Families often look at College Admissions outcomes to evaluate whether a program like Polygence is worth investing in. For Polygence alumni, the benefits start even before college.
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What do students say about Polygence?
Tulane
My project taught me a lot about self-discipline and time management, two skills that have allowed me to succeed throughout college. I feel that my Polygence project taught me a lot about how to plan ahead for big tasks, how to deal with setbacks, and how to set realistic goals/deadlines.
Harvard
The opportunity to conduct mentor-guided research with Polygence in high school was highly formative in developing my interest in research and the life sciences, my college application process, and my decision to major in neuroscience.
Yale
Compared to school it was more in-depth, and a lot more focused on me. At school it’s more you check the box, you turn in the assignment. With Polygence it was more working toward actually learning… I felt more like I was doing it for myself.
USC
My Polygence mentor was incredibly supportive and always offered any resources to not only aid my pursuit of research and paper writing, but also to help in my college decision process and later research endeavors.
Stanford
I wanted a mentor who could challenge me and make sure my research was actually good quality. Working with someone who has real research experience completely changed how I approached my project—from the methodology to the ethics to the questions I asked.
Cornell
I really appreciated getting the full independence of writing a research paper and having someone that I could always ask questions and get feedback from. It really helped me grow and understand more about what I’m passionate about and what I want to pursue in college.
UC Davis
Being able to author a literature review in high school through Polygence was really empowering and helped me become interested in pursuing research in college. It taught me a lot of valuable skills in scientific writing and prepared me for writing long papers in college.
UC Berkeley
The project has taught me a lot in the areas of cancer biology and genetics. The guidance has helped me become more confident in working towards finding new solutions to solve scientific problems, even in my college career. It has also led me to work towards pursuing a career path in medicine as well.
Bowdoin
I know research is hard and frustrating sometimes. But Polygence gives you someone who is knowledgeable. These mentors are great people. If it wasn’t for my mentor, I wouldn’t be at Bowdoin or have the confidence I do now.
UC Berkeley
That project really sparked my interest in machine learning and computer vision. From that experience, I learned about different computer vision algorithms, and I’ve been able to explore them more at UC Berkeley. After my first project, I gained a lot of knowledge and even published a research paper.
UCSD
Participating in Polygence helped me become more involved in the scientific field, especially with research. The topic of my research project also influenced me for my major, which is microbiology, because I wanted to learn more about how biology works in microenvironments.
Stanford
Coming into my Polygence project... I was very interested in policy at the time. Thinking about ways to bring in the breadth of my knowledge across different areas really allowed me the ability, with the help of my mentor, to incorporate this wide range of perspectives and create something I was proud of.
Tufts
Polygence was a large part of my acceptance, as the research I did granted me acceptance into their Neubauer Scholars Program.
Northeastern
For me, researching at Polygence wasn't just some extracurricular—instead, it was an engaging hobby that I couldn't wait to work on after school.
Rice
Working on an independent research project fostered my lasting passion for psychology and neuroscience. The project, which focused on psychological disorders, strengthened my research skills and deepened my commitment to these fields.
UVA
I had a very meaningful experience working on my project. It was one of the first opportunities where I witnessed firsthand how machine learning can be applied to real-world data to predict outcomes and solve practical problems. What further enhanced the experience was having a Polygence mentor to guide me at every step.It made for a fun and interactive learning experience in spite of this being a new and unknown area to me.
UC Berkeley
My mentor helped me work through lengthy research papers, breaking them down to find what I needed. She also helped me with the art side of my project. Her feedback was honest and helpful, and I really appreciated her guidance.
Brown
The students who stand out aren't the ones checking every box—they're the ones who pursue something they're genuinely passionate about. Polygence gave me the chance to explore an idea that genuinely mattered to me—and that project ended up shaping both my college application and the direction I wanted to take my education.
UC Berkeley
The idea that you can do anything, or you can have an effect on a really big problem or in a really big world, is something that I really developed through Polygence and with my mentor. We would go through papers together, and I could discuss my ideas and bounce them off of her.
UCLA
This was my first time doing any sort of research, and I had no idea what a literature review was. Polygence allowed me to dip my toes into it. Doing the literature review project in high school inspired me to do more in psychology, and it led me to where I am now.
Cornell
Polygence was just sort of an extension of a passion of mine that I felt like was finally being seen. I’ve always really loved what Polygence has brought me, and so it felt like it had, like, a huge ripple effect on my life.
Brown
Polygence was kind of this perfect transition from the academic level of my high school to where I hoped to see myself in college, engaging in real, meaningful research and creating a very long paper that I ended up being super proud of. Every step of the process will, in some capacity, benefit you in the future, even if you don’t realize it in the moment.
MIT
The great thing about Polygence is that my mentor and I don’t just have to focus our conversations on the project or learning. He helps me make decisions and advance my knowledge of the field. Overall, it’s more than just, ‘Here, learn this, do this.’ There’s a lot of personal connection between me and my mentor.
UPenn
Polygence helped bridge the gap between being assigned work in school and learning to take initiative. Even though the projects are student-driven, there's always a constant support system.