There are a lot of great STEM oriented research programs for high school students to choose from. Programs have different focus areas, structures and varying degrees of competitiveness. 

Being accepted into a well-structured, competitive research program can open up a lot of opportunities for you. It’ll help you get a taste of advanced research, network with top professors and graduate students while giving your college application a much needed boost.

If you are particularly passionate about engineering, and science in general and are a New York City resident, then NYU’s ARISE program should definitely be on your radar!

What is NYU’s ARISE Program?

The Applied Research Innovations in Science and Engineering or ARISE program is offered by New York University’s (NYU) Tandon School of Engineering. It is a free seven-week, on-site, full time summer research program for high school students in the New York City area. Participating in ARISE will inculcate a solid foundation in STEM fields as they will engage you in cutting-edge research projects, professional development activities, and college-level coursework.

In this program, you will be working in a participating laboratory alongside NYU faculty and graduate students on real-world research projects. This hands-on experience will not only deepen your understanding of data collection, analysis, research practices, and the scientific inquiry process but also provide you with valuable skills that will serve you well in your future academic and professional pursuits. Additionally, the program includes workshops on topics such as scientific writing, public speaking, and college admissions, all of which are designed to prepare you for success beyond high school.

Who is eligible for ARISE?

To be eligible for the ARISE program, you must:

- be a high school student living in the New York City area - even if you are not an American citizen.

- be 10th or 11th grade. No exceptions.

- have completed at least one year of high school science and mathematics coursework.

Is NYU’s ARISE prestigious?

If you look as acceptance rates, it might not be the best indicator of prestige since the program only accepts New York City residents, so the pool you’re competing with is already pretty restricted, but you can expect a lot of students to be incentivized to apply because of the reputation, the fact that it is a free program and it provides a pretty good stipend!

The intense application process and the fact that only 80 or so students are shortlisted does tell you that it is moderate to highly competitive. 

If you have to look at the prestige value, we’d say it’s pretty high up there because of the type of the type of work you’ll be doing with a lab. It’s not mundane (to say the least) and you’ll be collaborating with faculty and grad students. You can be pretty sure that being an ARISE alumnus will elevate your profile significantly. College recruiters and admissions officers would look at an ARISE participant’s profile and know that they have worked on such impactful and complex projects. Take, for example, projects like the pricing algorithms of Uber and Lyft or on sustainable alternatives for solar panels. 

You know that you’ll be working hard because the program is clear on the rigorous and inflexible work hours - all signs of a very immersive and intense program. These type of programs typically impress admissions officers!

What’s the cost to attend ARISE?

Like we mentioned earlier, there is no cost to attend this program, and you’ll receive a stipend of $750.

How to apply to ARISE?

NYU follows a strict and highly competitive admissions process that involves the following:

1. An online application - this will require you to provide:

- Basic and demographic information

- Your cumulative GPA from the beginning of high school through the last marking period

- Your average grade (out of 100) in all your high school science and math classes, and the number of classes you have taken in these subjects

- Your preferred area of STEM Research - Engineering, Life Science, or Computer and Data Science

- A 1000-word essay on a provided prompt related to life experiences, passion about STEM, or interest in the ARISE program

2. Recommendation Letter - this should be provided by an adult who has consented to have their name associated with your application who has knowledge of your academic record, work ethic, and interests. This could be a teacher, counselor, mentor, coach or supervisor.

3. Lab Tours & Group Interviews - If you make it past the first shortlist, you’ll be invited to tour 6-10 labs most relevant to your preferred area of STEM research and be interviewed by the lab personnel.

4. One-on-one Interviews - If you make it past Step 3, you will have to rank the labs in your order of preference and then will be invited for one-on-one interviews with the lab personnel of up to 4 of your chosen labs. These are more of a learning opportunity rather than a grilling session, so if you make it this far it is more about clearly understanding the work you’ll be doing. At the end, you’ll have to again rank the labs you interviewed with, which will be matched against the labs’ own preferences.

If you make it through all this, congratulations, you’re in! If it seems a little bit confusing, we urge you to thoroughly read through the how to apply page and the FAQs in it.

How is ARISE structured?

You will be working at one of several participating laboratories in a full-time capacity - Monday to Friday, 9 am to 4 pm for seven weeks. The key dates for 2024 will be similar to the following for 2023 -

Application Opens: November 22
Application Closes: March 5
Recommendation Due: March 5
Notifications of Round 1 Selections: Week of April 10
Mandatory Lab Tours and Group Interviews: April 17 - 20
Notifications of Round 2 Selections: Week of April 24
Mandatory One-on-One Interviews: April 30 or May 1
Notifications of Match/Lab Placement: Week of May 8
Orientation: June 23
Program: June 28 – August 11

During the course of the program you will be working alongside lab personnel on real scientific research, akin to an internship, and you will be paid a stipend of $750 on successfully completing the program.

What type of subjects are available at ARISE?

ARISE covers a spectrum of subjects, ranging from anthropology to mechanical engineering. It is a STEM focused program. The streams are referred to as ‘labs’ and typically consist of two, complementary streams clustered together.

We highly recommend its offerings in the area of computer science and engineering, electrical and computer engineering, mechanical and aerospace engineering and biomedical engineering.

1. Computer science and engineering: If you are interested in the wider applications of computer science and data science, data analytics/visualization - this lab has it!

Ongoing projects: developing ranking methods that produce fair, diverse, and stable results; explaining data and models with "nutritional labels"; negotiating the privacy / transparency interface with the help of privacy-preserving synthetic data generation mechanisms; and helping determine winners in elections in cases where votes are incomplete or uncertain. 

What you can hope to work on: developing tools and collecting data related to the current projects.

2. Electrical and computer engineering: There are no fewer than four labs partnered with ARISE in this field, each of them focused on different specializations. Whether you want to work on the next generation of Internet technologies, machine listening, AI and robotics, or the future of circuit design, you will find it all here.

Ongoing projects: While the Centre for Advanced Technology in Telecommunications works on wireless networks and network security, the Music and Audio Research Lab works on endowing computers with listening skills. The ECE Machine Learning Lab pursues research at the intersection of machine learning, deep learning, and robotics, and the Laboratory for Nanoelectronics Research studies the physics of electronic materials and their application in building devices and circuits.

What you can hope to work on: You can expect to be researching testbeds to implement large scale network experiments, contributing to building, testing and deploying remote acoustic sensors, designing optimization algorithms for fast and efficient training of deep learning models, or working on electronics for interfacing with living cells.

3. Mechanical and aerospace engineering: There are 5 participating labs in this field - the Composite Materials and Mechanics Lab, the Mechatronics Lab, the Applied Dynamics and Optimization Lab, the Dynamical Systems Lab, and the Machines in Motion Lab. Essentially, if you want to work on anything related to robotics, mechanics, or dynamics, then these are the labs you should be applying to.

Ongoing projects: The CMML is focused on applying machine learning to microstructures of composite materials, while the Mechatronics Lab is researching the use of mobile devices to produce intuitive and natural interfaces for human robot interaction. The Applied Dynamics lab focuses on energetics of dynamic systems, the Dynamical Systems Lab conducts multidisciplinary research in the theory and applications of dynamical systems, and the Machines in Motion Lab develops novel algorithms based on optimal control and reinforcement learning.

What you can hope to work on: Working with one of these labs means you may be working on cybersecurity in additive manufacturing, integration of dynamics/control with numerical optimization, study the spreading of epidemic in cities, or fusion of multiple sensory information to make sense of the environment.

Considering Pros & Cons

If you’re still debating whether or not to apply, read on:

Pros:

1. You will gain research experience: You will be working full-time in a research laboratory on practical, real world projects alongside experienced personnel. This will allow you to fully absorb the scientific process of inquiry and its pragmatic application. Aside from the knowledge and experience itself, the program will help you understand what it means to be a STEM researcher and help you identify and work on your strengths and weaknesses.

2. You will have a lot of exposure to computer science, data science and robotics: Working at the labs ensures that you will be working alongside some of the smartest minds in your chosen field, on some of the most important and pressing subjects. Aside from the major laboratories that ARISE partners with, their own clientele consists of the world’s top firms and organizations. As a project member you will get the opportunity to interact with several researchers, industry experts, and potential mentors.

3. You will develop valuable skills: in the course of the program, you will be learning scientific writing, public speaking, and ARISE even provides two weeks of college advice and application workshops. This is in addition to the skills you will inevitably learn while working in the laboratories themselves. For example, Edwil Philippe salvaged e-waste to build a robotic fish, controlled with an interactive phone application, connected via bluetooth. Yarileldy Payano and Emma Pereira worked at the Privacy and Security Automation Lab on analyzing the use of misleading hashtags that further the spread of disinformation.

4. You will get to explore interdisciplinary areas: The program covers interdisciplinary topics and STEM disciplines such as Bio-and Molecular Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Robotics, Computer Science, AI, and Machine Learning via hands-on work in research labs.

5. You can boost your chances of getting into NYU (or a similar caliber university): We’ve researched the internet and gone through Reddit threads, and students who have gotten into NYU and attended ARISE do mention that it definitely gives the profile a boost. Given how rigorous the program is, we’d say it’ll give you a boost for your application, no matter which college you are targeting. 

6. You will pay no fees: ARISE is completely free of charge, making it an excellent option if you’re looking for opportunities without worrying about funds.

7. You will receive a pretty good stipend: since you will effectively be working like a full-time research assistant, you will earn a minimum of $750 on completing the program.

Cons:

1. You might not get accepted, it’s pretty competitive: the program is limited to only 80 spots and the application process is intense and competitive. Ensure that you have a backup option handy, as even with a solid profile there is no guarantee you’ll gain admission.

2. You’ll need to be fully committed: while not a con in and of itself, the full-time 9-5 nature of the program removes any possibility of exploring multiple opportunities over your summer. If you get in, you’ll be dedicating all your time to ARISE and the program cannot accommodate flexible work hours. Here’s a snippet from the FAQ section explaining what the day-to-day looks like:

3. You must be a New York resident: there is no remote option, no travel option - you absolutely must be living in the New York area to even qualify for applying. By ‘living in the New York area’ they mean one of five NYC boroughs (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island). You don’t need to be an American citizen. If you’re an international student or living elsewhere in the country, then this program is not for you.

Is ARISE worth it? Our review

In terms of experience, exposure, prestige, and cost, it is hard to recommend a better program than ARISE if you are passionate about STEM research. The fact that you will be working on real-life research projects at prestigious laboratories alongside experienced personnel places the value of this course at the highest level. Add to that the fact that it is free of charge, exclusive, and under the ambit of NYU’s prestigious Tandon School of Engineering means that if you’re at all interested in the STEM fields and research, then you should strongly consider applying. While ARISE is not strictly a gateway to NYU in and of itself, participants have reported that it has helped them with their successful application to NYU and with college applications in general, likely due to incredible exposure and skills gained during the course of the program.

So, if you’re a high schooler in the New York area with a passion for STEM and a drive to lead the cutting edge of science, then you should consider applying to NYU ARISE.

If you’re looking to build unique projects in the field of AI/ML, consider applying to Veritas AI! 

Veritas AI was founded by Harvard graduate students, and through the programs, you get a chance to learn the fundamentals of AI and computer science while collaborating on real-world projects. You can also work 1-1 with mentors from universities like Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and more to create unique, personalized projects. In the past year, we had over 1000 students learn data science and AI with us. You can apply here!

Image Source: NYU Logo