Does anyone know how big of a deal qualifying for internationals for smaller olympiads like the International Philosophy Olympiad, International Astronomy Olympiad, International Geography Olympiad, International Earth Science Olympiad, etc. are for college admissions? Will they be a big enough spike in admission for T20 schools?
Based on this and your other posts, I think you are approaching college admissions like merit badges in the scouts: if you collect enough of the right ones you get a higher rank. It truly does not work like that. There are a small number of Olympiad outcomes that are known to move the needle (eg, MITâs reputation for liking IPhO Gold recipients!), but mostly they will be considered in context of the whole app.
For example, I know a current college student who qualified for both the Chem & Linguistics Olympiads. He was on debate teams in 3 languages and also won the top prize in the national science fair, so there was a context for the Olympiads.
I acknowledge the level of self-confidence implied by your question though! The ability to go from zero to a meaningful level of qualification in a matter of months in a random field that is new to you puts me in mind of polymaths such as Liebniz or Franklin.*
If you havenât already, read this: Applying Sideways | MIT Admissions
*though practically speaking you have some challenges. I know that you have missed the deadline for Astronomy anyway. For Earth Science you have to get chosen for their summer camp- there is an exam is in March, the top 50 or so go to the camp, and something like 8 or 10 are chosen from them. Donât know anything about Geo or PhilâŠbut of course the question is, do you?!
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@hebegebe might be able to provide some insight.
I have a good understanding of the admissions impact for the âmajorâ Olympiads, such as the IMO and IPhO. US applicants with gold or silver medals in those competitions have nearly a 100% admission rate for MIT, whereas international applicants with those awards have roughly a 50% admission rate for MIT. Admission rates at the other HYPS colleges is considerably lower as they donât give them nearly the importance that MIT does.
I do not have numbers for admissions impact for the smaller Olympiads. But I agree with @collegemom3717âs assessment that while they are not likely auto-admission, they likely have a positive impact on your admission chances.
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I was a qualifier for the iGeo team from the US last year and went to camp for USESO. I also did some research papers at a university, was president of two clubs, and was a qualifier and have smaller awards like AIME, NACLO, NAQT, History Bowl, Science Bowl, etc. I got deferred from Harvard SCEA, do I have a chance for other top 20 universities? I feel like my basic volunteering (2.5 hours/week teaching golf) held me back. I was wondering if colleges see me as a mindless competition drone.
Agree.
What have you done for others? Is there anything that youâve done for your local community? Iâm sure you have the grades and the stats, but each of these schools is different for fit. They know what they want and who can bring that skill to their schools.
IDK, Iâve always found it scummy when kids created nonprofits for their high school years and then abandon them when they get it college. I only did a bit of volunteering for golf (around 200 hours over 3 years) and a debate camp for underprivileged children for a week in summer/winter break over the last 2 years. I feel like I could have done more but I really didnât want to create a random nonprofit like everyone else for a grand total of 2-4 years and do a disservice to the few kids it actually impacted. I see your point in why colleges would not want to take someone like me, when other kids are actually making changes in the life of others.
No one is saying you should create a nonprofit - in fact, this is a huge pet peeve of mine, too (as a nonprofit professional, I have a lot of thoughts on the sector, and one of my main thoughts is that people need to stop creating more nonprofits). Anyway, there are plenty of ways to serve your community - you named a few: volunteering, helping at camps, etc. There are many organizations that love (and train!) volunteers, so you can gain new skills and do something to give back. And there are opportunities in just about every field of interest, but you have to be very pro-active in seeking them out and usually you need to put in some research to find out whatâs out there.
Nobody said that, either. They have just been stressing the fact that admissions is complicated and there are usually a lot of factors at play when it comes to getting an acceptance.
Iâm curious what you wrote about in your personal statement(s). Were you able to humanize yourself and make your personality multidimensional? If so, then maybe you have adequately addressed that concern.
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There are plenty of ways for students to impact their communities without creating nonprofits. Every community has plenty of existing organizations that happily take volunteers. There is no need to reinvent the wheel.
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I wrote nothing that unique for college essays or anything about any real hardships (I basically had none my entire life) but about how I loved learning ever since young in any field I can find, and how my multiple interests were related to each other with mathematics being the link and the foundation of everything and I how to want to learn more about it to pursue my future goals. I also talked about the collaboration/teamwork that I did in school/ECs heavily and how my peers have always pushed me and how I have grown being in an environment with other intellectually curious students. I chose the âdiversityâ prompt and wrote about how geography is overlooked and its importance of it in everyday life.
That all sounds good - you donât need to present a hardship; some people are fortunate to not have yet encountered particular hardship and trying to contrive one is, to use your word, scummy, imo. You have to work with what youâve got and do so with some intellectual honesty. Love of learning is essential to college, so thatâs not a bad topic, especially if you can make original links between what youâve learned and what youâve done with that.
Depends on the T20 school. Very unlikely to tip the scale at Harvard, Yale type schools. What is your major and what is your full list of schools?
Applied Math/Data Science (at schools that offer)
Applied to basically all top 25s and then some of the Public Ivies
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Yea, I linked it mostly to my research + collaboration
@DegreeDreamer2023 you are trying to see into the black boxâŠand you just canât.
From the sounds of it, you are a credible candidate for all the places that you applied toâŠbut so are most of the other applicants, and somewhere between 85 & 95% of you all are going to be told ânoâ.
In theory you âshouldâ get into at least one of the ~30 (!) places to which you have applied- but it is not impossible that you could be shut out, b/c they are independent variables.
Given the shotgunning approach that you have taken I think that you should steel yourself for many, many rejection letters- but remember, you only need 1 yes, and either you or they are going to have to say ânoâ to all the rest. Tearing yourself apart, and second guessing yourself (was it this? was it that? are these things I did âenoughâ?) as each one comes in will help nothing and change nothing. As best you can (I know that this is much easier said than done) try to say âoh well, it was always a very long shot and there are still X to goâ.
tl;dr- youâve shot your shot, now you have to wait & see how plays out. Dissecting the past is just self-torture at this point- so donât do it!
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Why do all students think they are supposed to create a non-profit?? There are so many non-profits around, why would you assume that admissions wants another student who is assuming that this is the method of getting admitted?
Iâm going to repeat this for you because the message was really clear for us. Let me preface: My husband and I were invited to a Stanford information freshman admissions session for Stanford alumni (my husband). The director of admissions would be speaking to us. The âinvitation paperworkâ indicated that it was designed specifically for parents. More or less, I forget how they worded it, but they indicated that children would not be welcomed.
Anyway, the session was tailored for the parents. Iâm paraphrasing because this was ~2007 for our daughter.
The director mentioned:
"Please know that we love our school and our students, but if your child is one who has done really well in one area, and has not stepped out of his/her comfort zone, then that is an issue.
We have several libraries full of books. If your child spends all day studying, itâs expected that his/her grades will be great. His/her knowledge in that area could fill a book. âWell, we donât need another bookâ. Our libraries are full of books. We need students. We need a student with passion who will take advantage of their world around them and use their innate skills to add to that world."
There were several students (less than 10) that came and had to stand along the walls because each table had placards with our names (about 100 parents), so there was no space for the students. There was ice coming.
Her next comment was directed at them: âOh and for those students who came tonight, expecting us to comment on your application, Iâm sorry. We gave specific instructions that this was a parent session. Youâve just proved to us that there are students who canât, wont or donât follow directions. You werenât invited.â She was not happy. There was a collective gasp from the parents. Unfortunately there was a sign in sheet and I saw several students signing in.
Anyway, my point is that Stanford, at that time, wanted excellent students who were not only self-serving but were also people who had a history of exploring and contributing to their communities.
My youngest attended Caltech. Yes heâs brilliant, and âshyâ, but heâs always tagged along with his older sisters and did multiple sports, learned how to drive a forklift for a food bank, and was always called upon by his Principal to greet and help assimilate new students.
He received admissions to Top 10s.
Iâm not saying that you have to do what he did, Iâm just telling you our experiences. His sisters also did very well in their admissions.
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There are so many brilliant applicants from the AOs to choose from. Itâs insane how many there are, and this college admissions cycle is a crapshoot.
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I got #1 in the USGC in JV division this year and iâm going to be a Sophomore after this summer. Iâm looking at competing at iGeo, since I definitely have what it takes to qualify. Just wondering, what colleges did you end up getting into, as an iGeo qualifier, and where did you end up going?