<p>Actually almost every biology or math mentor had some kids won competitions besides Dr. Lewis, Dr. Strauss and Dr. Francisco. I’m sure they are great mentors, but maybe their students didn’t enter the competiton or didn’t have the best papers. </p>
<p>^happysunnyshine
Are you applying to Clark next year? </p>
<p>If I re-apply to Clark next year, will I have a better chance?</p>
<p>^Maybe, I don’t really know.</p>
<p>Ugh. I guess I’m the third of the three that made it to the final round and got cut. =/.
I haven’t had much time to think about Clark Scholars b/c of APs, but it is definitely a really awesome opportunity!</p>
<p>Make the best of it, those who were admitted ! :).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Dr. Lewis was nirvanatear’s mentor. Nirvanatear is Canadian, so he’s not really eligible for a lot of competitions. He is at ISEF right now though with his Clark Scholars project.</p>
<p>Dr. Strauss’s Clarkie didn’t apply to any of those.</p>
<p>Dr. San Francisco was m.sides’s mentor. M.sides only applied for Siemens and didn’t get anywhere with that, but she is also at ISEF right now.</p>
<p>Is ISEF open to everyone or is it somehow selective?</p>
<p>People make it to ISEF based on their regional science fairs. Only a limited amount from each fair can go. Based on where you live, this can be either very competitive or not at all. If you live in North Dakota, you probably won’t have much trouble qualifying. Long Islanders, though, may have a harder time. My regional fair was pretty competitive, so I didn’t qualify. (I was kind of an alternate…) I would say overall, based on where CCers live, it’s pretty hard to qualify, and it’s a significant accomplishment just to be able to go there.</p>
<p>Happysunnyshine, it looks like you will have a very productive summer whether you get in or not. I sincerely hope you get in, but clearly you show the initiative to succeed no matter what.</p>
<p>^Thanks proletariat2!
But I am still checking my mailbox every day. :p</p>
<p>I am so glad that they sent me the email after all my APs are over.</p>
<p>^ Me too! Still rejection hurts… :(</p>
<p>Would a fourth evaluation basically be a waitlist?</p>
<p>I’m really sorry that happysunnyshine didn’t get in :(</p>
<p>They basically chose 12 out of 15 who made it to the fourth round. We were the 3 ‘lucky’ people.</p>
<p>I honestly didn’t think that I could go that far because I didn’t think thoroughly when writing my essays (as I said before, one of them was really bitter). That’s another valuable lesson to learn. 
(I haven’t figured out how to type the purple face; my laziness thus prevents me from being unhappy :p).</p>
<p>What are you doing this summer instead of Clarks?</p>
<p>I’m doing protein modeling/assays even though it is only tangentially related to my prospective major (EE).</p>
<p>Aww, you guys didn’t get in? Well, Clark Scholars would be a lot of fun, but you guys both seem to be doing some pretty interesting things this summer anyway!</p>
<p>(By the way, it doesn’t matter if it’s “only tangentially related” to EE. At this stage, any research helps!)</p>
<p>^^Science: I haven’t even found a mentor yet, but I will do something about human this year b/c I have been playing with my beautiful plants for the past two years. Hopefully I will find a nice mentor (one rejected me ‘cruelly’ because she didn’t believe that a high school student could do cloning).
Humanities: read read read!!! I have compiled a huge book list and I hope that I can go through at least… 1/10? I’ll probably write something for my own pleasure as well.
Prepare for standardized tests and probably self-study one or two interesting APs.
Volunteer more.
Research universities further and start thinking about my application. At least I’ve learned some not-to-dos from my previous rejection.
Maybe a job?
So I can still keep myself busy. :)</p>
<p>^summer reading is pretty important IMO. I never got through any reading list I proposed for myself. Hopefully this summer is different. On the cloning, part, though, any lab-based research is extremely difficult. I worked on simple cell viability the past months, and it got me thinking on how hard original research is in bio.</p>
<p>^My partner and I eventually did cloning last year. But we spent too much money. :p</p>
<p>wait…you did cloning?</p>
<p>^Yes. We eventually found a mentor who would support us technically and financially.</p>
<p>I heard there is a Clark Scholar turned downed the program, is that true?</p>
<p>^He probably chose TASP, and another girl got into RSI, but she withdrew the application long ago.</p>
<p>wow did you succeed in cloning everything? it sounds pretty cool</p>