rosinyangster

My status is the same as yours. It says:
"Your application is being reviewed by the admission committee. We will mail notification of their decision by April 1. If for some reason you don't receive our written notice, we will be happy to provide the results over the phone beginning April 11th."
It was updated late January.

Hmm, I really wish I'm considered for one of the big scholarships though, since the most probable reason for me not going to USC if accepted is financial. Oh and Alan, I looked you up on Facebook just now, but I can't see the Networks all the "Alan Wong"s are in, so I'm not sure which one is you...I'll send you a PM with my full name in case you want to try finding me. (:

I'm getting so antsy. Everyday I open the mailbox to find nothing. Gahhh~ Stop this torture, now!

Well I think most of us have similar SAT scores and GPA (since there was a minimum requirement). I got a 2280. My essay score actually brought my overall score DOWN by 30 to 60 points. And you know where the irony lies? In my application I mentioned that writing was my forte. Hahaha...I didn't finish. I need to practice writing faster. Oh, and my rank is pretty abysmal, so maybe I stood out. ;P

poirotsfriend

Well, maybe we won't get anything until March. I recommend you not be antsy--and I would be good to take some of my own medicine. I myself am very eager to know the resolution of the committee, but I am trying to just live my life and not worry too, too much. Though I also plague the mailbox, I've been working on taking care of myself, too. Started going to the gym, for instance, which is brand new.

I find that if I spend all my energy worrying about things, I get burnt-out and myopic. I wish our lives were more like those of people living a century ago. While there was still a huge burst of productivity and development, as demonstrated in the Industrial Revolution, it seems to me (from my limited view) that people back then still managed to find time for themselves and their families. The children were held to much lesser standards--though initially that sounds like a bad thing, it isn't--which meant they had more time to just be human beings.

While I endorse hard work, I feel it is just as important to be healthy. Healthy emotionally, healthy socially, healthy physically, healthy mentally, and also healthy spiritually. Too many people today cannot balance their work with their overall health, and this is what leads them to be less effective people.

Hm. I guess these kinds of rants make me seem kinda stuffy, eh? Well, I'm not stuffy, or stuck-up, or whatever you want to call it, merely pensive.

Oh, what I originally meant to say: my status is exactly in concordance with yours.

topher93

"topher93, so you're a lurker, eh? Why don't you come join us, and take our questionaire? Nice to meet you."
Not so much lurking. I was just wondering when the admissions letters would come and the Google button has a certain allure. Hence, I found this board, which didn't really answer my question, though I suppose it answers various others.
Anyways, nice to meet you too.

I don't know how wise it is to just post information here, so I'll just let it be known that I am enthusiastic about going to RHP and will go if (when?) accepted.
I'm currently dual-enrolled in a program much like RHP, so I don't know how I'd go about making a stat-sheet (it'd only have the APs I took in freshman year and only AP Stat (5) was allowed anyway). I haven't taken the SAT since sixth grade, I think, but my score was high enough for admission so I didn't bother taking it again (around 2200) and I got a 236 or something near that on my PSAT. I have a 4.0, but I suppose that's a given, and I'm involved in quite a few ECs, though not many are possible since my dual-enrollment restricts what EC membership I'm allowed. I'm beginning undergraduate Biology research this semester and I plan to (again, no admissions letters yet) do undergraduate Neuroscience research this summer at Emory.
Is that all?
I wrote my essay on "passions, great passions, that elevate the soul" and the site where I submitted it says something about letters being sent by April 1.

Do any of you know when RHP students get admissions letters? I was lead to believe early February.
Have any of you gotten letters yet?

Edit: I forgot to mention, my name is Topher or Christopher, whichever you'd prefer.

crayzii8

The new SAT (the 2400 one) came out in 2005 for the class of 2006! =D


Edit: (the 2nd semester of our 7th grade year)

topher93

Skipped a grade.

Edit: Specifically, seventh grade:
2008-9 = 11th
2007-8 = 10th
2006-7 = 9th
2005-6 = 8th
2004-5 = 6th

crayzii8

oh dang, yea i was thinking about that possibility too
does the "93" signify your birth year too?

sorry about that ;D
I was reading this blog in school and my friend said "that's impossible" (about your SAT score)

but anyways, congrats on that!
do they still accept your score even though it was taken about 4 years ago?

topher93

I don't feel comfortable answering that. Just like I'm sure you wouldn't feel comfortable with me knowing that you were born in the year 8.
Don't ask how.

poirotsfriend

*Ahem* That's quite impressive, Christopher.

I'm quite intimidated at this point and am more certain than ever that I'll probably be the only one on this board who does not get into the program. Ah well.

topher93

Don't be absurd.
A lot of people who get into these sorts of programs end up saying "I don't know how I got in," or something along those lines.
If you're "well-accomplished," you'll get in, sure, but if you're likely to end up being accomplished at USC/RHP, you're probably just as likely to get in.
What you have done simply serves as an indicator of what you're capable to do, and there are a lot of things other than, say, getting a 2400 on your SAT, that can indicate that.

On a side note, are any of you competing in the Brain Bee?
I took it today... didn't do too well (3rd), but, then again, I didn't have much time to study.
Are any of you going to the International competition?

And, by the way, you're all probably going to be National Merit Scholars, right? Probably not the right place to ask, but do any of you know how the scholarship works for RHP students? The scholarship assumes we'll be going to college during the fall of 2010, right? But if we go to RHP, we won't be. Will we get the scholarship for the fall of 2009 anyway?

psymonsays511

I'm pretty sure we don't get the scholarship for fall of 2009, but we will be able to use it the next year. I got a 209 on the PSAT but I got a 2200 on the SAT. That made me upset, but I still qualify for the National Merit Scholarship so I guess it's OK...

poirotsfriend

I qualify for the NMS but in California, it's highly unlikely that I'll get it. Too many high, high achievers here.

psymonsays511

What do they look at in addition to PSAT score when awarding the NMS anyways?

topher93

"What do they look at in addition to PSAT score when awarding the NMS anyways?"
If you make the state cut-off score, you're a semifinalist. I think these are usually around 210, but they vary according to the state average. Some 16000 people become semi-finalists, if I'm remembering correctly, while 34000 become "commended," which gets you a certificate of achievement or something like that.
Most semi-finalists end up becoming finalists, though - about 15000 of the 16000, I think.

The only part of the process not involving your score is the transition from semi-finalist to finalist: they ask for your SAT score and a record of your high school performance and various related things, and if all of it confirms how well you did on the PSAT, you get the finalist status. I think it's just a formality though - the 1000 are probably people who decide not to finish high school or go to college, or fit under other extenuating circumstances. I wouldn't know, though.

Edit: I just googled it, here's a link to 2005 cutoff scores and related information. You could probably find something more recent, though I doubt it would matter that much.
National Merit Cutoff
2nd Edit: Poirotsfriend, what do you mean when you say that you qualify for it but you might not get it? If you qualify, doesn't that imply that you get the scholarship?

poirotsfriend

No. I got one of the highest scores in my class, but I haven't gotten anything in the mail, much less an announcement saying 'You're a semi-finalist!' or anything. I doubt I will be a semi-finalist. Qualifying does not make yah one, you know? But maybe you know better; I haven't done much research on the NMS.

topher93

Oh, I haven't gotten a letter either, but I don't know when they come. I wouldn't expect one for a couple of months, though.
I guess I don't know what you mean by "qualifying." If you got a score well above 215 or so, no matter what state you're in, you'll probably get the NMS.
I would agree, though, that CA will probably have an above-average qualifying score, if that's what you mean.