Yes i did apply to science talent search. Yes it was a lot of work. I had to write a 20 page paper and 10 essays or so for the competition.
In my applications i wrote an additional info essay in which i both elaborated on my research as well as the non profit organization that I mentioned as one of my extracurriculars.
I also made sure to send in the abstract of my paper to Cornell and UVA through the application portal. After doing some research(no pun intended) it seemed that Michigan isn’t interested in taking those sorts of things due to the sheer volume of applications they get.
Rest assured, it was not glossed over.
One thing that i think will help a lot is that my research was combining two of my favorite interests, history and government. Which I mentioned in the aforementioned additional info section.
My study basically simulated what the house election results would have been each year for the past 20 years if there was no gerrymandering and if population was on a normal distribution.
I also showed how gerrymandering strongly negatively affects voter turnout.
Awesome! I think this could really help your chances because not only does this show dedication and academic creativity, but you’re blending your interests really well together, which is something a lot of T20 schools are looking for. Good luck and great project
I’ve seen serious wackiness with UMich’s out-of-state applicants, hence the reason I predicted deferral at UMich and admit for those other two (Cornell and UVA). My UMich prediction didn’t have anything to do with not taking more math above calc though. I just asked that question in the event he ends up having to apply later to HPYS in the reg round.
I do hope he gets in all three, but if there’s a deferral, it would most likely be at UMich. Good luck, dude!
Interesting. From our school (NYC) the majority of kids are sending in their SAT/ACT. For Cornell, my son submitted his (self reported and had CollegeBoard send them) but then the SHA/Dyson chose to not consider scores. Not sure if anyone will even see his scores, but they are there.
Here in Northern California, almost all, if not all as far I can tell, SAT tests were canceled from March thru October. The November test was held as far as know. Our local public school did have a school test day on October 14th.
D took that school day test, but what I thought was strange was that only about a 1/10th of the large senior class (only seniors took the test) took the test, which I found very strange, since few, if any, could get a test to take this year.
@sushiritto Here at Texas the same, but students travelled to Oklahoma to take the SAT tests. Our HS also held SAT test day in March and most Junior took the tests that day.
My brother in LA his stepson every test he was scheduled to take was cancelled. He finally drove to Arizona 2x in September to get an SAT in. Those were the only times he was able to take it. I’m not sure why he wasn’t set to take it earlier during Junior year. It could just be how they do it there or based on activities he is involved with or test prep. He doesn’t have a rockstar score and not applying to elite schools, but some are reaches like Michigan or Texas and was told to submit scores because while not having a score won’t hurt in the admissions process, having a score and making the effort to take the test will help. However, who the heck knows from anything these days? There is so much conflicting information and you can talk to a ton of different colleges and they all say something different.
Our school runs both ACT and SAT and every senior had a chance to take the ACT at least once by October as they set up to be a site for their students only with 100 student capacity and did that a few times, plus students were able to get tested elsewhere and then ran an SAT at least once this fall, but also seniors need the SAT to graduate so they were able to reschedule the APRIL senior SAT for two dates this fall and a third date this April for those who basically don’t care and just need the graduation requirement.
My son actually took it early in junior year but that’s mainly because he’s my 4th kid and I work in a high school so I know the ins and outs of knowing when is the best time to get it and that he was taking a tough junior year course load which and plays a spring sport. He didn’t score perfectly on the ACT but he was happy with his score and we did hear that schools assume when taken early scores usually only go up. Who knows if that’s true. These days anything can be true as everyone is doing this for the first time. He did submit his AP scores, but there was never a question whether to submit or not, however, I have no idea if his school considers them one way or the other. We just considered it part of the application. In normal times he is a very strong candidate, but in these times, anything goes and he’s prepared to do a lot more essay writing next week.