Not all of the ISEF finalists do work at university . The most creative are students who manage to do research on their own . Coming up with a good idea is the hardest part . Try to come with an idea that tackles a common everyday problem with a simple solution . Good luck . <| sep |> From your posts your DS must have called her Grammy a lot , she sounded absolutely vile . SFS is bad but she isn ' t on the Hateful Helga scale yetI ' m thinking a tin of store bought sweets for the house . That way I can say I got them all something and if they complain I won ' t hear it anyway because it won ' t be to my face as SFS has proven many times . May steal your cookie idea just to see what she does lol . I started baking again a couple months ago and she just had to start again herself so it ' ll kill her if I look super thoughtful and she looks lazy lmao p she used to be great at baking but seems to have lost her touch recently .