<p>Indian’s take offence to being called Asians because it’s not an accurate term to refer to people. How would a mexican feel if he were called North American or for that matter if your calling Indian asians you should start calling people in the Middle East Asians as well instead of Arabs</p>
<p>Regarding award/competition, I know a guy who had won 1 Bronze + 1 Silver in two successive IMOs and still got rejected by MIT. It’s unpredictable, right?
But however, I still believe that if you have international olympiad medals, it would be great advantage.
I know one students who transfered into MIT thanks to a gold IOI medal. Is it cool?</p>
<p>Have you ever seen Harold & Kumar? Remember when Harold goes to Pton and gets sucked in by that east asian club? And Harold has to suffer through their ridiculous and comic question answer session? That’s why Indians don’t call themselves Asian generally, they call themselves Indian, because Asian usually creates the impression of east asian, which Indians most definetely are not!</p>
<p>Hey screwthepc, my (MIT alum) black Jewish friend wants to know how your commentary applies to HIS situation.</p>
<p>On a more serious note, there’s no set number. A competition that just shows your skill and nothing else will…demonstrate that you’re smart, but not do much else. Doing well in a competition that requires, say, original research, might show a little more. It’s not obligatory to have competitions, but they can certainly be useful to highlight certain aspects of your talent and personality.</p>