<p>I’m applying for UIowa SSTP and have a few questions about the application.</p>
<p>One of the first questions is “Briefly describe works, performances, honors, or awards which indicate your exceptional talent in this area”. But I don’t have anything that shows my “exceptional talent”… I haven’t participated in any science competitions (except for one which I didn’t even make to Round 2) or done any research before. Of course, a lot of people haven’t done so before… except I go to a public high school that has very competitive science/math competition (SciBowl, Ocean Bowl, Quiz Bowl, and pretty much everything) so I don’t have any excuse for not participating in any of these. Except for my laziness for the past two years of high school. .____.</p>
<p>Would something like making a picture book explaining molecular bonding (a chemistry project for school) qualify? I have no idea what to put :|</p>
<p>Also the next question is “List any special classes or programs in which you have participated related to this area”. Should I really only list the names of the programs I’ve attended, or can I elaborate a little on what I did at the program (learned about medical professions, did lab experiments, etc)? Otherwise they might not know what the program’s about…</p>
<p>Thank you for your help!</p>
<p>Ah, the dreaded list-awards-section-that-is-suspiciously-blank fear. Don’t worry, I’ve had the same problem before.</p>
<p>Well, the first step is to get involved in your school’s opportunities. My school doesn’t have science bowl or ocean bowl (whoa, that exists? o_O), so you are rather fortunate.</p>
<p>As for your application questions … hm. You’ll want to make everything you’ve done sound super cool without falsifying details. So, if you made a picture book, you’ll want to spice up your description - e.g., did you “self-publish” it? (To publish is [to</a> issue … for sale or distribution to the public](<a href=“Publish]to Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com”>Publish Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com). Sell it to a friend and call it publishing.) Find anything else noteworthy that you’ve done and figure out a way to “market” it, so to speak.</p>
<p>For the second question, I would include a one-sentence summary of what each program comprised, if there is room.</p>
<p>My school DOES participate in a lot of academic competitions… Except that this year, we were banned from all of these competitions due to lack of sportsmanship last year. -___- So, by the time we’re allowed to compete again next year, I’m going to be a senior already. And will probably not even be actually competing, since they’ll be looking for new underclassmen to fill the spots and win more glory for the school.
Plus, I missed an opportunity earlier this year for a solar engineering competition… -smacks head- Hindsight is cruel.</p>
<p>I guess I’ll try finding some essay competitions… Not science/math related, but there seems to be a lot of writing contests out there.</p>
<p>Self-publish by selling to a friend… xD Hmm I don’t think I’ll say I published it (what if they try to find it online or something :O) but I’ll definitely try “marketing” anything that I can. Thanks for the interesting ideas!</p>
<p>They asked for works “in this area”… A bit vague. I’m probably applying for some kind of science research, but do you think I could still put a non-science-related project (an oral history for a pilot project)?</p>
<p>Anyone else applying for UIowa SSTP? I haven’t seen any other threads about it…</p>