College tracks

Grade 9 — start one project

You are on one track. The project lasts four years. This year you start it and keep a log. The log is the start of the file you will send. Do not open a second project.

Every week, do four things inside that project:

1. Compute a quantity with units, state the uncertainty, and say what decision it supports.
2. Write one claim, two reasons, and one real objection. About one page.
3. Read one short original — a figure and its caption, a statute section, a schematic, or a specimen — and write what it says, separate from a summary.
4. Add to the log.

Finish these rungs on the First Principles ladder. Each one has a gate. The rung is done only when the gate is done.

1. Instructions a machine could follow
2. Loops and branches
3. Variables and state
4. Function as a black box
5. Balancing equations
6. The coordinate plane
7. Python: syntax and types
8. Python: files and automation

School courses beside the project: algebra and geometry. Add a lab science if the department you expect to name will examine it.

PhD on-ramp

Write a question and this sentence: “I would drop this question if I saw ___.” Start a log. Another person must be able to carry out the next observation from the log without asking what you meant. The field may stay unnamed this year.

Done when that sentence and a followable method are both in the log.

This week. Write one question you can test with a count, for example whether more of one insect appear at your site after rain. Add the sentence “I would drop this question if three visits showed no difference I could count.” Write the method so a stranger can do the next visit: where, when, what to count, and where to write the number. The field can stay unnamed.

Log for this week. Date. Question. Drop-sentence. Where. When. What to count. Where to write the number. Field (may be blank). Who could do the next visit from this page.

Grade 10 — predict, then revise

Same project as grade 9. This year you write the prediction before the next result, and you revise after someone disagrees. The first prediction stays in the log after you revise.

Every week, inside that project:

1. Predict a number with units, measure it, and write the gap. The first prediction stays visible.
2. Revise one claim after someone disagrees. Keep the strongest objection.
3. Annotate one short original. Quote the sentence, line, or feature that does the work, separate from your summary.
4. Add both results to the log.

Finish Deduction and Proof technique. The field may still be unnamed.

School courses beside the project: advanced algebra and trigonometry, into precalculus. Add chemistry if the department you expect to name will examine it.

PhD on-ramp

Carry out a method that can come out false: a measurement, a close reading, a proof, a dataset, or a build. Write the first result. Update last year’s drop-sentence if the result changed what would make you quit. If the method is a proof, produce a contradiction or an induction on a claim you have not been shown worked, and use the assumption.

Done when the result is written down, not merely planned.

This week. Do the count your grade 9 method describes. Three visits, three numbers in the log. Write whether you would still drop the question for the reason you named last year. If the method is a proof instead of a count, write a contradiction or an induction on a claim nobody has worked for you, and mark the line where the assumption is used.

Log for this week. Visit 1 date and number. Visit 2 date and number. Visit 3 date and number. Still drop the question? If a proof: claim, assumption line, contradiction or induction step.

Grade 12 — an artifact a stranger can grade

Same project. The artifact is what a stranger can grade. One reviewer has watched the work long enough to describe it.

Every week, until that note is the one you send:

1. Use the standard of proof the named department will examine, on the method already in the log.
2. Keep the claim in a piece a reviewer in that department can check against the sources.
3. Let a primary source carry the claim. A summary does not.
4. Write in the log what would change the conclusion.

Finish the rung phase the named department will examine.

School courses beside the project: the sequence the named department expects you to have started.

PhD on-ramp

Write the note a graduate reader can finish in twenty minutes: question, method, result, limitation, and what would change the conclusion. The reader from grade 11 is the person who can write about the work.

Done when the note contains all five parts and the limitation is a way the result could be false.

This week. Cut the note so a reader can finish it in twenty minutes. Five headings, in this order: question, method, result, limitation, what would change the conclusion. The limitation has to be a way the result could be false. Send it to the person who wrote the grade 11 paragraph.

Log for this week. Date. Five headings present. Limitation that could make the result false. Sent to the grade 11 reader (name).

What you send

The application is this project. By the time you apply, the file has these parts:

1. The grade 12 artifact for your track.
2. The log, showing the same question across four years and what changed.
3. A letter from the person outside your household who tried to break the work.
4. The course record this lesson names: calculus and the lab sequence where your track requires them. Also take the courses your desired college publishes as required. If one of those crowds out the project, add it around the project. Do not drop the lab line or the mathematics line to make room for an elective.
5. The undergraduate admission test that college requires, on the calendar that college publishes. If your track has a mathematics line, take the test after that mathematics is underway. This is not the medical-school, law-school, or doctoral test, and it is not a substitute for the project.
6. An essay that states the claim, the best objection, and what the project changed. It is not a list of activities.

What you enroll in

The first year of college keeps the next gate open. Add a course only when it serves that gate.

Once a week, in the hardest course you are in, take one problem the exam could ask. Close the notes. Write the diagram, the equation, or the rule before you look up the solution. Record whether you finished it and where the solution disagreed. That page is the log. A course you only follow in lecture is not done.

PhD on-ramp. The first-year sequence the named department requires for your method. In the first term, take the twenty-minute note to a research meeting. Do not add a second project to look broader.

Through the degree, to the gate

The first year is the start. The gate opens only if the later courses are the same kind of work.

PhD on-ramp. Years one and two are the department’s sequence for the method. By the junior year the note has a result the department recognizes, and the grade 11 reader, or someone in the department who has replaced them, has watched the work long enough to write about it. Doctoral admission is that note plus those courses. A second project does not help.