tsubomi1993

I'm interested in majoring in physics and/or math in college, but my research project now is in environmental engineering/alternative energy...which do you think I should put down as field, physics or environmental engineering?

MeSsIaH.

I suggest you apply in environmental engineering for rsi AND for college, and just switch majors later. Besides, you need a secondary field anyway, so that's where physics would go.

MeSsIaH.

alright nobody bothered to answer this, so I'll ask it again
can I pass computational biology off as a subfield of applied math?

rgsthehopeful

^ yes u can i think a guy in 08 thread did.

rgsthehopeful

How would publishing in a science mag look (not that I have, I just have a really good paper ive been working on for a while...)

rgsthehopeful

well, it doesn't look like TASP has started yet, but yeah, this is unacceptable. TASP thread is our usual competitor for 1st in replies and prestigious, but now MITES is coming up???!!!
RSI 05 had i think either had 139 or 249 pages

rgsthehopeful

for your benefit, i will now post the conclusion i have drawn from the stats i have drawn for RSI acceptance over the last 2 years:

Ranked: no importance, little importance, moderately important, important, decidedly important, very important, of chief importance

GPA - little importance(even though all CCs happen to have perfect GPAs)
PSAT/SAT - >210 - yep, 210 - one got in with a 214 in '08.
Challenging courseload - little importance, although most that get in seem to have big loads
Science Fairs - moderately important, most that have gotten in in CC have no big
awards past the regional level(no ISEF 4th, etc.) but most have
PARTICIPATED

Research - decidedly important, most that got in had research and on Q.3 on
the questionnaire, it specifically said state interest in research,
this shows interest.no publications or awards necessary, though.

Math/Science comp. - moderately important: although most had participated, few had
anything better than USAMTS silver.

ECs - little importance, although most rickoids had at least one ec that
could be connect to sci, math, compsi.

Computer skills - little to no importance, csi skills are used for placing u w/ a
mentor, not acceptance, but they want some programming
as it will be hard to find u a lab w/o programming, but don't
worry. Most programming experience was like Mathematica,
Latex, etc.

Level of Math/Sci - important to moderately important: although it won't hurt u if u
have only finished precal by end of 10th grade, it definitely will
help project the image of a research-able kid if u are done w/
Diff E.q. as a sophomore.

Essays - CHIEF IMPORTANCE - RSI cares most about passion... your
interest in and love for science. If you are coming to RSI solely
based on its competitiveness, sorry, you WONT get in. If you
love science, you will(might, considering it is uber selective).

WELL, those are the stats, and lets get cracking down on the MITES thread.

rgsthehopeful

And messiah, although we may be behind on posts, we're ahead in views.

rgsthehopeful

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Tasp has started(gasps)

rgsthehopeful

^ i mean the thread
""

MeSsIaH.

wait rgs, are you serious about the science fair thing? To have it in time for RSI app, you'll have to have research results by sophomore year... Not having any science fair participation won't hurt me that much will it?

rgsthehopeful

^yep, although i don't know what you mean, I think at a certain level(state, maybe ISEF) they dont care what awards you win, just participation.

rgsthehopeful

^^well, notice that its only ranked moderately important, depending on your level of math/sci it seems that it might be a little more important, and essays are definitely the most important.

And about the research,... im not sure, the data points that way but i think there are only about 20 rsi hopefuls we ( my friend did the data compilation) tagged here on cc and elsewhere, 5 got accepted, but this is from the last couple years, and all five had research experience and the 1 alternate did too.

Keep in Mind that RSI is a RESEARCH institute, they want to know ur passion about science, but mainly research.

rgsthehopeful

^ lol, run-on

nith901

lol this thread is making me really nervous...
if your more of a science person than a math person, do you still have a chance? considering its MIT and all. I mean, I'm ok at math (taking bc calc as a junior), but I don't really do many math competitions. I have done science stuff though.