<p>Unless the research happens to involve the specific research of a … willing friend of the family who just happens to have raised a small fortune for research and that the research involves the use of equipment no 15 years old without great connection should know how to operate, let alone be allowed to use. </p>
<p>And to answer Beliavsky … just google search the past threads on Intel on this site, and I think you will read everything you’d want to know.</p>
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<p>The boondoggle is at the semi level. Check again.</p>
<p>It doesn’t mean said kid should be penalized, but it means that you only want to accept a limited number of kids like this, because you don’t want to create a system that overly-rewards only kids-with-professorial-parents-and-beaucoup-connections. (Sort of a duh – well, maybe not to some, who aren’t bothered by this.)</p>
<p>Yes, of course; ideally community service at this introductory level would be related to the student’s interests or career aspirations. I could see plenty of kids getting more benefit out of working in a children’s museum than at a soup kitchen. For some, the soup kitchen may be too upsetting to do for an extended period.</p>
<p>ISEF is a different competition from Intel STS. ISEF is an international competition that brings together the best students from many countries and kids from grades 9-12 can participate. As such, it (at least IMO) more competitive than STS which only draws on seniors from American high schools.</p>
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<p>I was going to disagree with these statements but I am starting to wonder if my experiences are really that uncommon if everyone thinks this. I do have somewhat limited life experience and Canada (where many of my examples come from) doesn’t really have the same high stakes pressure on university admissions.</p>
<p>I will say this, though- as a 16 year old female, I’ve found that Profs really want kids to get into science and have been extremely kind to those who are less well connected. So maybe you guys are correct overall- I have some very well connected friends and they certainly have a far easier time with many things but there are exceptions.</p>
[quote]
…teaches them a little humility and to feel fortunate for what they have been blessed with[\quote]</p>
<p>Right. Just don’t phrase it in your essay in the form of, “I can’t believe I ever cared about the color of my car,” or you will hear a resounding GONGGG and your app will be thrown in the reject pile, ostensibly for having the gall to disclose that you own a car.</p>
<p>Lorem, “upsetting” doesn’t play for so many kids. We aren’t saying send kids into Needle City. They’re cutting veggies and serving a meal. (Since you’ve been around, I know you know this.) It is this fear it will be upsetting that does, imo, keep many away. Far easier to bring in an old jacket and put it in the box at school or church. Next we’ll be arguing about that sort of thing.</p>
<p>Bay, why minimize this? We have been talking of the most elites. Adcoms need to see your college readiness and the choices/experiences which are relevant in their search, how you think, how you assess and what you CHOOSE to put into your app. These are college apps, not idle chat. </p>
<p>Don’t write things that show you are a self-centered, shallow thinking kid, with little perspective, uncertain maturity, selectve energy, not much real follow-through-- and among other things, that your judgment is so limited, so unrefined, that you would actually tell adcoms you finally figured out the car color didn’t matter.</p>
<p>You don’t get into a tippy top for being gooey or emotional. They like kids who are activated. If that means top math tests, bless them. If it means going and vol’ing at a museum, bless them. It does mean kids who are not limiting themselves to their own narrow interests and goals, who can engage at school and in their communities. And write in a way that forms a good self-presentation.</p>
<p>"Unless the research happens to involve the specific research of a … willing friend of the family who just happens to have raised a small fortune for research and that the research involves the use of equipment no 15 years old without great connection should know how to operate, let alone be allowed to use. "</p>
<p>Why does the kid have to pay the price for taking advantage of the opportunities, and putting in years of efforts to achieve something? Following your logic, then CERN particle physicists should not have been awarded Nobel prizes since no other physicists had ready access to those big guns. </p>
<p>It should NOT be any applicants’ job to speculate what looks good or bad on college apps.
It is the Adcoms’ job to take a holistic assessment of the applications.</p>
<p>LF,
I think I am a little cynical myself, due to the kid getting admission to a top college and national attention for writing about chicken nuggets.</p>
<p>Absolutely. Neither of them even mentioned it in their essays or that they spent time rehabbing a library/community center in the Lower 9th ward in N’Awlins… The extent of mentioning it was listing the number of hours of CS on the Common App. If it ever comes up in an interview ( raised by the interviewer), fine. Otherwise, it looks the way others have framed it, and not in a positive way. The “I met someone while I was doing Community Service and it changed my life” personal statement is so trite and hackneyed that it would as you said, be on a fast track to the reject file, no matter what their grades/recs/ECs.</p>
I agree, generally, but I do think how much credit a kid should get for his accomplishments should vary based on the context–for example, how much evidence there is that he is a self-starter, that he pursued his own interests, that he achieved despite obstacles, and so on. Depending on the context, it might be an easy decision to take the rapper over the Intel finalist.</p>
<p>I wonder how many recent essays have reflected on chicken nuggets? Surely since that national publicity there must be a whole for-profit sub-industry cropping up assisting students with extensive fast-food experience with ways to incorporate that experience into their Harvard applications! ;)</p>
<p>I really don’t believe colleges are looking at how someone got the prize. If that is the case, they would not be tripping over each issuing likelies to those who won the prizes. They are happy to get the bragging rights to the next great scientist.</p>
<p>I think the “chicken nuggets” kid gets a bad rap. What his story shows is that when your application is competing for attention with thousands of others, you want there it be an easy answer to the question, “Which kid was that?” “Oh, the one who wrote about chicken nuggets.” When there are a lot of applicants who look a lot alike, it pays to have something memorable.</p>
<p>An inspired student can write a great essay about anything-chicken nuggets, the AMO, community service trips, anything. Some topics just require more inspiration than others. I feel sorry for parents and kids who think there is some magic formula to successful essay writing.</p>
<p>I once heard a college DOR speak about her experience with essays. She said her favorite essays from the previous season had been about a table and body hair. I’m sure that coming from other writers’ hands these could have turned out to be her least favorite.</p>
<p>I can’t get Russell Brand’s “Trapped in Me” from Get Him to the Greek" out of my head.</p>
<p>I have crossed the mystic desert
To snap pictures of the poor
I’ve invited them to brunch
Let them crash out on my floor.</p>
<p>There’s sunshine in my veins
My kitchen’s filled with flies
I’m crying out in vain
Like a little African child.</p>
<p>Trapped in me
There’s an African child
Trapped in me
There’s a little African child trapped in me.
…
<a href=“partially%20shown%20with%20translation”>Swahili chant</a></p>
<p>Mungu linda watoto…</p>
<p>God protects children
God protects children
I am a god who protects children
I am a god who protects children
Save me
Love me
I am the king of Africa</p>
<p>And then you get to hear the Intel finalists’ parents or neighbors complain about it on CC, because they “can’t understand” why it’s not all about grades or very specific competitions.</p>
<p>You’d think this would be common sense, but apparently it isn’t. </p>
<p>My kid wrote about a vintage household object and related his liking to use this object to some other broader things that he wanted to say about himself and how he approaches life. I would be willing to bet that he was "the kid who wrote about the — " in the adcom room. Because it STOOD OUT in a sea of “I learned about life when I kicked the winning soccer goal / didn’t kick the winning soccer goal / ladled the soup to the poor people in New Orleans / Nigeria.” </p>
<p>Why people don’t get that it’s about standing out – which is NOT the same as “just making up stuff to be different / outrageous” – is beyond me.</p>