The YRI Fellowship is a 10-week research mentorship program in which your child works one-on-one with a PhD mentor, turns a question they care about into original research, and finishes with a first-author paper that YRI's publishing team gets into a journal or conference such as IEEE or Springer. It costs $2,997, or 3 payments of $999, and you only pay after your child is accepted.
This guide is written for parents. It covers what YRI is, what your child does each week, what you get as a parent, what it costs, how to check that YRI is trustworthy, and how to apply. If you only have two minutes, read the first section and the FAQ.
What YRI is, in one minute
YRI is the short name for the YRI Fellowship, a research mentorship program at yriscience.com. It is not the same organization as other groups that use the letters YRI. Here is the program at a glance:
- What it is: one-on-one research mentorship that ends in a published paper
- Who it is for: curious students from middle school up, in any field from machine learning to the humanities
- How long: 10 weeks for the Research Fellowship
- Where: online, so students from anywhere can join. YRI has worked with more than 1,000 students from over 50 countries
- Results: 87% of Fellows publish, and 73% place at science competitions
- Cost: $2,997, or 3 payments of $999, settled after acceptance
Your child does not need research experience, perfect grades or a research idea to start. Most Fellows begin with zero experience, and the mentor helps find the question. For a deeper overview, read What is YRI?
What your child does each week in the YRI Fellowship
Plan on 5 to 8 hours a week, set around school. That includes the weekly one-on-one session with the PhD mentor. Fellows get unlimited 1:1 sessions with their mentor, so extra help is there when a deadline or a hard problem comes up.
The 10 weeks follow a clear arc:
Weeks 1 and 2: Discovery
Your child and their PhD mentor find the research question, in the field your child cares about. If your child loves basketball, it might become a study on predicting ACL injuries, as it did for Ben Z. If they love space, it might become a study on exoplanets, as it did for Ruthwik D. and Ana P.
Weeks 3 to 5: Research
They design the study and collect original data, held to peer-review standards from day one. This is where your child learns the methods professional researchers use, from statistics to machine learning.
Weeks 6 to 8: Write
Your child writes the manuscript, with structured feedback from the mentor and YRI's editors. The research writers edit every paper to the standard a peer reviewer expects before it is submitted.
Weeks 9 and 10: Publish
The paper is submitted to a venue such as IEEE or Springer. YRI's submission specialists pick the venue and handle the journal and conference process. If the reviewers ask for changes, YRI keeps helping, free, until the paper is published.
The deliverable is a first-author manuscript submitted to a peer-reviewed venue, and a student who can defend every line of it in an interview.
What you get as a parent
The YRI Fellowship is built so you are never left wondering what is going on.
- A weekly summary. Your child has a weekly 1:1 with their mentor, with a summary sent to you.
- Sessions set around school. You do not have to rearrange your family's week.
- Free help until the paper is published. If the journal asks for changes after week 10, you pay nothing extra.
- Proof colleges can check. A public link to the paper and a letter of recommendation from your child's PhD mentor.
- No hidden fees. The $2,997 includes the mentorship, editing, submission and the mentor letter.
As Sadaf S.'s parents put it:
"We tried everything: summer programs, college counselors, tutoring. Nothing moved the needle until she joined YRI."
Sadaf's parents
Sadaf went on to publish a first-author IEEE paper and was admitted to Brown and Johns Hopkins. Read her story.
What the YRI Fellowship costs
| The Research Fellowship | The Top 1% Profile | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2,997 | $9,997 |
| Payment plan | 3 payments of $999, no interest | 3 payments of $3,333 |
| Length | 10 weeks | 6 to 9 months |
| Built for | One first-author published paper | Ivy League admissions |
| Places | Rolling admissions | 8 families a year, by interview |
A few things parents ask about money:
- Applying is free. Money only comes up after your child is accepted and you decide to go ahead.
- Scholarships are decided case by case. If cost is a concern, tell us.
- Tuition is non-refundable once paid, as stated in YRI's terms. That is why tuition is settled only after acceptance, and why we encourage you to ask every question first.
The Top 1% Profile includes everything in the Fellowship, plus 2 to 3 published papers in one field, a filed patent with your child named as inventor, a company or nonprofit they start, and the full competition season, with the founder working with your family personally. See both side by side on the tuition page.
Trust and safety: how to check YRI yourself
You should not take any program's word for its results. Here is what you can verify about YRI in a few minutes.
The papers are public
Fellows' papers are indexed on publisher sites. For example, Ruthwik D.'s METHI paper, Nidhi K.'s skin microbiome paper and Aditya S.'s cloud anomaly detection paper are all on IEEE Xplore. The full list is on Published Work, and our post on YRI Fellowship published papers sorts them by field.
The students are named
Results come with a name, a venue and a year, so they can be checked. Every story is in Student Stories, and a roundup is in YRI Fellowship student success stories.
The people are named
YRI was founded by Ishan Jain, a Regeneron ISEF finalist published in JAMA Cardiology, Conrad Challenge Top 5 worldwide, and the author of ten peer-reviewed papers presented at IEEE, ACM and Stanford. Behind every Fellow is a full-time team: PhD mentors matched by field, research writers who edit every paper, and submission specialists who handle the journal and conference process. Learn more in YRI Fellowship mentors.
The terms are public
YRI's Terms of Service, refund policy and privacy policy are published at /legal/terms, governed by California law, so you can read them before you pay anything.
Independent coverage
YRI has been featured in Forbes India and SF Weekly.
No false promises
No program controls a journal's decision, and YRI does not guarantee publication. What YRI does is publish its rate, 87% of Fellows, and keep helping at no extra cost until the paper is published. For the full checklist, read Is YRI Fellowship legit?
What the YRI Fellowship leads to
A published paper opens doors well beyond the paper itself. YRI Fellows have:
- Been admitted to Brown, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Caltech and Harvard. See YRI Fellowship college admissions results.
- Qualified for Regeneron ISEF 2026, as Mubashir S. and Jayant K. did.
- Won 1st place at the Mercer Science & Engineering Fair at Princeton University, as Shaswat S. did. More in YRI Fellowship science fair results.
- Won Best Oral Presentation at IEEE AAIML 2026 in Tokyo, as Aditya S. did.
A publication does not guarantee an admission. It gives your child something almost no other applicant has: proof they can do the work.
How to apply to YRI
For more detail on the application itself, see how to apply to the YRI Fellowship.
FAQ for parents
Does my child need prior research experience?
No. Most Fellows start with zero experience. The program is designed to take curious students and hold their work to professional standards through structured mentorship.
How much time does YRI take each week?
5 to 8 hours a week, set around school, including the weekly 1:1 with the mentor.
Will I know how my child is doing?
Yes. Your child has a weekly 1:1 with their mentor, with a summary sent to you.
What if my child's paper does not get published?
YRI keeps helping, free, until it is published. 87% of Fellows get published.
What subjects can my child research?
Any field they care about: STEM, social sciences, humanities and business. YRI matches students with PhD mentors in their specific area of interest.
Is YRI only for high school students?
No. YRI welcomes curious students from middle school up.
What if we cannot afford it?
Tell us. Scholarships are decided case by case. Applying is free, and money only comes up after your child is accepted.
Take the first step for your child
Ten weeks from now, your child could be a published researcher with their name first on a paper anyone can look up. Applying is free, there are no essays, and you will have a decision within 48 hours.
Apply to the YRI Fellowship and give your child the credential that sets them apart.
Sources
- What is YRI?
- The YRI Fellowship program
- YRI tuition: both programs, payment plans and assurances
- YRI Published Work
- YRI Student Stories
- Sadaf S. case study
- YRI Terms of Service
- IEEE Xplore: METHI, Ruthwik D.
- IEEE Xplore: Skin Microbiome Signatures, Nidhi K.
- IEEE Xplore: Neural Anomaly Detection in Cloud Systems, Aditya S.
- Forbes India coverage of YRI
- SF Weekly coverage of YRI
