I submitted my application on the 31st! Good luck to everyone. I ended up going to the Preview Day on Jan. 18th. I was suprised that of the around-120 sophomores who were there, 50 hadn’t started applications yet, two weeks from the deadline.
@ish512 Has your application updated to Ready for Review as well?
@aikades Hey sorry, have not logged on in a while. I did happen to get a confirmation email a few weeks ago saying that everything had been processed and ready to review, so I would assume so.
I believe the semifinalist results are coming out next week. Good luck, everybody!
I asked the research director about this and am going to try to submit my summer research to ISEF, but it’s not really emphasized at all. We prepare more for a state research competition, the South Carolina Junior Academy of Science (SCJAS).
You should talk with a teacher, Dr. Sris (his email is on the gssm website) about that stuff, as he runs math competition stuff. Though to be honest, nobody really does USAMO or even the AMC here. The school’s strong point on the math side is the ability to take classes like Linear Algebra, Mutlivariate Calculus, Differential Equations, and Discrete Math, along with a swath of other upper level math classes, permitting you take and/or have already taken Calc AB/BC by junior year, and to be able to do research in math. Not many people here have the time to prepare for the AMC as, amidst how rigorous the courseload is here, we just don’t have the time. Academic math >>> contest math.
To be honest, it isn’t so much bullying, but, due to the fact that 300 students live together day in and day out, the amount of drama that goes on is insane. At my old school (2000+ students), every kind of did their own thing, so there was not much to go around, however here there was a noticeable increase in the amount of crap-talk behind people’s backs. I recognize this is a negative part of living at a small school, however it does not trump the wonderful experiences I have had with my friends here compared to the ones I had back home. You just have to be emotionally secure enough to realize that all of the drama is meaningless and blows over fast to get through it.
Is SCJAS as good as intel for applications to the top universities?
Also, how is the average workload? I know it must be a lot of work due to AP courses but can you give like the average scheduele for a GSSM student?
@Mahindra
Given that SCJAS doesn’t occur until after college app deadlines, it doesn’t impact applications at all. That said, no awards does not change the fact that research experience will be helpful, especially if it’s related to the major you’re applying for. GSSM also offers other advantages in terms of college apps, such as not having to worry about teacher and counselor recommendations.
It’s hard to define an “average” workload. It’s not so much due to AP courses (GSSM offers a lot of APs, but they’re heavily de-emphasized compared to the school’s Above AP offerings, which are really the meat of the experience) as the fact that some teachers are just simply more demanding (and also lab courses by nature require more class time) and that some people choose to take more than the 6 required courses per semester (/choose to take all of their required lab science classes at the same time…ouch). At the end of the day, there are people who spend their whole week doing work, but there are also people who have sufficient time to do sports and other extracurriculars, hang out with friends, etc. GSSM teaches you that if you want to do it, you better plan ahead and make time for it.
(This all said, you’re probably looking at 3+ hours of work everyday on weekdays at minimum.)