How does winning a medal in the National SO tournament help ma chances?!

Chance Me / Match Me
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<p>Please chance for Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, and Cornell! :0 </p>

<p>Academics:
Junior at a strong school in minnesota
Unweighted GPA: 3.94 , ranked 6th in class of 465
Weighted: 4.34, ranked 1st in class
All A’s except one A- and one B+
I’ve been in an accelerated math program since 7th grade at the university of minnesota, and I am currently taking junior college calculus 3 classes.
PSAT: only 217 but I should be a semi-finalist based on the last 5 yr’s cut-off mark
SAT: 2240 CR 700 M 800 W 740
ACT taking in 2 months
SAT II: 800 Math II, 700 US History, going to take chemistry expecting mid-700s
I’ve taken every AP class my school offers and I’ve scored 5s on 4 AP tests, and 4s on 3 AP test, and I plan to take 2 more AP classes next yr
On that note…I’ve taken the hardest curriculum possible at my school (Taking every AP class, the univeristy of minesota accelerated math program, and always taking the honor/accelerated version of mandatory classes).
Won Harvard Book Club Award </p>

<p>Employment</p>

<p>I’ve volunteered over 300 hrs at local hospitals and libraries. Summer internship at the University of Minnesota doing semi-individual research under a professor.</p>

<p>Activities</p>

<p>Varsity math team
Varsity science olympiad team
Minnesota Youth Symphony (played in both the 2nd and 3rd highest levels of 4 levels)
School’s chamber orchestra 2 yrs (not a class, our conductor selects a few people to play with him)
National Honor Society
Volunteering
The U of Minnesota Math Program
Speech Team
JV Cross Country Running
JV Track and Field</p>

<p>Honors and Awards</p>

<p>Science Olympiad:</p>

<p>2nd Place in 2008 National Science Olympiad competition, 9th place too
1 Sliver medal at Regionals
Three 1st place wins and two 2nd place wins in Invitational Competitions
No state win though…really wierd.
Trying to get captainship, was junior captain…but since already math team capt, rarely if ever does anyone get dual captancies (coach of math team and SO are same) still hoping</p>

<p>Math Team:</p>

<p>27th in the State High School League
2nd Place in my division
MVP at my school</p>

<p>Math League: 5nd Place in state this yr, 3rd place last yr, MVP both yrs</p>

<p>State-wide Math Competition at a nearby university: 1st Place of about 1000 competitors this yr, 5th place last yr</p>

<p>Another state-wide competitions at a university: 4th place last yr, top 5% freshman yr</p>

<p>Passed AMC every yr since 9th grade and has taken the AIME every year. Highest score on the AIME was a 9</p>

<p>Captain nxt yr</p>

<p>Sports: A few JV medal nothing very impressive</p>

<p>So plz let me know what you think! thanks so much.</p>

<p>Recall: I am from Minnesota, azn, and my family is well-to-do, and i honestly will say I’ve used the almost all the resources my community and school has to offer. (like i didn’t do all the clubs and stuff, but I’ve filled my time)</p>

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<p>How can you be ranked both 1st and 6th? Which on is it?</p>

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<p>Impressive !</p>

<p>My only concern for you would be the lack of sports. Not just sports per se, but a general lack of non-academic activities. By no means am I an expert on this, but I’m pretty confident that admissions officers appreciate someone who has varied interests and excels in more than one area. </p>

<p>National SO medal would be quite impressive though and IMO qualify you for the ‘well-lopsided’ group (so you don’t suffer from not having non-academical activities.)</p>

<p>For work experience, no, you don’t NEED any. But it is generally quite impressive to hold positions that only adults would normally hold - and that often inherently means paid work. See if you could find some work that would normally be given only to talented adults.</p>

<p>EDIT: Smart Cookie, I believe that means the OP is ranked 6th for his unweighted GPA but 1st for his weighted GPA :)</p>

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<p>

Yes, but I believe that the UW ranking will be sent to colleges, which is unfortunately less impressive. Does anyone know which ranking is sent to colleges? Or is it both? Sorry for the confusion, my school does not weight.
Also, regarding the “lack of sports”
I think that there should be no concern in this area (he/she is involved in cross country and track), and I also think that his/her ECs show excellent variety. </p>

<p>Stanford will be a low reach, but will probably admit you
MIT will be iffy, lots of applicants, but you have researched so you will probably make it.</p>

<p>Cornell will probably admit you no sweat.</p>

<p>Berkeley as well (though OOS admissions are crazy)</p>

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<p>from what i heard, colleges look at whatever rankings the school sends them.</p>

<p>Also, I do do sports. I’m running x-country for 3 yrs, track for 4, and i tried nordic skiing only freshman yr. I’m on JV for both though, but should be varsity next yr. I’ve just never won anything beyond an invitational meet or 2.</p>

<p>Last thing, when i mean by national science olympiad, I mean the organization on soinc.org, not the international science olympiad. Those olympiads a focused on one topic (like math, chem, etc) while the science olympiad I do is basicly the track of the academic world, with 23 different events.</p>

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<p>Wait. What school are you from. Maybe I competed against you in SO in regionals. But congrats on nationals!!!</p>

<p>Anyways, I’ll try no to make this a pointless reply. Your stats are obviously great. I’ll say Berkeley is a given. And I think Cornell will work out too. </p>

<p>Stanford I’m not exactly sure about. I’d say if your expectations about the leadership positions come true that’s a yes too.</p>

<p>MIT is really hard. I consider it like the Ivies (beyond the scope of prediction at CC). There’s just too many factors involved for a yes or no.</p>

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<p>I’m from Mounds View High, 2nd place ecology :slight_smile:
You?</p>

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<p>Uhh people have given you very optimistic chances.</p>

<p>I don’t think Science Olympiad is viewed that highly…it’s definitely not comparable to USAMO/USABO/USNCO etc or even the research competitions (STS/Siemens/ISEF). So in that regard, its not a hook. SO doesn’t really demonstrate skill in science like those aforementioned competitions do…its different. However, it is a good award. </p>

<p>Your test scores will bring you down. Ivies usually require 2250+, for an unhooked applicant maybe 2300+, for an unhooked Asian applicant 2350+. And SATIIs should be 750+. If you want to take a math/science slant on your ECs, it will be difficult. Many similar applicants will have qualified for USAMO/done research. Other than the math team/SO, your other ECs are very generic. Variety yes, but top schools don’t really care too much about being well-rounded…its about being amazing in something. </p>

<p>And don’t worry about sports/volunteering too much, youre interests are clearly not in those areas. I don’t know why people always think that sports/volunteering are requirements for admission…especially considering the shift of colleges to the “lopsided” kids, I don’t think they really care.</p>

<p>Anyway, I think Stanford and MIT will be very hard, unless you can distinguish yourself by absolutely amazing essays/interviews/recommendations. Not sure about Cornell or Berkeley, though I assume your chances for those schools will be higher.</p>

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<p>Science O may not be as amazing as USAMO/USABO/USNCO, but it is certainly a worthwhile use of time. Also, the research that cgar514 has is an enormous plus on the app, so I think that his/her chances at MIT and Stanford are decent, and at least better than most.</p>

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<p>I totally agree SO isn’t as high as the international olympic competition categories, but those are like 100-200 ppl total. I was thinking/hoping that SO was big enough of a competition to help me somewhat greatly (correct me if i’m wrong). Like SO has ppl from all 50 states, over 1500 high schools, is recognized by several big colleges (I believe including caltech and mit) and at least in my state is the most public and prestigious school science competition (like intel research thingys are all individual). And i do have research in pathology, i’ve been working with a prof at the U of Minnesota.
However, echelon, I really do appreciate your view. Could you suggest anything I can do this last summer and yr to help my chances (i’m still doing research at the UMN)</p>

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<p>Wow, and research at the U of M nice! </p>

<p>I’m from Eden Prairie, and I think we were in different regional divisions. Ehh, watch for us at state next year though. I’m very optimistic we’ll be getting there.</p>

<p>By the way what events do you do?</p>

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<p>cgar514, I’m sorry I overlooked the work you’re doing at UMN. That definitely is something that is very rewarding - not only with the experience you’re getting but potentially for college apps as well. Depending on where you are with your research, definitely think about applying for those senior-only competitions this fall, like Intel STS and Siemens. Siemens is more based on the research alone, whereas Intel STS likes the overall person (I know a USNCO camper who didnt really do research at all, but got semifinalist most likely on the merit of his crazy chem knowledge). This is where something like SO can help.</p>

<p>I still believe the medal won’t be received very highly - probably a 5-6 on that list of prestigious awards floating around CC (I think 7 was perfect SAT, 8 was RSI/TASP/regional finalists for Siemens etc etc.). But don’t get me wrong, its a national award, and you should be proud of your accomplishments.</p>

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<p>Alright thats cool. I was wondering where u got those award rankings? i’m just curious as to what other awards are like. And i’ll make sure to try those intel and siemen competitions.</p>

<p>Btw for applying for college, if I were listing my awards in SO, would i list my events with the medals I got, or would i just be like: won 5 medals.</p>

<p>P.S. smart.cookie, i’ve done a lot of events:
invitational: food science, fermi, ecology, wright stuff, boomilever, 5 star science, remote sensing
state: food science, fermi (bombed dat), ecology, wright stuff, disease detectives
nationals: food science 9th, ecology 2nd, wright stuff 25th, disease 42nd :0</p>

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<p>[thread=302001]List of Top, Prestigious Awards[/thread]</p>