How Rishab Jain Built a College Application That Got Into Harvard, MIT, and Stanford

ScienceFair founder Rishab Jain was accepted to Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Duke, and Boston University. When students ask him how, his answer isn't "do more", it's the opposite. Here's his advice on building an application that actually stands out.

If you'd like to discover more about his research and science fair journey before he did his college applications, you can read Rishab's full story here.

Why Doing Too Many Activities Hurts Your Application

The most common mistake Rishab sees is students trying to do it all: a dozen clubs, every activity they can fit, a resume that's a mile wide and an inch deep. Top schools see thousands of those applications, and they blur together. Doing too much actively works against you.

The alternative is a spike, a single, genuine passion you go deep on, rather than a scattering of shallow involvements. A spike is what makes an application memorable, because it's specific to you. For Rishab, that spike was scientific research. Everything else in his application connected back to it.

Focus on One Standout Passion

Here's a simple test Rishab uses: can you describe yourself in one word, and does that word connect to your spike? He calls it your avatar. His was "curious." That single word captured who he was and pointed directly at the research that defined his application.

Your avatar is a filter. Once you know it, you can be intentional about what you take on: join the clubs and activities that genuinely interest you and add to your spike, and don't be afraid to drop the ones that don't. You're not collecting activities to look busy, you're building a coherent picture of one kind of person with a clear passion.

Tie Your Activities Into One Cohesive Story For Your College Application

The power of a spike is that it makes the rest of your application cohere. Rishab didn't drop his other activities. In fact, he had plenty, including track, choir, an online community he built, Eagle Scout, and a nonprofit he founded to mentor students. But research was the center of gravity, and he tied the other activities back to it in his essays, so the whole application read as one connected story rather than a checklist.

His research anchored his strongest honors, too: two ISEF wins, selection as an RSI scholar at MIT, recognition from Time, two JSHS wins, and more. Those awards did the work of showing, not telling, his research ability. The nonprofit showed leadership and generosity with that same expertise. Each piece reinforced the others.

If research is your spike, or could be, our guide on how ISEF results can strengthen your college applications shows how to present your science fair journey in your application.

Take a Challenging Courseload, Strategically

On academics, Rishab's mindset was to challenge himself rather than simply pile on the most classes possible. He carried a 4.6 GPA and a strong AP course load, and earned a 36 composite on the ACT (with the essay), helped by his deep science focus. The principle: depth and genuine rigor over the appearance of maximum load, the same philosophy behind the spike.

This video explains what he did and why:

How Rishab Chose Between Top Colleges

After his acceptances, Rishab spent about four months deciding between Harvard, Stanford, and MIT, weighing three things, a useful framework for any student facing this choice:

1. Culture. He felt Harvard suited his competitive drive, and he was drawn to student life in a city.

2. Academics. Harvard's strength for pre-med appealed to him, along with the sense that it would leave him more room to pursue projects beyond his coursework.

3. Careers. Harvard's teaching hospital was a major pull, a place to keep doing research, take courses outside his focus, and be around students who think differently, which he saw as key to staying creative.

And he chose Harvard!

Build a Standout Application With Expert Help

If there's one takeaway, it's this: don't spread yourself thin trying to impress. Go deep on something real, and let it define you. For a lot of students, that spike is research, and building a genuinely impressive research record is exactly what ScienceFair helps with.

Ready to take the next step? Schedule a call with our academic advisor.