series as well as a UF Honors Program seminar class. Over the course of the program, you will write a research paper, present a poster, and give two oral presentations. Finally, social programming is included.

22) University of Iowa Secondary Student Training Program

Location : Iowa City, IA
Cost : $7,500

During this intensive and competitive program, students conduct research within small groups that are supported by a University of Iowa faculty member. There are twenty current active research areas, including chemistry, geography, neurology, orthopedics & rehabilitation, and religious studies. You’ll be working on your project approximately seven hours per day, attending classes in the evenings, and participating in structured activities on the weekend. Moreover, all groups will create and present a poster at the culmination of the program.

23) University of Massachusetts Amherst Summer Programs

Location : Amherst, MA
Cost : $3,636 (residential); $2,167 (commuter)
Eligibility: Rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors

UMass Amherst offers two introductory, research-focused opportunities for high school students. These are Antibiotic Resistance: A Global Health Crisis, which allows students to join the Department of Microbiology in researching new antibiotics, and Energy Without Borders, which delves into climate change, infrastructure, and green energy. In both courses, you’ll learn research methods, complete multiple lab experiences, and present a research poster. Finally, students can earn two college credits upon successful completion of the program.

Location-Specific Research Opportunities for High School Students

The following programs are not residential and only offered in a specific location. Many also only accept local students, although some do allow out-of-state students to apply. If that’s the case, you will need to secure your own living accommodations and transportation. Moreover, if you are under the age of 18, you will need to be supervised by a parent or guardian.

Programs are organized alphabetically by state.

24) California Academy of the Sciences—Careers in Science Intern

Location : San Francisco, CA
Focus: STEM
Length: Multi-year (2-3 years)
Eligibility: 9 th or 10 th grade student enrolled in an SFUSD school with a GPA of 2.5 or higher

25) Cedars Sinai INSPIRE High School

Location : Los Angeles, CA
Focus: Pre-Health
Cost : Free; all students are paid
Eligibility: High school students age 16+

26) City of Hope Summer Student Academy

Location : Duarte, CA
Focus: Biomedicine
Cost : Free; all students receive a stipend of $4,000

27) Sandia National Laboratories—Internships

Location : Livermore, CA
Focus : STEM
Timeframe : Academic year and summer internships available
Length: Academic year or 10-12 weeks (summer)
Cost : Free; all positions are paid

28) Scripps Student Research Internship Program

Location : La Jolla, CA
Focus : Translational science/genomics
Cost : Free; stipends are typically offered

29) UCSF SEP High School Intern Program

Focus : Biomedical research
Length: 8 weeks
Eligibility: High school juniors enrolled in an SFUSD high school, SF charter school, or College Track San Francisco

30) UCSF Summer Student Research Program

Location : Oakland, CA
Length: 9 weeks
Cost : Free; all students are given a stipend between $3,000-$4,300
Eligibility: High school juniors or seniors, aged 16+

Connecticut

31) jackson lab academic year fellowships.

Location : Farmington, CT*
Focus: Genetics
Timeframe : Academic year
Length: 1 school year
Cost : Free; students must be able to receive academic credit for their work
Eligibility: High school juniors and seniors age 16+ within commuting distance of the lab

*Some fully remote opportunities are available

32) Yale School of Medicine Discovery to Cure High School Internship

Location : New Haven, CT

33) Yale University Social Robotics Lab High School Internship

Focus: Robotics and human social behavior
Eligibility: Rising juniors and seniors aged 16+

34) Argonne National Laboratory — Exemplary Student Research Program

Location : Lemont, IL
Focus: Engineering
Eligibility: Application must be completed by participating teacher

35) Chicago EYES on Cancer

Focus : Biomedicine
Timeframe : All year, with two 8-week summer research experiences
Length: 2 years
Cost : Free; all students receive $3,100 stipend
Eligibility: High school sophomore, junior, or senior aged 16+

36) University of Kansas Biotech Research Apprentice Program

Location : Overland Park, KS
Focus : Biotech
Length: Semester

37) Jackson Lab Academic Year Fellowships

Location : Bar Harbor, ME*

38) National Cancer Institute Werner H. Kirsten Student Internship Program

Location : Frederick, MD
Timeframe : Academic year & summer
Length: 1 year
Cost : Free; academic credit available during school year, stipend provided in summer
Eligibility: High school junior age 17+ who attends an eligible school located within a 30-mile radius of campus

39) University of Minnesota Lillehei Heart Institute Summer Research Scholars Program

Location : Minneapolis, MN
Focus: Cardiovascular medicine
Eligibility: High school juniors and seniors age 16+ as well as undergraduate students

40) Coriell Institute for Medical Research

Location : Camden, NJ
Eligibility: High school student aged 17+

41) Princeton Laboratory Learning Program

Location : Princeton, NJ
Focus : Natural Sciences or Engineering
Length: 5-6 weeks

42) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory High School Internship

Location : Princeton, NJ*
Focus : Physics
Eligibility: High school seniors (program takes place summer after graduation)

*Remote projects may be available.

43) Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine and Science Summer Research Program (RITMS)

Location : Rutgers, NJ
Focus : Translational medicine/science

44) Rutgers Waksman Institute Summer Experience Program

Location : Piscataway, NJ*
Focus : Molecular biology/bioinformatics
Cost : $2,000
Eligibility: High school students who have completed a high school-level biology course

*Online version of the program is also available

45) Los Alamos National Laboratory High School Internship Program

Location : Los Alamos, NM
Length: 11 weeks
Eligibility: New Mexico high school seniors aged 16+

46) Sandia National Laboratories—Internships

Location : Albuquerque, NM

47) Baruch College STEM Research Academy

Location : New York, NY
Timeframe : Spring/summer
Cost : Free, but all students receive a stipend of $1,575
Eligibility: Must be a NYC public high school sophomore junior to apply

48) Burke Neurological Institute NeuroAcademy

Location : White Plains, NY
Focus: Neuroscience
Eligibility: Completion of NYS Regents Living Environment or equivalent Biology class; cumulative GPA of 3.4 or higher

49) City Tech College STEM Research Academy

Length: Two semesters (January-August)
Eligibility: NYC public school sophomore or junior

50) Columbia Zuckerman Institute—BRAINYAC Program

Eligibility: High school sophomores and juniors from select partner programs/schools in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx

51) HOPP Summer Student Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Focus: Biomedical or computational research
Eligibility: High school students aged 14+

52) University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics Summer High School Research Program

Location : Rochester, NY
Focus: Laser energetics
Eligibility: Rochester-area high school students who have completed their junior year

53) Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute

Location : Cleveland, OH
Timeframe : Varies; depends on lab
Length: Varies; depends on lab

54) OHSU School of Medicine Partnership for Scientific Inquiry (PSI)

Location : Portland, OR
Focus: Biomedical research
Timeframe : Academic semester + summer
Length: 16+ weeks
Eligibility: Oregon-based high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors aged 16+

Pennsylvania

55) fox chase cancer center high school research programs.

Location : Philadelphia, PA
Timeframe : During school year
Length: 2-3 months; depends on program
Eligibility: Philadelphia-area high school students; students must be 16+ for some programs

56) Penn State College of Medicine Research Internships

Location : Hershey, PA
Length: Varies; could be weeks to months depending on lab
Cost : Paid and unpaid internships available

57) University of Pennsylvania GRASP Lab High School Internships

Focus: Robotics
Cost : Free; stipend typically available
Eligibility: Rising high school senior

58) George Mason University Aspiring Scientists Internship Program (ASSIP)

Location : Fairfax, VA*
Eligibility: High school students aged 15+ or 16+, depending on program

*Some fully remote and hybrid opportunities are available, depending on the lab.

59) Jefferson Lab High School Summer Honors Program

Location : Newport News, VA
Eligibility: High school students aged 16+ who live within 60 miles of the lab

60) Virginia Tech Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Summer Research Program

Location : Roanoke, VA
Focus: Health behaviors research
Cost : Free; all students receive a stipend of $4,800
Eligibility: Rising high school junior or senior in the Roanoke Valley

61) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory High School Research Programs

Location : Richland, WA
Timeframe : Summer & academic year programs available
Length: Academic year or 10 weeks (summer)
Eligibility: High school students aged 16+; some labs may require students to be 18+

62) Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Training Program

Location : Seattle, WA
Eligibility: High school sophomores, juniors, or seniors within commuting distance of downtown Seattle

Final Thoughts—Research Opportunities for High School Students

If gaining research experience is important to you, it’s in your best interest to explore a number of different programs, evaluating whether their structure, length, cost, and outcomes are in line with your goals. Finding the right opportunity may take some time, but it will be well worth the effort required.

Research Programs

Kelsea Conlin

Kelsea holds a BA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from Tufts University, a graduate certificate in College Counseling from UCLA, and an MA in Teaching Writing from Johns Hopkins University. Her short fiction is forthcoming in Chautauqua .

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Academic search engines have become the number one resource to turn to in order to find research papers and other scholarly sources. While classic academic databases like Web of Science and Scopus are locked behind paywalls, Google Scholar and others can be accessed free of charge. In order to help you get your research done fast, we have compiled the top list of free academic search engines.

Google Scholar is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. It's the power of Google searches applied to research papers and patents. It not only lets you find research papers for all academic disciplines for free but also often provides links to full-text PDF files.

Coverage: approx. 200 million articles
Abstracts: only a snippet of the abstract is available
Related articles: ✔
References: ✔
Cited by: ✔
Links to full text: ✔
Export formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver, RIS, BibTeX

BASE is hosted at Bielefeld University in Germany. That is also where its name stems from (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).

Coverage: approx. 136 million articles (contains duplicates)
Abstracts: ✔
Related articles: ✘
References: ✘
Cited by: ✘
Export formats: RIS, BibTeX

Search interface of Bielefeld Academic Search Engine aka BASE

CORE is an academic search engine dedicated to open-access research papers. For each search result, a link to the full-text PDF or full-text web page is provided.

Coverage: approx. 136 million articles
Links to full text: ✔ (all articles in CORE are open access)
Export formats: BibTeX

Search interface of the CORE academic search engine

Science.gov is a fantastic resource as it bundles and offers free access to search results from more than 15 U.S. federal agencies. There is no need anymore to query all those resources separately!

Coverage: approx. 200 million articles and reports
Links to full text: ✔ (available for some databases)
Export formats: APA, MLA, RIS, BibTeX (available for some databases)

Semantic Scholar is the new kid on the block. Its mission is to provide more relevant and impactful search results using AI-powered algorithms that find hidden connections and links between research topics.

Coverage: approx. 40 million articles
Export formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, BibTeX

Although Baidu Scholar's interface is in Chinese, its index contains research papers in English as well as Chinese.

Coverage: no detailed statistics available, approx. 100 million articles
Abstracts: only snippets of the abstract are available
Export formats: APA, MLA, RIS, BibTeX

RefSeek searches more than one billion documents from academic and organizational websites. Its clean interface makes it especially easy to use for students and new researchers.

Coverage: no detailed statistics available, approx. 1 billion documents
Abstracts: only snippets of the article are available
Export formats: not available

Consider using a reference manager like Paperpile to save, organize, and cite your references. Paperpile integrates with Google Scholar and many popular databases, so you can save references and PDFs directly to your library using the Paperpile buttons:

Google Scholar is an academic search engine, and it is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. It's the power of Google searches applied to research papers and patents. It not only let's you find research papers for all academic disciplines for free, but also often provides links to full text PDF file.

Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature developed at the Allen Institute for AI. Sematic Scholar was publicly released in 2015 and uses advances in natural language processing to provide summaries for scholarly papers.

BASE , as its name suggest is an academic search engine. It is hosted at Bielefeld University in Germany and that's where it name stems from (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).

CORE is an academic search engine dedicated to open access research papers. For each search result a link to the full text PDF or full text web page is provided.

Science.gov is a fantastic resource as it bundles and offers free access to search results from more than 15 U.S. federal agencies. There is no need any more to query all those resources separately!

9 Undergraduate Research Projects That Wowed Us This Year

The telegraph. The polio vaccine. The bar code. Light beer. Throughout its history, NYU has been known for innovation, with faculty and alumni in every generation contributing to some of the most notable inventions and scientific breakthroughs of their time. But you don’t wind up in the history books—or peer-reviewed journals—by accident; academic research, like any specialized discipline, takes hard work and lots of practice.

And at NYU, for students who are interested, that training can start early—including during an undergraduate's first years on campus. Whether through assistantships in faculty labs, summer internships, senior capstones, or independent projects inspired by coursework, undergrad students have many opportunities to take what they’re learning in the classroom and apply it to create original scholarship throughout their time at NYU. Many present their work at research conferences, and some even co-author work with faculty and graduate students that leads to publication.

As 2023-2024 drew to a close, the NYU News team coordinated with the Office of the Provost to pull together a snapshot of the research efforts that students undertook during this school year. The nine featured here represent just a small fraction of the impressive work we encountered in fields ranging from biology, chemistry, and engineering to the social sciences, humanities, and the arts.

These projects were presented at NYU research conferences for undergrads, including Migration and Im/Mobility , Pathways for Discovery: Undergraduate Research and Writing Symposium , Social Impact: NYU’s Applied Undergraduate Research Conference , Arts-Based Undergraduate Research Conference , Gallatin Student Research Conference , Dreammaker’s Summit , Tandon’s Research Excellence Exhibit , and Global Engagement Symposium . Learn more about these undergrad research opportunities and others.

Jordan Janowski (CAS '24)

Sade Chaffatt (NYU Abu Dhabi '24)

Elsa Nyongesa (GPH, CAS ’24 )

Anthony Offiah (Gallatin ’26)

Kimberly Sinchi (Tandon ’24) and Sarah Moughal (Tandon ’25)

Rohan Bajaj (Stern '24)

Lizette Saucedo (Liberal Studies ’24)

Eva Fuentes (CAS '24)

Andrea Durham (Tandon ’26)

Jordan Janowski (CAS ’24) Major: Biochemistry Thesis title: “Engineering Chirality for Functionality in Crystalline DNA”

Jordan Janowski (CAS '24). Photo by Tracey Friedman

I work in the Structural DNA Nanotechnology Lab, which was founded by the late NYU professor Ned Seeman, who is known as the father of the field. My current projects are manipulating DNA sequences to self-assemble into high order structures.

Essentially, we’re using DNA as a building material, instead of just analyzing it for its biological functions. It constantly amazes me that this is possible.

I came in as a pre-med student, but when I started working in the lab I realized that I was really interested in continuing my research there. I co-wrote a paper with postdoc Dr. Simon Vecchioni who has been a mentor to me and helped me navigate applying to grad school. I’m headed to Scripps Research in the fall. This research experience has led me to explore some of the molecules that make up life and how they could be engineered into truly unnatural curiosities and technologies.

My PI, Prof. Yoel Ohayon , has been super supportive of my place on the NYU women’s basketball team, which I’m a member of. He’s been coming to my games since sophomore year, and he’ll text me with the score and “great game!”— it’s been so nice to have that support for my interests beyond the lab.

Anthony Offiah (Gallatin ’26) Concentration: Fashion design and business administration MLK Scholars research project title: “project: DREAMER”

Anthony Offiah (Gallatin '26). Photo by Tracey Friedman

In “project: DREAMER,” I explored how much a person’s sense of fashion is a result of their environment or societal pressures based on their identity. Certain groups are pressured or engineered to present a certain way, and I wanted to see how much of the opposing force—their character, their personality—affected their sense of style.

This was a summer research project through the MLK Scholars Program . I did ethnographic interviews with a few people, and asked them to co-design their ideal garments with me. They told me who they are, how they identify, and what they like in fashion, and we synthesized that into their dream garments. And then we had a photo shoot where they were empowered to make artistic choices.

Some people told me they had a hard time conveying their sense of style because they were apprehensive about being the center of attention or of being dissimilar to the people around them. So they chose to conform to protect themselves. And then others spoke about wanting to safeguard the artistic or vulnerable—or one person used the word “feminine”—side of them so they consciously didn’t dress how they ideally would.

We ended the interviews by stating an objective about how this co-designing process didn’t end with them just getting new clothes—it was about approaching fashion differently than how they started and unlearning how society might put them in a certain box without their approval.

My concentration in Gallatin is fashion design and business administration. In the industry some clothing is critiqued and some clothing is praised—and navigating that is challenging, because what you like might not be well received. So doing bespoke fashion for just one person is freeing in a sense because you don’t have to worry about all that extra stuff. It’s just the art. And I like being an artist first and thinking about the business second.

Lizette Saucedo (Global Liberal Studies ’24) Major: Politics, rights, and development Thesis title: “Acknowledging and Remembering Deceased Migrants Crossing the U.S.-Mexican Border”

Lizette Saucedo (Global Liberal Studies '24). Photo by Tracey Friedman

My thesis project is on commemorating migrants who are dying on their journey north to cross the U.S.–Mexican border. I look at it through different theoretical lenses, and one of the terms is necropolitics—how politics shapes the way the State governs life and especially death. And then of the main issues aside from the deaths is that a lot of people in the U.S. don’t know about them, due to the government trying to eschew responsibility for migrant suffering. In the final portion of the thesis, I argue for presenting what some researchers call “migrant artifacts”—the personal belongings left behind by people trying to cross over—to the public, so that people can become aware and have more of a human understanding of what’s going on.

This is my senior thesis for Liberal Studies, but the idea for it started in an International Human Rights course I took with professor Joyce Apsel . We read a book by Jason De León called The Land of the Open Graves , which I kept in the back of my mind. And then when I studied abroad in Germany during my junior year, I noticed all the different memorials and museums, and wondered why we didn’t have the equivalent in the U.S. My family comes from Mexico—my parents migrated—and ultimately all of these interests came together.

I came into NYU through the Liberal Studies program and I loved it. It’s transdisciplinary, which shaped how I view my studies. My major is politics, rights, and development and my minor is social work, but I’ve also studied museum studies, and I’ve always loved the arts. The experience of getting to work one-on-one on this thesis has really fortified my belief that I can combine all those things.

Sade Chaffatt (Abu Dhabi ’24) Major: Biology Thesis title: “The Polycomb repressive component, EED in mouse hepatocytes regulates liver homeostasis and survival following partial hepatectomy.”

Sade Chaffatt (NYU Abu Dhabi '24). Photo courtesy of NYUAD

Imagine your liver as a room. Within the liver there are epigenetic mechanisms that control gene expression. Imagine these epigenetic mechanisms as a dimmer switch, so that you could adjust the light in the room. If we remove a protein that is involved in regulating these mechanisms, there might be dysregulation—as though the light is too bright or too dim. One such protein, EED, plays a crucial role in regulating gene expression. And so my project focuses on investigating whether EED is required in mouse hepatocytes to regulate liver homeostasis and to regulate survival following surgical resection.

Stepping into the field of research is very intimidating when you’re an undergraduate student and know nothing. But my capstone mentor, Dr. Kirsten Sadler , encourages students to present their data at lab meetings and to speak with scientists. Even though this is nerve-wracking, it helps to promote your confidence in communicating science to others in the field.

If you’d asked 16-year-old me, I never would’ve imagined that I’d be doing research at this point. Representation matters a lot, and you often don't see women—especially not Black women—in research. Being at NYUAD has really allowed me to see more women in these spaces. Having had some experience in the medical field through internships, I can now say I’m more interested in research and hope to pursue a PhD in the future.

Kimberly Sinchi (Tandon ’24) Major: Computer Science Sarah Moughal (Tandon ’25) Major: Computer Science Project: Robotic Design Team's TITAN

Sarah Moughal (Tandon '25, left) and Kimberly Sinchi (Tandon '24). Photo by Tracey Friedman

Kimberly: The Robotic Design Team has been active at NYU for at least five years. We’re 60-plus undergrad and grad students majoring in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, and integrated design. We’ve named our current project TITAN because of how huge it is. TITAN stands for “Tandon’s innovation in terraforming and autonomous navigation.”

Sarah: We compete in NASA’s lunatics competition every year, which means we build a robot from scratch to be able to compete in lunar excavation and construction. We make pretty much everything in house in the Tandon MakerSpace, and everyone gets a little experience with machining, even if you're not mechanical. A lot of it is about learning how to work with other people—communicating across majors and disciplines and learning how to explain our needs to someone who may not be as well versed in particular technologies as we are.

Kimberly: With NYU’s Vertically Integrated Project I’ve been able to take what I was interested in and actually have a real world impact with it. NASA takes notes on every Rover that enters this competition. What worked and what didn’t actually influences their designs for rovers they send to the moon and to Mars.

Eva Fuentes (CAS ’24) Major: Anthropology Thesis title: “Examining the relationship between pelvic shape and numbers of lumbar vertebrae in primates”

Eva Fuentes (CAS '24). Photo by Tracey Friedman

I came into NYU thinking I wanted to be an art history major with maybe an archeology minor. To do the archeology minor, you have to take the core classes in anthropology, and so I had to take an intro to human evolution course. I was like, this is the coolest thing I’ve learned—ever. So I emailed people in the department to see if I could get involved.

Since my sophomore year, I’ve been working in the Evolutionary Morphology Lab with Scott Williams, who is primarily interested in the vertebral column of primates in the fossil record because of how it can inform the evolution of posture and locomotion in humans.

For my senior thesis, I’m looking at the number of lumbar vertebrae—the vertebrae that are in the lower back specifically—and aspects of pelvic shape to see if it is possible to make inferences about the number of lumbar vertebrae a fossil may have had. The bones of the lower back are important because they tell us about posture and locomotion.

I committed to a PhD program at Washington University in St. Louis a few weeks ago to study biological anthropology. I never anticipated being super immersed in the academic world. I don’t come from an academic family. I had no idea what I was doing when I started, but Scott Williams, and everyone in the lab, is extremely welcoming and easy to talk to. It wasn't intimidating to come into this lab at all.

Elsa Nyongesa (GPH, CAS ’24 ) Major: Global Public Health and Biology Project: “Diversity in Breast Oncological Studies: Impacts on Black Women’s Health Outcomes”

Elsa Nyongesa (GPH, CAS '24). Photo by Tracey Friedman

I interned at Weill Cornell Medicine through their Travelers Summer Research Fellowship Program where I worked with my mentor, Dr. Lisa Newman, who is the head of the International Center for the Study of Breast Cancer Subtypes. I analyzed data on the frequency of different types of breast cancer across racial and ethnic groups in New York. At the same time, I was also working with Dr. Rachel Kowolsky to study minority underrepresentation in clinical research.

In an experiential learning course taught by Professor Joyce Moon Howard in the GPH department, I created a research question based on my internship experience. I thought about how I could combine my experiences from the program which led to my exploration of the correlation between minority underrepresentation in breast oncological studies, and how it affects the health outcomes of Black women with breast cancer.

In my major, we learn about the large scope of health disparities across different groups. This opportunity allowed me to learn more about these disparities in the context of breast cancer research. As a premedical student, this experience broadened my perspective on health. I learned more about the social, economic, and environmental factors influencing health outcomes. It also encouraged me to examine literature more critically to find gaps in knowledge and to think about potential solutions to health problems. Overall, this experience deepened my philosophy of service, emphasizing the importance of health equity and advocacy at the research and clinical level.

Rohan Bajaj (Stern ’24) Major: Finance and statistics Thesis title: “Measuring Socioeconomic Changes and Investor Attitude in Chicago’s Post-Covid Economic Recovery”

Rohan Bajaj (Stern '24). Photo by Tracey Friedman

My thesis is focused on understanding the effects of community-proposed infrastructure on both the socioeconomic demographics of cities and on fiscal health. I’m originally from Chicago, so it made a lot of sense to pay tribute back to the place that raised me. I’m compiling a list of characteristics of infrastructure that has been developed since 2021 as a part of the Chicago Recovery Plan and then assessing how neighborhoods have changed geographically and economically.

I’m looking at municipal bond yields in Chicago as a way of evaluating the fiscal health of the city. Turns out a lot of community-proposed infrastructure is focused in lower income areas within Chicago rather than higher income areas. So that makes the research question interesting, to see if there’s a correlation between the proposed and developed infrastructure projects, and if these neighborhoods are being gentrified alongside development.

I kind of stumbled into the impact investing industry accidentally from an internship I had during my time at NYU. I started working at a renewable energies brokerage in midtown, where my main job was collecting a lot of market research trends and delivering insights on how these different energy markets would come into play. I then worked with the New York State Insurance Fund, where I helped construct and execute their sustainable investment strategy from the ground up.

I also took a class called “Design with Climate Change” with Peter Anker in Gallatin during my junior year, and a lot of that class was focused on how to have climate resilient and publicly developed infrastructure, and understanding the effects it has on society. It made me start thinking about the vital role that physical surroundings play in steering communities.

In the short term I want to continue diving into impact-focused investing and help identify urban planners and city government to develop their communities responsibly and effectively.

Andrea Durham (Tandon, ’26) Major: Biomolecular science Research essay title: “The Rise and Fall of Aduhelm”

Andrea Durham (Tandon '26). Photo by Tracey Friedman

This is an essay I wrote last year in an advanced college essay writing class with Professor Lorraine Doran on the approval of a drug for Alzheimer’s disease called Aduhelm—a monoclonal antibody therapy developed by Biogen in 2021, which was described as being momentous and groundbreaking. But there were irregularities ranging from the design of its clinical trials to government involvement that led to the resignation of three scientists on an advisory panel, because not everybody in the scientific community agreed that it should be approved.

When I was six years old, my grandmother was diagnosed. Seeing the impact that it had over the years broke my heart and ignited a passion in me to pursue research.

When I started at NYU, I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do in the future, or what opportunities I would go after. This writing class really gave me an opportunity to reflect on the things that were important to me in my life. The September after I wrote this paper, I started volunteering in a lab at Mount Sinai for Alzheimer's disease research, and that’s what I’m doing now—working as a volunteer at the Center for Molecular Integrative Neuroresilience under Dr. Giulio Pasinetti. I have this opportunity to be at the forefront, and because of the work I did in my writing class I feel prepared going into these settings with an understanding of the importance of conducting ethical research and working with integrity.

Diving Deeper into Postsecondary Value, IHEP Research Series Explores Equity and Economic Outcomes

Washington, DC (May 29, 2024) –   Higher education has long been recognized as a key driver of economic opportunity, but new research, spearheaded by the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), is diving deeper into questions of postsecondary value and equity. The “Elevating Equitable Value: Investigating Economic Outcomes of Postsecondary Education” series, informed by data from the Equitable Value Explorer tool along with state-level data, surveys, and additional sources, is exploring pressing questions about postsecondary value. Research released today by Trellis Strategies, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), Wayne State University, and the Research Institute at Dallas College completes the seven-paper series.

“Earning a college degree can change the trajectory of students’ lives, their families, and their communities, for generations to come, but the benefits are not evenly distributed,” said IHEP President Mamie Voight . “By unpacking the nuances of value delivery across different contexts, this research strengthens the evidence-base showing that college is worth the investment. It also can inform policymakers and institutions about targeted strategies to improve the returns on postsecondary education for all students.”

Field-based researchers across the country built on the work of the Postsecondary Value Commission by exploring critical questions on post-college outcomes in their own specific context:

How Can Policy and Practice Shape Equitable Value?

Several papers in the series explored how institutional policy and practice can ensure all students benefit from a college degree. Research by Trellis Strategies underscores the connection between student financial well-being during college and future economic returns. A ten-percentage-point decrease in the number of students experiencing financial instability during college was correlated with higher economic returns to students, especially at four-year public schools. The authors highlight the importance of programs that expand access to emergency aid, promote financial literacy, and enhance transparency around college costs and financial aid options.

A study by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) found that all 33 institutions participating in their Student Success Equity Intensive program had earnings that exceeded the Postsecondary Value Commission’s minimum economic return threshold, but equity gaps persist. Institutions serving a larger proportion of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students or Pell Grant recipients saw a smaller economic return – the amount by which earnings exceed those of a typical high school graduate, plus the cost of their education – demonstrating the need for continued efforts to promote student success and the financial value of college degrees.

Another key finding shows a strong link between faculty composition and student outcomes. Research by Frederick Tucker of the City University of New York reveals that institutions with more tenured or tenure-track faculty, alongside a smaller proportion of full-time adjuncts, see stronger economic returns for students. This is particularly true at Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) and colleges serving a large share of Pell Grant recipients.

How Does Postsecondary Value Differ By and Within States?

The research in this series adds to our growing understanding of how certain states are delivering value. For example, a project by Wayne State University found that while postsecondary education generally leads to higher earnings in Michigan, disparities exist. Public, four-year universities in the state provided the highest economic return, exceeding the minimum threshold by over $22,000, while most other types of institutions in the state offered a smaller but still positive return. Michigan ranked high nationally in terms of the amount that students’ earnings typically exceed the minimum economic return threshold, despite having a moderate ranking in median post-college earnings.

The Research Institute at Dallas College’s analysis paired data from the Equitable Value Explorer with state longitudinal data to measure the economic return at more than 500 Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) nationwide, in addition to outcomes for all Hispanic students in Texas. Overall, economic returns were positive for Hispanic students, but disparities persisted even within Hispanic communities, particularly for immigrants, those from low-income backgrounds and women.

What is the Role of Geography in the Postsecondary Value Equation?

Location plays a significant role in education options and economic returns. Two papers in the series examined the geographic dimension of value. The American Institutes for Research’s study found that community college students generally earn more after college than those with only a high school diploma in their region. However, community colleges serving a higher percentage of underrepresented students tend to deliver a lower economic value, underscoring the need for additional support to ensure these institutions can effectively serve their students.

Boston College researchers’ analysis of rural-serving institutions (RSIs) found that while median post-college earnings may be slightly lower compared to urban and suburban institutions, RSIs are typically more affordable. The majority of RSIs still provide a positive economic return for students after factoring in these relatively low education costs, highlighting their vital role in expanding access to higher education in underserved areas.

IHEP is expanding and strengthening the community of researchers, practitioners and advocates exploring postsecondary value through an equity lens, by providing the tools necessary for researchers, associations, and institutions to tackle these critical questions. For more information about the Equitable Value Explorer, please visit: https://equity.postsecondaryvalue.org/

Supporting the Whole Student Through Holistic Advising: Reflections on ED’s Raise The Bar Summit

Investing in Student Success: IHEP’s Federal Funding Priorities for FY25

College students sit at tables with laptops and tablets.

How community colleges kept students engaged during and after the pandemic

Professor of Higher Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Disclosure statement

Xueli Wang receives funding from the National Science Foundation.

University of Wisconsin–Madison provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.

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When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it prompted enrollment drops at community and technical colleges. But it also spurred the schools to innovate in an effort to better serve students who might otherwise fall through the cracks. Xueli Wang, a professor of higher education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, captures some of the steps that community colleges took in her newly released book, “ Delivering Promise: Equity-Driven Educational Change and Innovation in Community and Technical Colleges .” She expounds on a few examples in the below Q&A.

How did the pandemic change community colleges and technical colleges?

The pandemic prompted the schools to tackle some long-existing challenges. One of the things they began to do was form new partnerships with four-year colleges and universities.

In the state of Wisconsin, for example, the Wisconsin Technical College System and the University of Wisconsin System came together in 2021 to create the Universal Credit Transfer Agreement . The agreement outlines a core set of courses — up to 72 credits — that transfer within the two systems. This makes it easier for students, especially those who are not certain about what they want to study, to transfer from one system to the other, or more easily take classes in both systems as they figure it out. Before the pandemic, the systems were viewed as two separate ones with few options for transfer between them.

The transfer agreement happened in part because of steady enrollment declines over the years, which reached a breaking point when the pandemic hit and enrollment dropped 10% for the Wisconsin Technical College System and about 5% for the University of Wisconsin System .

This partnership was also facilitated in part by a shared focus on the welfare of students. As described by one educator: “This is the time to support students in their educational aspirations.” Previously, she said, administrators and educators in the two systems saw students as clients of either one system or the other. Now, she says, they have more of a sense of collective responsibility in serving them.

What other innovations took place?

One of the most striking involves efforts to create more holistic supports that address the range of challenges for students. These can include informational, financial and personal challenges.

A good case in point is the Student Resource Center at a community college in North Carolina. As with all schools in the book, I keep the identity of the school anonymous as part of the research protocol. Established by a team of officials from various units – such as financial aid, admissions and advising – the center’s purpose is to grant students greater access to support services. The center is led by a vice president and chief student services officer.

The center has everything students need in one place: a library, bookstore, food pantry, financial aid advising, course advising, admissions and registration. The center also has workstations for staff to connect with students, whether online or in person, and guide them to the support they need.

A student smiles while looking at her laptop while others do work at a table.

This innovation allowed the college to direct more students to nearby resources, even those most unlikely to seek help.

What’s the most interesting story that you found?

It would have to be the Science Pathway Program at Midwest Technical College – a pseudonym for one of the schools I mention in my book.

It was a program that embraced the idea that education is not a transaction, but seeks to develop the whole person. Yes, they prepare students for the workforce, but they also teach them how to use the science they learn in their everyday experience. For example, students can take their science learning and apply it to other courses by searching and interpreting information, as well as see the influence of science on decision-making in areas like politics, the economy and society.

To prepare students for employment, instructors work with industry partners so they are ready for careers like lab technicians. They may also prepare for careers in quality assurance in food, agricultural, chemical manufacturing and other fields.

On the education side, students take Organic Chemistry I and II. Completing these courses enables students to move into upper-level coursework in biological, chemical, environmental and other science majors. When students complete the program, they can transfer to one of the three public four-year institutions in the state to pursue their bachelor’s degree. Or they can directly enter the workforce.

The program boasts of higher-than-average graduation rates compared to other programs. Perhaps more importantly, graduates have a 100% employment rate in their field of study.

Science education
US higher education
Technical College
Community college
Higher ed attainment
Pandemic schooling

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Journal Highlights Math Research by Professor and Student

Evelyn Wallace and Chris Chong, headshots

The paper , "Modulation instability and wavenumber bandgap breathers in a time layered phononic lattice," is the result of a yearslong collaboration of Chong, Wallace, and two researchers at CalTech.

Their project focused on how pressure waves can be manipulated by materials. It began in 2021 with a theoretical component—which Wallace worked on for her honors theses, " Instability in a Time-Modulated Lattice .” She is now wrapping up a master's degree in applied mathematics at Columbia University.

Wallace said she reached out to Chong in 2021 to inquire whether she could assist him with a research project. She had excelled in his ordinary differential equations and partial differential equations classes, Chong said, and he was just launching a new research program. So he invited her to work as his research assistant in the summer, a partnership that extended through her senior year.

The work Wallace completed in the first stage of the research program was followed by numerical and experimental simulations, conducted by Chong and his Caltech teammates, which was then backed up with rigorous mathematical proofs in a follow-up paper. “It is a nice spectrum that goes from Evy's analytical computations to computer simulations, the laboratory, and to mathematical proof,” Chong said.

New Insights

Their April 11 paper is garnering attention because it opens new ground in the field of physical energy. Their project specifically focused on understanding how pressure waves are affected by media that varies over time. (Pressure waves, of which the most commonly known is a sound wave, are set off when a mass or object is compressed or decompressed by an external force, such as an explosion.)

Traditionally, researchers have experimented with pressure waves using media that vary in space while they remain constant in time.

For those who are not familiar with his field, Chong came up with a helpful analogy to explain his research, comparing the time-varying media he and Wallace studied to a floor, and the waves passing over the media to a person walking across that floor. “A traditional floor might have a pattern of alternating spots of rough and smooth areas,” he began. “As you’re walking across the floor, how your feet touch the ground will affect how you walk along it.”

In contrast, a medium that changes over time resembles a wacky floor in an amusement park fun house. Rather than having both smooth and rough patches, it is entirely smooth one moment before shifting to a rough surface, switching back and forth between these two patterns. “How you walk through that medium will be different than walking across a traditional floor,” Chong said.

Wallace's original calculations showed exactly where this system would be unstable, which is desirable. When a system is stable, “it means the amplitude of the wave doesn't grow,” Chong said, whereas an unstable system results in a wave that amplifies quite a bit.

“What Evy did was to tell us exactly what material parameters would be needed for that to happen, an exact formula for when and under what circumstances you get interesting instability,” he said. “Having a formula that exact is quite rare. Usually you have to approximate it or do some numerical simulations.”

By the way, the materials they studied aren't linoleum or wood panels or anything most of us would recognize as typical flooring materials. “Our experiment consists of magnets,” Chong said. They looked at variables such as the distance and strength of magnets, as well as the effect of dampening from air friction. “Each of those properties has a parameter that you can tune, so having a formula saying this combination of parameters leads to amplification is very helpful.”

What is of particular interest to researchers working in this area is how to maintain the force of a wave or signal, because over time, all waves degrade. Each electrical circuit, for example, needs an amplifier to work, Chong said.

“So when talking about the applications of our work, our system would act as an amplifier,” he added. “Based on what Evy did, you would know exactly how to make the material so that the wave would amplify.”

Possible applications

Though Chong and his team are working on a basic research level, in the long term, understanding the systems they are studying could lead to innovations in “acoustic logic,” Chong explained, which is like the logic underlying electrical circuits, but which don't use electricity but rather pressure waves. They could even help create a situation where “acoustic circuits” could operate with the use of ambient vibrations only, and thus avoid detection from sensors.

“We’re still doing work that is more fundamental,” Chong said. “But understanding how these systems behave could contribute to that the much-longer project of having a goal like that.”

Wallace's undergraduate work with Chong led to a research collaboration with a Columbia faculty member. With him, Wallace expanded Chong's one-dimensional study to two dimensions.

Starting this type of high-level research at Bowdoin, Wallace said, “synthesized everything I had learned at Bowdoin and learned about math in general.” She continued, “Doing research allowed me to take what I learned out of the classroom and apply it to something I could see in the the real world, and see how it would be very important and relevant.”

The journal, which is open access, and Bowdoin College provided support to cover the publication fees via the Fletcher Family Research Grant. Wallace's research was supported by a National Science Foundation grant and the Bowdoin Kaufman Family Fellowship .

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Study demonstrates the advantages of S/U grades for D.V.M. students

While S/U grading has been used at other institutions, it has not been widely applied at CVM, and the research team took advantage of the opportunity to explore the effects of an alternative system. Photo: Chris Montgomery/Unsplash

Researchers from the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) found that a satisfactory/unsatisfactory (S/U) grading system used during the early months of COVID-19 increased veterinary students’ well-being and time for self-care without sacrificing academic performance. According to their paper, published in the Journal of Veterinary Medical Education , D.V.M. students performed similarly on letter-graded and S/U coursework, offering the opportunity to consider alternative grading systems that support both students’ health and learning.

Research has shown that workplace burnout is prevalent among veterinarians, highlighting the importance of promoting well-being during training and beyond. “In our profession we have a responsibility to investigate ways to improve the lives of our D.V.M. students as they transition into their professional careers,” said study co-author and assistant clinical professor in the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences Ashleigh Newman ‘06.

Pandemic grading alternative offers research opportunity

After stay-at-home orders were issued in New York, Cornell temporarily offered an S/U grading system for the spring 2020 semester before returning to standard-letter grading in the fall. First author Kelly Lyboldt, D.V.M. ‘05, an associate professor of practice in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, said that professors were concerned about the impacts the rapid conversion to online courses might have on students’ stress levels and learning. The college ultimately decided to institute S/U grading for DVM students.

While pass/fail grading isn’t common in academia, human medicine programs have experimented with S/U grading since the 1960s to allay students’ anxiety. Studies showed that S/U grading positively affected students’ well-being without altering academic outcomes. Opponents have argued that alternatives to letter grades could undermine the rigor of medical training. Still, human medical students have received S/U grades on United States Medical Licensing Examinations since 2022, shifting the emphasis from numerical scores to clinical excellence and interpersonal skills.

While S/U grading has been used at other institutions, it has not been widely applied at CVM,, and thus the team took advantage of the opportunity to explore the effects of an alternative system. A cohort of veterinary students took a core course that spanned the spring and fall 2020 semesters, and faculty were able to compare the results of S/U and letter-graded classes. According to Lyboldt, the research team hypothesized that the S/U system would alleviate students’ stress over their GPAs without sacrificing motivation or academic success.

The team used academic performance data from the 2020 Foundation Course III — a two-part course on animal organ systems covering physiology, pharmacology, clinical pathology, and anatomic pathology — along with a questionnaire about students’ educational experiences and well-being during the course. While students received S/U grades for the spring 2020 course, administrative support kept track of their numerical and letter grades for both semesters, since a “Satisfactory” grade requires a final score above C –. Out of 118 students in the cohort, 68% responded to the questionnaire.

Gaining time for self-care while maintaining motivation to learn

In terms of academic performance, the grading system made little difference in students’ final numerical grades: 83.7% and 84.3% for the spring and fall 2020 semesters, respectively. Data also supported the team’s prediction that, without the pressure of achieving a particular letter grade, 95% of students reported redirecting some of their energy to achieving a healthier balance between academics and caring for their physical and mental wellbeing.

A majority of students saw S/U grading and the open-book exams that accompanied it positively.

One critique around S/U grading in educational literature involves motivation: will students still work hard if they’re not striving for a high GPA? Fortunately, students said their motivation to study was unchanged by the grading system. Around half of those who agreed that S/U grading contributed to their well-being on the survey reported improved learning and enjoyment of the material.

“A lot of us noticed our conversations with students in the spring S/U semester were drastically different than those in the fall,” said Lyboldt. “They seemed more curious about the material, and asked about content instead of points on a quiz.”

Not everyone enjoyed the temporary grading system. Almost 50% of questionnaire responders would have preferred a final letter grade in the spring 2020 class. The authors suspect that’s because grades are important for internships, and their spring 2020 grades would have enhanced their overall GPAs.

The future of S/U grading at CVM

While CVM isn’t throwing in the towel on letter grades, the college did move to S/U grading for fourth-year D.V.M. students performing clinical rotations. Foundation Course III is now hybrid, with weekly S/U quizzes and built-in reflection opportunities for graded assignments, along with a letter-graded final exam and letter for the final grade.

Eleni Casseri, M.P.H. ’19, D.V.M. ’24, took a hybrid version of Foundation Course III. “The pass/fail grading on the quizzes took a lot of pressure off me,” she said. “It wasn’t about whether I got 80% or 85%; it was about learning material because I’m going to be a doctor someday. I felt like I wasn’t just trying to pass another class.”

The research team also believes that S/U grading allows students the space for low-stakes failures and learning resilience. “Our veterinary students are very intelligent and motivated individuals,” said Kathryn D. Bach ‘04, M.S. ‘09, Ph.D. ‘19, paper co-author and lecturer in the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences. “We want them to focus on growing after their mistakes instead of stressing about impacts to their GPAs.”

Antonia Jameson Jordan, D.V.M. ‘99, Ph.D. ’08, is a senior lecturer in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and paper co-author who sees S/U grades within a larger context. “Our students have been pushing for years for the college to support their wellness,” she explained. “It’s great to find systems that support students’ learning, health, and ability to be great veterinarians.”

As CVM continues to examine and refine its curriculum, these findings will help in establishing approaches that optimize long-term learning and healthy habits for sustaining a lifetime of career satisfaction in veterinary medicine.

Written by Jennifer DeMoss

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“So, what experiments do you want to do?” Stanford Provost Persis Drell asked the classroom of first-year undergraduates.

Last quarter, Persis Drell (right), Theresa Iker (center), and Caroline Winterer taught Why College? Your Education and the Good Life . (Image credit: Courtesy Office of Development)

The question was posed during a seminar Drell recently co-taught, along with Stanford historian Caroline Winterer , last fall called Why College? Your Education and the Good Life . The course, which meets twice a week in small seminar sections, is the first of three classes that comprises Stanford’s newly restructured undergraduate requirement program, Civic, Liberal, and Global Education (COLLEGE).

For their Why College class that week, students had to read an academic review article about the influence of animal social hierarchies and stress. In the paper’s conclusion, the author asked whether some of the findings in the animal world could be applied to humans as well.

Drell asked the students to imagine they are researchers and how they might test and take further some of the author’s suggested applications. While the paper’s content was important to grasp, what Drell emphasized to the class of some 15 students was how imperative it is to ask questions, and to not always accept something as it appears to be.

A tenet of the COLLEGE program experience is to show students how to think for themselves and give them the skills to challenge assumptions and build arguments in thoughtful and effective ways.

Creating a shared curriculum and experience

Unlike previous iterations of the first-year requirement for students, COLLEGE is a shared curriculum. This quarter there are 1,055 undergraduates in 75 seminar-style sections who are taking Why College? Your Education and the Good Life.

In fall quarter, campus Provost Persis Drell co-taught a small seminar section of Why College? Your Education and the Good Life , the first of three classes that comprises Stanford’s newly restructured undergraduate requirement program. (Image credit: Courtesy Office of Development)

The syllabus for the class is the same – no matter what section a student is in, they are going to be reading identical materials. “We want students to have a shared intellectual experience,” said Dan Edelstein , one of the faculty directors for COLLEGE and the William H. Bonsall Professor of French in the School of Humanities and Sciences (H&S). “Students from different sections can still talk about themes, books, and assignments outside of class with their dormmates or friends.”

Classes are kept small to help encourage discussion and are taught by either a postdoctoral student or a faculty member from across the university – including campus leaders like Drell.

Drell is not the only campus leader teaching a COLLEGE seminar this quarter. Lloyd Minor, dean of Stanford School of Medicine , and Debra Satz, dean of Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences are both leading classes. As is Sarah Church, the Freeman-Thornton Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, who led the university’s Coordinated First-Year Committee tasked with reimagining the first-year experience at Stanford .

While COLLEGE aims to establish a unifying, intellectual experience for students, another objective is to reaffirm the value of a liberal education that empowers students to seek purposeful lives in and beyond their chosen majors and career. “Teaching a liberal education has evolved over the years,” Church said, “but the goal hasn’t changed, which is to provide students with a broad education and a broad set of perspectives to have them grapple with questions about education, citizenship, and ethics.”

Decisions to change the undergraduate course requirement grew out of Stanford’s Long Range Vision and came after an extensive, formal review period during the university’s long-range planning process that found, among several other things, students were typically not choosing a Thinking Matters course outside of their primary interest. COLLEGE builds on Thinking Matter s’ mission to stir intellectual curiosity by exploring a wide range of topics and perspectives. In May 2020, the faculty senate approved a four-year pilot phase of the COLLEGE program .

The first course in the COLLEGE sequence, Why College? Your Education and the Good Life, gives students the tools to navigate that journey and chart their own path. Students are encouraged to reflect on the place and purpose of college in their lives.

Church said she hopes that when students arrive at Stanford – after having gone through the intense pressure of applying and getting into college – they can “take a breath” to reflect on what they want from their education, away from demands they may feel from their family, friends, and peers.

“We want students to realize that they have a lot of opportunity, and some of the preconceived notions about what is important may not actually be true for them,” said Church, who is also the Pritzker University Fellow in Undergraduate Education. “They may want to pursue their education in a different way.”

Why College? Your Education and the Good Life aims to help put students on the path to self-discovery.

“There’s no box that we want students to fit into,” said Church.

But COLLEGE is not only about showing students how to make their experience at Stanford more meaningful. The program also seeks to encourage students to think deeply about their values and responsibilities as citizens and leaders, which are topics they explore in greater detail in the second and third quarters of the program.

In order to further cultivate the shared COLLEGE experience, a series of events and plenaries have been planned (Stanford’s Three Books program and author panels have been folded into the curricula). This quarter also saw the launch of the COLLEGE Faculty Fellow (CFF) Program, where a select group of the COLLEGE teaching faculty are paired to campus neighborhoods to bring additional programming into students’ residences.

This fall, four professors are bringing ideas and discussions that began in the classroom into dorms. The number could eventually increase to eight faculty members, with two in each neighborhood. This goal is being supported by a gift from Nehal Raj, ’00, MS ’00, who also endowed a lectureship to strengthen both H&S and COLLEGE .

Experiencing the process of inquiry

COLLEGE is also designed to help new students transition from high school into university. Students are also introduced to a diverse range of topics and authors to help train them to engage across disciplines and cultivate diverse skills.

In the course, Why College? Your Education and the Good Life , Stanford students were asked to reflect on the place and purpose of college in their life. (Image credit: Courtesy Office of Development)

There are readings from history, political science, philosophy, and the sciences – like the paper students read about the influence on animal social rank and stress, which was authored by Robert Sapolsky, the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor and professor of neurology and of neurosurgery at Stanford.

For some students, this was their first time reading a scientific article, and helping students get comfortable with new kinds of academic material is a learning objective of the course as well (in her seminar with students, Drell shared some of her own strategies to get through academic texts. One tip: start with the conclusion first).

The Sapolsky paper, which was paired with an excerpt from social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Happiness Hypothesis , was the basis for a larger question students were asked to contemplate that week related to the college experience: “Is higher education stressing us out?”

Drell found the Sapolsky paper a useful jumping-off point for inquiry – which was what she asked the class to ponder (the “what experiments do you want to do?” question).

She asked students to consider the question in small groups before reconvening to discuss it as a class. After chatting amongst themselves, students were eager to share how they would go about following up on some of the ideas in the paper.

Students deliberated amongst themselves back and forth, poking holes in arguments, peppering each other with questions, and at times, challenging assumptions – their own and those in the paper.

For example, they discussed how to study human socioeconomic status. A student wondered how to measure rank in the human world where one’s position in society is not always about economics, but also about reputation and respect.

The students also talked about ways to measure stress – a topic covered in the scientific paper – in people. One student pointed out that stress is a very personal, subjective experience; people handle it very differently.

In response, another student suggested looking at the hormones associated with stress. Yet, another added that those could also be compared against dopamine or serotonin, the hormones associated with happiness. He said people are used to certain amounts and therefore, changes to those levels could be evaluated. “That’s the delta and the derivatives there,” said Drell, giving names to the methodological approach the student suggested.

Throughout their lively discussion, which lasted about twenty minutes, students raised a range of other issues as well, from the effects of addiction to poverty. They also brought up other readings and research they had encountered, from classes and elsewhere.

The class appeared to be at ease with Drell, who has served as Stanford’s provost since 2017. Any nervousness they may have initially felt about being open and candid in front of the accomplished institutional leader seemed to have dissipated. Students frequently attended her dedicated office hours to talk about the course, but also life more broadly.

Critical thinking as a process and practice

What students were doing throughout their conversations was an example of critical thinking, Drell explained at the end of the class.

Winterer, the course co-instructor, further clarified to students what the word “critical” in critical thinking means. It is not to be confused with the other meaning associated with the word – expressing dislike or disapproval – but rather, the process of objectively analyzing and evaluating an issue in order to form a judgment.

“What we mean by critical is first identifying what someone is trying to say and what evidence they are using to defend their position,” said Winterer, chair of the History Department and the William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies in H&S.

It’s also about evaluating evidence being put forward. “Unlike a knee-jerk response, it’s a process of inquiry and a process of encounter with other critical minds,” she added. “That’s really what we’re trying to teach you in four years at the university – that learning is a process of inquiry, and it’s a process that can be learned.”

COLLEGE courses are taught by COLLEGE teaching fellows , who specialize in teaching in the interdisciplinary first-year requirement program. This fall, the fellows were joined by 11 faculty members, including Drell and Winterer, along with several lecturers from across the university. Assisting Drell and Winterer in the course is Theresa Iker , a PhD candidate in United States history.

Teaching with such accomplished faculty colleagues has brought her incredible joy, Drell said.

She spoke highly of the COLLEGE program from the perspective of an instructor during a faculty senate meeting last November. “It has been a fantastic experience. I have not had this much fun academically, probably it’s fair to say in decades,” she said. “I have learned so much. The students are fabulous. It has helped me realize that the narratives around what undergraduates may be like and their reluctance to have serious conversations or address challenging topics in the classroom couldn’t be farther from reality, for at least some courses.”

Students have already been asking about how to have the same kinds of deep conversations they have in class outside of it. The expanding COLLEGE Faculty Fellow Program will help foster deeper engagement with course materials beyond the classroom and within residences. In the meantime, Drell encouraged students to not just have opinions but to keep asking each other questions.

She encouraged students to challenge assumptions – both their own and that of others. “You’ve got to watch out for common sense,” she reminded the class.

Finally, Drell encouraged her students to always remain open to new ideas. “You can never know enough information. You can always learn from somebody else. Just taking those techniques, being a little conscious and thoughtful about it, is one of the goals of this course.”

Drell is also the James and Anna Marie Spilker Professor and professor in the School of Engineering, professor of materials science and engineering, and of physics.

This story is part of an ongoing, in-depth series by Stanford Report exploring the COLLEGE program .

Stanford faculty are invited to teach in COLLEGE and can find out more about it on the COLLEGE website here .

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