Riya entered high school knowing she was interested in STEM, but not sure what exactly she wanted to focus on. She enjoyed math, physics and computer science —and like many students her age, began exploring her interests by watching YouTube videos in these areas (we recommend the Crash Course series as a great starting point!). She quickly began to realize that she was most excited by astrophysics and decided to dig deeper.

The summer between her freshman and sophomore years, she participated in the Columbia Summer Immersion Program in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Our takeaway is: summer schools are the beginning of a student’s journey, not the end. Summer schools are an effective way for students to learn the basics of a topic and to understand if they enjoy engaging intensively with it. For Riya, however, the next step was to apply what she had learned and do something with her growing knowledge in astrophysics!

She sought out QRI as a junior and participated in the 2021 Spring cohort. Her mentor, an astrophysics PhD researcher at Yale, assigned Riya academic readings on astrophysics and cosmology as a starting point. A discussion with her mentor about “inflation,” a theory in physics about the expansion of the universe, sparked an interest in learning more about the origins of the universe. Over the next nine weeks, Riya wrote an intensive literature review paper that synthesized material from more than 20 academic sources.

“The thing about astrophysics is that sometimes you don’t know what to search for on Google,” she said. 

She chose not to submit her paper to publications, but her research set her up well to develop two other academic extracurricular activities. The topics that came up during her research made for great content for a physics-focused blog that she founded and ran. She also built on her experience to start an academic society at her school that did activities in physics for other students. Research can help build other parts of a student’s profile, including leadership and community outreach.

Through high school, Riya had conscientiously built an interest and expertise in astrophysics that served her well in the college application process. As she explains:

“I touched on my experience in research when explaining my previous background with the subject I was applying for, to show demonstrated interest. I also used the recommendation letter to apply to all the universities. I also used the knowledge I learned through my QRI experience in my alumni interview, as well as to mention specific aspects about research at the universities I applied to as being points of interest (which I know because I had already touched on them in the research paper writing process).”

Riya thus built on her research to create community impact and demonstrate the talent and character needed to succeed at a rigorous intellectual community like the University of Pennsylvania.