<p>Is there a web site(URL Link) post all the students who got accepted?</p>
<p>@toughman @megalomaniac7
Thanks for the Facebook link! Congrats and I look forward to meeting you all :)</p>
<p>To those who didnât get accepted, I wish you the best of luck with your summer plans/futures!</p>
<p>@toughman
Like mnutmeg96 said, thank you so much for the Facebook link! I am really looking forward to meeting everyone in June! :)</p>
<p>do you think it is possible that they are still notifying applicants regarding their application status?</p>
<p>@mnutmeg96 @Alive96</p>
<p>Youâre welcome!</p>
<p>to rejects - you all are in extremely good company. i can confidently say that almost all of the most talented and accomplished high school students i currently know are RSI rejects (or didnât apply). rejection didnât stop some of them from, for example, getting into every school they applied to or winning a slate of science competitions. move on and continue being awesome. </p>
<p>shockingly, i was accepted - with no major awards. this basically just confirms my hypothesis that RSI cares a lot more about your essays than your accomplishments. based on anecdotal evidence (conversations with other applicants/rickoids), iâd guess that #3 in particular (the one on interesting research problems) is critical. a really well developed and specific answer to that question, with references to the literature, seems to be pretty important in conveying knowledge and passion. spend a lot of time on it and ideally talk about how you would actually attempt to solve the problem. you need to demonstrate that you are very familiar with the lit in your field and can casually reference landmark papers, widely used methods/models, etc.</p>
<p>packrat27, thank you for the detailed and insightful explanation of the essay/process. It is very helpful. I can see why you got chosen. Enjoy your time there.</p>
<p>packrat27 is absolutely correct, as I believe that to be the reason why I was accepted as well. I would add that writing about something you have already been researching for some time makes the process HUGELY easier - they are likely not looking for an on-the-spot quick thinking. I can attest to the fact that itâs perfectly fine to write about a solution that youâve already been considering or experimenting with for some time (like from a science fair project), if you follow it up with insights or questions. Definitely not, however, possible to do (reliably) with a wikipedia search. I think having one field youâve done some heavy research in and a second where you are interested but not experienced might be helpful - as the second one allows you to unbiasedly showcase your critical-thinking/analytical skills. But really, Iâve a feeling those essays play scarily large roles in the process.</p>
<p>Kraxis and packrat27, would you mind share the length of time you spent on RSI essays?</p>
<p>@packrat27
If you donât mind can you share what state you are from? Thanks!</p>
<p>@kraxis </p>
<p>Exactly! I did the same as well. I explained my first field ridiculously in detail but only mentioned the 2nd one, appropriately demonstrating that I was interested in doing that as well.</p>
<p>@all who have asked for essay details</p>
<p>As kraxis, packrat27, and toughman have described, essay #3 is hugely important. Mine wasnât particularly long (~0.75 pages) but discussed my personal interest in the topic (medical imaging) and connected it to my past research experience (which was not actually in that field exactly but was related). My question and ideas were not particularly thrilling or specific, but that somehow did not land my app in the trash pile.</p>
<p>But let that be encouragement to anyone who reads this in 2014-- if you find that you donât have extensive background knowledge on any field, itâs still worth applying! You just must find other conduits for your interest and your energy: relevant anecdotes, related research, and so on.</p>
<h1>5 was, I think, also important to my app, as most of my powerful stats come from math competitions and math-related volunteering (also the SAT?? I donât know how important it is, but itâs worth noting that my score was high enough to possibly give me a small boost) rather than research. Stay humble. Focus on your vision, why your ECs have helped you/others âshape the futureâ (such a corny phrase lol-- but really) or become more prepared to do so. Avoid prattle about the past; rather, connect your r</h1>
<p>intrtwngld, good post. Last sentence is a valuable take-away.</p>
<p>I agree with intrtwngld, regarding discussing how you could contribute to RSI, as well as what it can do to contribute to your scientific curiosity. :)</p>
<p>Also, from what I can infer, rather than making your essays in the form of an awards list (especially Question number 5), try to narrate why your life circumstances, achievements, and characteristics would contribute to a dynamic and colorful body of students at RSI. I think that showing true scientific curiosity and analytical ability is important. Each of your essays should shed light on a different part of you, but they should contribute to an overall theme about who you are :)</p>
<p>Finally, I havenât heard this from the others, but I personally put a lot of effort into the last question (Why did you apply to RSI?). That response was a full half-page, of the 3 pages that I wrote. I donât know if that helped, but I tried to let my genuine voice stand in that segment about how my achievements, ambitions, and characteristics would make me a match for RSI. I showed my english teacher this specific piece of writing, since I had originally conceptualized aspects of it as a reflective piece in her class, and she said that it was a very powerful essay, as well as a strong closing section to my entire application. </p>
<p>Those are just some of my personal tips, but I cannot stress enough the importance of spending time on your essays, and adhering to a simple philosophy of balance. Rather than doing 50 different things, select a few activities, really dedicate yourself to them, and be very focused in your essays. My non-science extracurricular essay was about a single activity that I engage in, and focused more on how it influences my outlook.</p>
<p>Hope that some of these tips help :)</p>
<p>Accepted from New York! Could someone PM me the facebook link?</p>
<p>@Milhau5: Congratulations! When did you receive the email?</p>
<p>I got it 2 days ago. Just found out about CC today from a friend (Iâm late to the party, I know :D).</p>
<p>Congrats Milhau5! I canât wait to get to know you :)</p>
<p>What are your fields of interest?</p>
<p>for reference, I spent a whole week and a half on my essays - but I didnât have any feedback from teachers or anything (aside from parents), so I kept obsessing over them. For me, the most difficult part was getting the whole thing to fit within three pages⊠I can attest to the fact that they wonât disregard your app if you use 0.3 margins and half-character spacing.</p>
<p>I second kraxis, as I had rather small margins on my essays too, and it was difficult to fit everything into 3 pages :)</p>