<p>@hopingforbetter, it is clear that you want to argue with me but I am politely refraining from that offer. Please don’t bash my statements out of context, I only want to boost the poster’s morale. So what if I repeated something anialways has written before? It will only confirms that life is not horrible without your dream school’s acceptance. Rather it is more valuable coming from a current undergrad. The post is exaggerated and I will not contest this. I don’t even think about intl olympiads because universities such as MIT will not penalize you if you have some other intl recognition. Yes, they will expect to see some proof of your intelligence but does it have to be the olympiads? absolutely not. Statistics get boring after a while and universities may follow a trend for some years but will occasionally have students come from diverse backgrounds and recognition.
I was never rebuking anyone’s response to the poster but solely the poster’s statement. You can tell that I did not read any of the responses and was more keen to add my own experience and knowledge.
In terms of project, I would recommend finding a professor and explaining to them that you would like to work with them. Usually you will find many that will turn you down but if you’re lucky, they may offer some basic work for you to do. Rarely, it is hard to find a project that you can work in with deep knowledge. If in case you jump this obstacle, you can publish that work with your professor if it is a project that you become extremely invested in. However, research is not easy to handle with coursework at a high school age if you do not understand it. So I would be wary of the challenges and sacrifice you will have to make accordingly.
Also most people do not start their senior year in HS doing this but rather much earlier into their high school year. Also as you can tell, one is quite enough since dedication is more important than the quantity of labs you have worked with. Through one lab, you’re able to make much greater impact logically. My point is to provide the OP with a sense of accomplishment that can be equal to the intl olympiads. There are many paths to go with this; hence, one must not be discouraged no matter what others may say.</p>