<p>I know they were not entitled to give one to every state, but I still feel like I got shafted. I honestly think I had everything they wanted… I had a RIDICULOUS amount of research experience… ISEF 4th place! and publishing soon! and as well i won the governors award for my state which meant best project of the state! it was all on there. and did they not appreciate all my comp sci experience? my test scores and rank were good too, i just dont understand what it was that got me rejected.</p>
<p>tsubomi1993, we are waiting for your “strong points”.<br>
Which school are you from?</p>
<p>Post your essays or PM me them then. If your stats are stellar (and I think they are good), that’s the only thing holding you back. I worked A LOT on my essays for RSI. They came out way better after multiple drafts.</p>
<p>On second thought, don’t post your essays, since they’d be long. If you don’t understand after reading them repeatedly, then I don’t really know what to tell you.</p>
<p>just a regular public school in New Jersey :] </p>
<p>Mehhh I didn’t really mention any “strong points” in my essay…to summarize briefly (I posted some stuff earlier in the thread as well):</p>
<p>I’ve taken up to Real Analysis at Columbia University and maintained a 4.0 GPA there. I’ve been working on a research project in alternative energy also at Columbia that’s going to be published soon, was featured in the NY Times, and has gotten some competition awards…did an independent math project on hamiltonian quaternions…played in Carnegie Hall, Kosciuscko Foundation for some international piano competitions…Harvard Model Congress outstanding/best awards, Scholastic Gold Key (this year, I updated them, waiting for national adjudication), National French Exam top 5 every year, started a volunteer project for inter-city children in Newark, student council president, first in class, good AP/SAT II scores…nothing really out there or extraordinary, if that’s what you were looking for…</p>
<p>But I didn’t mention any of this in my essay, other than my research experience and some of the math classes I’ve taken.</p>
<p>like Palaoa: I worked a lot on my essays. I wanted them to have a personal and honest voice. I thought that since they didn’t ask for a resume, awards weren’t necessarily all they were looking for. For example, instead of mentioning a piano award/competition, I talked about how playing the piano and working in science were sort of inextricably related, because scientists need to view the world quantitatively and analytically with a certain objectivity, but also be able to see the world for its possibilities as an artist would. Instead of mentioning model congress awards, I mentioned how I enjoy discussion and debate and that RSI would be an amazing opportunity to engage in such discussion. </p>
<p>wow long post. oops.</p>
<p>Riffin’ off tsubomi’s post on the essays:</p>
<p>I believe they are hands down the most important part of the application. I mean, having lots of experience in math and science, the standardized tests scores, all that junk - it’s necessary to make the first cuts. But the essays are a real chance to show WHO you are, rather than WHAT you’ve done. It’s important to read into the question and try and discover what the question really wants to hear.</p>
<p>Example: question 4 about long term goals wants to hear about how your passion for math and science will drive your life, and guide you into your career. Related topics include a love for learning, and evidence of your desire in going beyond what is readily accessible. Everyone’s curious, but not everyone is driven enough to do something about it.</p>
<p>Palaoa did you join the Facebook group? :]</p>
<p>But the essays are definitely the most important aspect. I wrote about for one of the essays how I like to look at the stars late at night, and how I like to wake up early and watch the sun rise in the morning. Show creativity and passion, don’t try to indirectly sneak in award references.</p>
<p>Add me on Facebook, it’s obvious enough who I am D:</p>
<p>Mmm… I haven’t got anything from them yet. Is this bad? I live in NW Florida…</p>
<p>^Is not bad… I don’t think anyone could say something like…</p>
<p>“Oh how many days have you been waiting? Okay, well take the square root of that, multiple by i and graph it against your age in minutes in the complex plane, then if the graph doesn’t have asymptotes that means… you’re ACCEPTED!”</p>
<p>Funnily enough, living in Hawaii, my letter got here so…</p>
<p>My acceptance letter is two sentences long.</p>
<p>It started off as 5 words long but I added another sentence thanking them for reading my application so the paper didn’t seem so blank :P</p>
<p>Great post, tsubomi, and congrats on making it. I was just looking back at my application for pitfalls that could have been responsible for my rejection, and this enlightened me much. I made the mistake by trying to make my response as concise and “abstract”-like as possible, which takes away the spark of interest that keeps the reader going. Also, I answered #5 and #6 in the form of a list of achievements; in hindsight, this seems to be a particularly BAD idea, as I could have focused on a few most important and elaborate on about my personal involvement. </p>
<p>Well, what’s done is done. I shall keep these advice in mind when writing my college apps. Congrats again to everyone who made it! (To fellow rejects, we still have a chance at MIT itself.)</p>
<p>Edit: brief stats in case anyone would like to point additional weaknesses</p>
<p>PSAT 225, moderate # of APs/SAT2s, rank 2 with unweighted gpa < 4.0 (thanks to grades transferred from China; I started at rank 70 in freshman year…), math/science competitions (state and national levels), some community service, etc I think no research experience was probably what hurt the most, assuming my app wasnt skimmed out at the first run due to gpa.</p>
<p>@enigma:</p>
<p>wow it does seem like you got shafted O_O… maybe they think you can do good enough research by yourself? XD</p>
<p>I hope it wasn’t because of your suggestion to spam Maite’s mailbox :P</p>
<p>Good luck in the future though.</p>
<p>I talked to a friend of mine that did RSI three years ago, and she said that they were looking mainly for people that would work extremely extremely hard those six weeks and completely throw themselves into their research projects - not necessarily the most awards, even though there tends to be some overlap, but raw passion that they could sculpt into an intense project. </p>
<p>All of you will end up doing amazing things. If you applied to RSI, you must have made really good use of your high school career.</p>
<p>Another question: do they process the applications in order of reception? I sent my applications very close to the deadline (waiting for teacher recs), so I’m not sure if by the time they read my application, the 45 spots were already filled.</p>
<p>I sent mine overnight the day before it was due so…maybe they wait until the deadline (I think it was January 15th this year) to start reading?</p>
<p>Also, I’m sure that it’s comparative (or at least I think so, for all I know they pick them out of a hat). They probably whittle down and then pick the best from the best.</p>
<p>rejected from WC :(</p>
<p>Didn’t make RSI. Oh well.</p>
<p>Still haven’t heard?/!! What do you guys think is going on? Don’t have much hope …I guess Tsubomi is going to represent the garden State…but I want my own ‘envelope’ from RSI!!</p>
<p>still waiting in NY</p>