<p>"Oh, screw the SO awards, they're worthless. Dont' worry about the 3, just get a 5 on the AB. Why did you even take A anyways? AP scores aren't that important."</p>
<p>umm yea im realy even in science olympiad lol i just put that since i went there like twice my freshman year to one of those things and then i quit...ill problaby do it next year for real...its just something i could add on...</p>
<p>acutally some of my things like 25 hours at hospital i havent even completed yet but im just gonna put that on right now since ill be done with that by the end of summer (its a lot better than key club since you are acutally helping people out instead of getting free hours for doing nothing, like most people just say they did newspapers to get hours...)</p>
<p>"don't put middle school awards on your application because as you specifically said the application says to list things from 9th grade up... soo uhhh.. follow their directions"</p>
<p>uhh...yea i saw that on like harvards application i was looking at last year but i think the newer common application is more broader.</p>
<p>Even without USNCO/USABO yet?
im still gonna do them though (for awards...), but mainly because i want to go into medicine...math has relatively nothing to do with medicine...</p>
<p>Since you're just going to be a junior, I'd say you're right on track. Even if you were a senior now, you would have pretty high accomplishments, just need a bit more, but I think next year you'll be great :]</p>
<p>So yep, you're def on track as a junior, try to get into RSI! That's kind of like "ivy league" based on its acceptance rate.. it'd help your app a lot if you got in. Also, try to get more science-related awards? I see you're int he science research club, but you don't have that many accomplishments, intern somewhere! *edit, nvm I didn't see your little blurb about science comp. wins :p</p>
<p>And yeah, retake your sat's. It's amazing how well you did before even junior year... shoot for a 2400 :)</p>
<h2>Davidson, do you even know what USAMO is?</h2>
<p>Well, doing USABO/USNCO is nice, but make sure you'll be capable to do USAMO, Siemens, and all those other olympiads and activities. Qualifying for the USNCO/USABO national exam isn't exactly cake. Those olympiads have a reason for being prestigious. Also, colleges probably won't think you're doing them just for the awards, since you're doing SO and research.</p>
<p>The only concern i have is that you don't have much social/teamwork and leadership related activities. Your science awards will make you really attractive, and you'll almost be like a recruited athlete. Colleges want people who can fit in and contribute to the community, and have a positive impact. It sounds like an easy and simple thing to do, but it really isn't. It's kinda late to join more clubs, so try to have really good recommendations and really let teachers have a good impression of yourself.</p>
<p>"The only concern i have is that you don't have much social/teamwork and leadership related activities."</p>
<p>Social work/volunteering and leadership positions are overrated. I had 0 volunteering hours and didn't join any dumb community service clubs. Don't volunteer for the sake of college apps. If you really enjoy volunteering, then go ahead.</p>
<p>USNCO and USABO are cake compared to USAMO. It's not even close (assuming we're talking about pre-camp)
Some stats in case u doubt me...
10% of usabo make it to the next level whereas only 1% of AMC takers even advance to AIME...advancing to usamo is probably only like 5%...so yeah ...
USNCO is lame, its 2 kids per school usually...but really the % is still quite quite high.</p>
<p>^yea i noticed that 10% qualified for USABO semi on their page but the people that start off taking the USABO are already very well qualified (more so than AMC takers at the subjects being tested on the AMC) so that number is a little misleading...but yea it is obviously easier...</p>
<p>umm for the USNCO i asked this question in the USNCO thread in the high school life seciton but no one answered yet...but how does the 2 people per school work?</p>
<p>lets say i get a 30/60 (which is very bad score) but it is still 2nd best at my school. Do i still qualify (because that sounds unfair)...or is it that you have to get a certain qualifying score+be top 2 at your school (assuming your school did not have any past finalists)...</p>
<p>oh yea what sucks is that at my school because i dont think im top 2 in my grade...let alone top 10 right now, meaning i have to study very hard...i got Atkins and i think my school provides like Zuhmdahl (sp?)...are those the two recommended books?</p>
<p>but then again i like worked super hard for AIME to try and pass since 8th grade when i first took it and it took me like 2 years and tons of hours just to pass, so even with the USABO/USNCO being a lot easier to pass, its no joke...just from my experiences.</p>
<p>although one thing is AP chem and AP bio covers some of those topics...none of my math classes even covered 1/3 of the topics on the AMC, let alone AIME.</p>
<p>"lets say i get a 30/60 (which is very bad score) but it is still 2nd best at my school. Do i still qualify (because that sounds unfair)...or is it that you have to get a certain qualifying score+be top 2 at your school (assuming your school did not have any past finalists)..."</p>
<p>I would not recommend bothering with bio unless you really like brute memorization. Chem is better I suppose....but unless you have taken orgo you won't make it to camp anyways, and qualifying for USNCO doesn't mean much by itself.</p>
<p>USNCO is seriously the most unorganized thing I've ever taken. </p>
<p>It's usually like you take a local test, and at most a school can only send two people to take the national test, from there, you get top 20 etc go to camp, get top 4, go to IChO, etc.</p>
<p>IF your local test is at your school and if it is the second highest score, no matter how low it is, your teacher or whoever is in charge for that local section CAN chose to send you. From what I know it is not based on any score, but just by the rank of scores. </p>
<p>Um...Zumdahl or however you spell it is okay.. like honestly alot of the USNCO stuff you can't just look up in books, or like it won't be straight in books. Google helps, asking your teacher helps more I'd say. Still, it's pretty tough. I spent like a few hours studying every night and I did like every test available, and the one thing I forgot to study turned up on the national test.<br>
I was first in my school, and ended up with honors...so oh well.</p>
<p>yea i was hoping i could get semifinalist (doubt it)...
i can only get like 45/60 right now on those local tests (which means i probalby wont pass...)</p>
<p>You don't really need orgo for USNCO.... I only got one orgo question and it was cheese, while the MC orgo was fairly based on past tests, not saying it will always be like that, but I really don't think it's a necessity. </p>
<p>Uhh... Just take all the tests you can, there's no real other way to prepare for it, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Also: I think I saw my score, I'm not sure if it was percent based or some other scale, but the printout said it was like 85 or something, so... yeah that wasn't that great either for local test.</p>
<p>From what I know, atleast when I took it, locals are actually completely optional. It is your teacher/organizer who is responsible for picking which kids to send to nationals.</p>
<p>Also: there is no such thing as "semifinalist" from what I know atleast. You just get "honors" which is like top 50 or something like that, I don't think it's always specified the number. At least thats what my region told me. I was supposed to get like some form of results for my tests but I never actually got that either, and I had to read in their stupid newsletter that I actually got something for it.</p>
<p>
[quote]
If you make it to siemens finalist, get a medal on USAMO and make it to RSI, you stand a good chance of getting into MIT and Harvard. Right now, you don't have any particular hooks. a laundry list now, i must say.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>ok kwaldner....first of all, USAMO qualification is definitely not a laundry list item, second: you are a Singaporean who scored 720 on the math section of the SAT! This is a test that is much easier than any contest in the series that leads up to USAMO. Even if you were an American citizen I really really doubt that you would make USAMO....or even AIME for that matter...</p>
<p>As far as your prospects look blah, I'm thinking:
Harvard-low reach
MIT-match
CalTech-match
Princeton-low reach
Yale-low reach
Duke- match
UPenn- match
Cornell- match
Northwestern- match</p>