Review on Harvard OpenBio SRI
I’m thought I’d share my honest review of this program bc I saw so many conflicting posts, so hopefully I can help anyone who is interested in applying for next year.
I applied for SRI on a whim. I had tried for so many other summer programs and got denied for all of them. SRI was open a bit later than most programs. And honestly, I didn’t spend a ton of time on the essays, probably because they were similar to essays I had written for other summer programs. So I submitted and forgot about it, pretty much assuming I wouldn’t get this either.
So I was pretty surprised when I got the email that said I was accepted, and even more so when I saw it was an under 5% acceptance rate. So it was a stroke of good fortune that I really needed.
The program is 8 weeks long, totally virtual. I think a lot of your outcome is based on the mentor you are assigned. They are not necessarily from Harvard. But i think they must do a good job of finding committed mentors because mine was amazing. I met with him over zoom a few times a week, and he really leaned in and helped me figure out how to ask the right questions, conduct the actual analysis, and write the paper. He gave me a list of topics to choose from, and he said he was determined to help me get the most out of this study.
Beyond the research, there were are few speakers that talked to the entire cohort over the course of the 8 weeks. That was good just to hear from them, but it wasn’t anything earth shattering.
Then the final week culminated in small group presentations. I was on the original research track, but there’s a separate track for literature reviews. From these, SRI chooses the top five papers to be published in a STEM journal, and the rest of the cohort gets their abstracts published. I don’t think they’ve released the winners for this summer yet. Or if they have, I wasn’t one of them because I personally haven’t heard haha.
All in all, it was truly a great experience. I think my end product is compelling, and I’m going to try to see if I can maybe do a variation of it as an independent project this year. My mentor was fantastic. He was a mentor last year too, so he understood what I wanted to get out of it, and he helped me get there. The topic was exactly up my alley in terms of what I want to go to college for, so that helps build my story in the application process too. And it’s totally free! That was the best part for me - it’s not pay to play, so it feels like true academic research that is meaningful. The mentors get their name on the papers too, so they obviously want it to be strong and innovative.
The only negative thing I would say is that it’s entirely remote. I wish I could have met the other kids doing it too. But maybe this is a good thing? I was able to work a part time job and make it to all of my school sports practices this summer, so I guess not overly terrible that it was off-site. But still - would have been cool to meet in person for the presentations even. Oh another negative - acceptances didn’t come out until the end of May. I wish it was in March or April, along with other summer acceptances. Because, once I didn’t get anything else, I panic cold emailed some professors and lined up a few other research options for the summer, then this came through in the 11th hour.
I know the program is fairly new, and there was a lot of frustration with how they rolled out the acceptances. I was a little concerned that it was one of those student-run research labs that is more to help the organizers build their resumes than a legitimate learning opportunity. But I was worried for nothing. And at the end of the day, don’t forget that it’s free (minus a small application fee) so you have nothing to lose.
All in all - I think this was so worth it to do. I have a few other research papers I’ve worked on with professors as comparison points. This by far is the most impactful research I’ve worked on to date.
Tl;dr:
Yes, the acceptance letter roll out this year was weird and frustrating. But he research was interesting and legitimate. And it’s free.
Definitely worth applying to for the summer.