<p>Im just curious to see what people think.
Which is better Siemens Semifinalist or Participation in ISEF
Are either of them a significant boost?</p>
<p>What percentage of people do you think apply to Yale with Math beyond Calc BC.</p>
<p>1 month
15 days</p>
<p>On your second question, I don’t know that %age not being a Yale insider, but I do know that there are more than a few math/science centric schools where it is pretty normal for students to go beyond Calc BC, and the school itself offers the advanced classes, and also many of the best math students whose schools don’t offer more take college classes (usually online) from top schools (Stanford, Berkeley, etc).
So given that it’s not unusual in my personal circle, I am guessing that while not the norm, it is not unusual in the Yale applicant pool.</p>
<p>I agree with the above. </p>
<p>As far as those particular awards, I think they are only important given the overall context of the application. It depends on your background in other words. If you actually win the ISEF Grand Prize or are a top finalist in Intel, then yes, of course, that’s different and those awards can get you in in their own right – but in order to make it to that level, it means that you’ve really distinguished yourself because those are really, really rare awards to get (top dozen or so out of thousands of applicants). ISEF participation or semifinalist status alone isn’t particularly remarkable from the perspective of a school like Yale/Harvard/MIT, since there are several hundred per year and many of them end up applying, though again, it depends on the context (e.g., if you were the first ever semifinalist from American Samoa, versus a semifinalist from a very wealthy school in Connecticut) and what “what you had to do to get the award” says about your character and work ethic. </p>
<p>In the case of the latter, an additional written recommendation from someone who is not a teacher, but who knows you very well and can illuminate your recommendation with specific, detailed anecdotes of how you have initiated and approached your work/project/life can be very helpful.</p>