Many freshmen at Schreiber who seek to challenge themselves academically make acceptance into the research programs a top goal.  But with the limited number of slots in Science, Math, and Social Science Research available, are these programs too restrictive?  Currently, through an extensive application process involving a test and an interview, thirty students from each grade—ten per program—are accepted into research.  Considering the recent uptick in Schreiber class sizes, is it time to increase the number of students accepted into these programs?

Part of the reason why the research classes are so small is because everything that students undertake, whether it be a new project, a mentorship, or even a specialized competition, involves a lot of feedback and support from their respective research teachers. 

“I think that research is something that requires a lot of one-on-one attention due to constantly evolving projects and situations.  This level of attention would not be possible in a larger class,” said senior Talya Pecullan.

Personalized feedback from the research teachers is of the utmost importance, as it can bring students’ projects to the next level.  Increasing the amount of students enrolled in research could decrease the amount of feedback each student receives, possibly hurting the quality of the research being done.

“Research is built on individualized instruction and resources.  It wouldn’t be possible to produce the same quality of work or projects if the students were in a larger class setting because instruction would no longer be individualized,” said senior Olivia Platt. 

Since the basis of the research programs is individual, specialized research projects, it would be difficult to change the classes to accommodate twenty to thirty people each—like most other classes do—without increasing the resources available for the research programs, such as by hiring more research teachers or rearranging the schedules of current ones to allow them to dedicate more time to research.

“For hands-on projects in Science Research, we have a budget for supplies, which at times can be limiting.  If the class size increases and the budget allotted per project decreases, this already sometimes limiting factor will be extremely restrictive and require projects to be simpler,” said senior Danielle Seidman. 

Part of the allure of the research programs is the freedom for students to propose and then carry out a research project of their own interest.  If students are unable to fund their projects, they might have no choice but to change or simplify them, which would restrict the possibilities of what they could accomplish through the research programs.  

Moreover, research students are already unable to compete in every competition available due to the limited number of slots granted to each school.  Expanding the research program would make these competition slots much more selective, which could lead some students to miss out almost entirely on the opportunity to enter their projects in competitions—which is currently a fundamental part of the research experience—despite being enrolled in the program. 

“In many of the research competitions there is only a certain number of slots available.  The number of already limited spots at these competitions wouldn’t necessarily increase with an influx of students,” said senior Emily Benson-Tyler. 

On the other hand, class sizes have been increasing—with the freshman class a whopping 444 students, compared to the approximately 400 students in the senior class—which means that the research programs have become more selective for younger grades, despite students being just as qualified as those in previous years. 

“Research programs should expand. I know that in other schools their research program is way more open than ours, and that hasn’t stopped them from being more successful even though they’re less selective,” said senior Jae Longaro.

Students from year to year should indeed have an equal chance of being selected for the research programs.  By this logic, changing the size of the program on a yearly basis would ensure that students would have a fair chance when compared to other years.  Although it would not be easy, Schreiber should consider adjusting the budget for the research program in the future to compensate for changes in the size of the student body.  

“I think the school should increase the size of the programs based on student population to ensure that between years, students have equal opportunities of participating in these programs.  According to that logic, this would also mean that if the student population decreased, the amount of students in the programs would also decrease,” said freshman Eva Franchetti. 

Even then, it is possible that there may not be an increase in the amount of students allowed to participate in research competitions, given their limited spots, but at least a greater number of students would be afforded the opportunity to conduct research. 

Expanding the research programs while maintaining the integrity of the program would require an increase of resources, such as competition slots, class time, research teachers, and budget allowances.  While this is no simple feat, in the coming years, Schreiber should at the very least consider expanding the research budget, so that the growing student body could be accommodated without sacrificing the quality of the current research program.