<p>There are also areas such as math and some kinds of comp sci that do not require the use of labs, equipment, etc.</p>
<p>Congratulations to all the winners! Huge honor-- but I am laughing while reading this thread. When my son was a semi-finalist some years back almost no one in our immediate social circle was familiar with this competition. The only reason I knew about it, in spite of quite a bit of time spent in front of morning tv while nursing, was from my son who had heard of it somehow and decided to participate after finding a mentor outside of school. My sibling, with an engineering MA, had never heard of it. At least a half dozen friends with Ph.D.s - though not in science-- had no clue. When the first announcements were made at school his friends congratulated him "on whatever it was you won" and when the prize check was presented to the school, there had to be a meeting to tell the school board what it was all about and why it was important. The prize check did seem to get their attention. I think it may really depend where you live.</p>
<p>alh, thank you!!!</p>
<p>5 in the state of NC: 4 at the same school, state-funded/public boarding school for science and mathematics located a few miles from Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill were awarded 4 of the semi-finalists</p>
<p>Durham
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics
Hornstein, Eli (17)</p>
<p>Kulkarni, Chiraag (17)</p>
<p>Li, Kevin (17)</p>
<p>Xu, Haoming (17)</p>
<p>Wilmington
John T. Hoggard High School
Berman, John (16)</p>
<p>Middle son did not participate and was made aware of it from his mentor at Duke med during summers when he was doing cancer research there. Not mentioned at his school at all.</p>
<p>And it is not that much of a stretch to say the Intel competition is not familiar to many adults in our area. When same son was admitted early to MIT, his Calculus teacher, yes his Calc from his sophomore year did NOT know what MIT was, so we said Mass... AND her response was there is an ITT Tech or our local community college (also a Tech) was much, much closer and so much cheaper. Still no clue. Even harder to explain his early admittance to Cal Tech with a merit scholarship. And Princeton?, where is that??? Never heard of it.</p>
<p>And no going to West Point or USNA or USAFA is NOT enlisting and being sent to Iraq 6 weeks after high school graduation. Why would our senators have anything to do with a service academy appointment? Why would they show up at the high school?</p>
<p>So yes there are adults and most notably educators in our area that are NOT familiar with the Intel SFS competition.</p>
<p>Son chose to not spend his "free" time doing research for Intel rather he spent his summers doing research at Duke and Chapel Hill were he was paid, he needed that more. And since he had no transportation to and from either university it was encumbent on him to negotiate on-campus housing as part of his compensation.</p>
<p>As a single mom with one vehicle I could swing by and pick him up on certain weekends so he could come home for summer practice/workouts for his sport. Sometimes his high school coach would also make a run out to get him if they needed him for a meeting or important practice.</p>
<p>I can see where Xiggi has a point where if a student comes from an "advantaged" home (income, professional connections, lab access, university/mentor access, or in NC a school advantage) that the competition his favored toward those students.</p>
<p>As evidenced by other posters on this thread NOT ALL are "connected" but knowing the school here in NC and having only 1 other school represented especially coming from a district with 18 LARGE high schools in one of the fastest growing districts in the US the numbers support Xiggi's concerns.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Please, when your child was able to do research at Duke while in high school that is pretty connected and advantaged regardless of finances.</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>Without taking away from their accomplishments, I think the whole thing is just a racket. <<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>No, Pizzagirl, tennis is a game of love! [smiley face]</p>
<p>Our public HS's Intel finalist was our first and only Intel anything. She didn't fit any of the above stereotypes (wealthy, pushy parents, school that works the system and cranks out multiple semi-finalists, etc). Shy, sweet, bookish girl-- and obviously extremely bright.</p>
<p>I remember hearing about the Westinghouse competition (as Intel was then known) back in the 1970's, not that I knew anyone who entered. Until this thread, I always figured it was as well known as, say, the national spelling bee. </p>
<p>A friend's two children were both involved in Intel. One "only" got to semi-finalist status, and went to Harvard anyway. :) The other child started working in a research group at a single-initial research university at some point in high school, and really ran with the project. To the point where collaborators at other single-initial research universities assumed that this high school student was a postdoc, based on phone conversations and email exchanges. That kid ended up being an Intel finalist, and being heavily recruited for undergrad. I have never seen anything like this before; it gave me a sense of what it must be like to be a highly coveted D1 football prospect. There were phone calls from Nobel laureates, telling this student about opportunities to work in their labs. There were calls from Ivy administrative mucky-mucks (e.g. deans). If I read about this on CC, I wouldn't believe it, so if you don't believe it I won't feel offended. :) </p>
<p>Now, this was a kid with all the advantages. Involved, well-off parents who were in the biz. The kid's high school was top notch. The kid was not a one-trick pony: the student excelled academically across the board, and had wonderful ECs in a range of fields. But what this kid achieved in that research project, even with that head start, was astounding. And the student's enthusiasm for the project was genuine. I don't know about other participants, and how packaged they may or may not be, but in at least this one case advantage is only one part of the story.</p>
<p>(Oh, and no, this student didn't go to an Ivy. Took a significant merit scholarship at one of the uber-intellectual schools in order to save $$$ for med school, and has lived happily ever after.)</p>
<p>A student we know who was a finalist last year was sorry he had been accepted ED. He said all of the 40 finalists had been and were being courted by top schools at the finals week. There was an MIT private letter to big donors that was posted somewhere on this site. It said that MIT was proud of its recruited "academic stars". The awards were listed but CC deleted them since they would easily disclose the identities of the students.
Semi-finalist may not get you there but it appears that finalist will.</p>
<p>Florida,
Interesting -- S never mentioned the recruiting at Intel STS. At the Siemens Regional Finals held at MIT, there was LOTS of talking up about the school, as I expect there was at Caltech, CMU, GaTech, Notre Dame and UT, where the other regionals finals were held. It's not like any Siemens RF walked out of MIT that weekend with an offer in hand, though. S was the only RF in that region who applied EA (which surprised the heck out of us).</p>
<p>Nevertheless, we know Intel finalists from last year who did not get into Ivies, even with stellar scores, essays, recs and significant awards in addition to STS. As I have posted on these Intel and Siemens threads repeatedly, doing well at these science competitions is NOT a guarantee of admission. </p>
<p>I saw that letter on CC before it was taken down -- names were not listed, but if one knew the cast of characters, it was not hard to identify some of them. However, it was highlights of the entire freshman pool, not just Intel folks.</p>
<p>SlitheyTove,
Westinghouse has a long and storied reputation. DH went to Bronx Science in the 1970s and it was expected that certain students (i.e., those taking AP Calc, Physics and Chem -- which was unusual at the time, even for BxSci) would do a Westinghouse. DH did a NSF research project in Georgia the summer before senior year and did not do Westinghouse. Some of his teachers were openly disappointed.</p>
<p>The reputation of Intel seems to be very regional, with most participants on the coasts. Our highly ranked public magnet sends a large percentage of students to Ivies and other top schools including Caltech and MIT, but most around here have not heard of Intel.</p>
<p>The awards represent a significant achievement for the student and many top universities appear to take them very seriously. That said, it's clear that there's a bit of an "industry" involved in the clusters of winners from single high schools. It is rare that a winner has done entirely independent research, but there is still a lot of learning that goes on even if a student is simply a collaborator in a professor's lab.</p>
<p>My husband is an engineering professor at a top school in his field and he had never heard of Intel. I once showed him the website of winners, with descriptions of their projects, and he thought it was complete nonsense. In his opinion, the students were not engaged in what he would call real research. However, I should add that his field is far removed from bio and chem, and those seem to be the areas that most of the kids are working in.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, </p>
<p>What do you suggest instead? People who never got the opportunities and did not prove themselves excellent in something should get preference over 'rich' kids who did actually excel?</p>
<p>A lot of families can afford $200K over the years, but don't spend it on that kind of thing. I am sure 10 years of new cars for many not-so-wealthy families would match that price.</p>
<p>Some families put all they have into their kids talents and achievements, it can be rewarding, bonding, fun for everyone and teach the kid thing far greater than they'll get stuck in a regular school. At the end the kid has an achievement - and you find it 'disgusting' that colleges like such kids?</p>
<p>Better than keeping the money and seeing it vanish in the stock market.</p>
<p>"I've met their friends on that circuit and they all fit the exact same description -- extremely well-to-do parents who could spend that kind of money and an at-home parent who could fly and travel at a moment's notice. Without taking away from their accomplishments, I think the whole thing is just a racket. (Seriously, no pun intended.) It's a shell game ... the parents spend $200,000 over the years to polish their children's tennis skills, and then colleges give them $200,000 in scholarships. It's rather disgusting that colleges don't see through this."</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, </p>
<p>What do you suggest instead? People who never got the opportunities and did not prove themselves excellent in something should get preference over 'rich' kids who did actually excel?"</p>
<p>I never suggested any such thing. I'm a full-freight parent myself and I have the means to afford nice opportunities for my children. I'm just commenting that one would hope colleges see the larger context that a kid comes from. And c'mon, the fact that NY has 115 of 300 winners says a lot about the regional popularity of the contest.</p>
<p>As our President said, America need to change. </p>
<p>No more 'American Idol', this show only encourages our young to think that the only way to riches is to perform in shows. Don't get me wrong, I believed talented singers, musicians, actors and performers are America's cultural assets. The entertainment industry is hugh in America. </p>
<p>No more 'Monday Night Football.' I know people will kill me for saying this, but American spent too much time watching games of all sorts. Again, don't get me wrong, being good in sport is great and that all sorts of sport should be encouraged at all levels of schools. The sport industry is hugh in America. </p>
<p>You see where I am going with this? America is no longer a dominant power in science and technology. We are great exporters of Hollywood movies, soundtracks and sports. Nothing wrong with that, except, I don't want our kids to be the world's entertainers. We will need to build, invents, design and create stuff that will make us the envy of the world.</p>
<p>making a point- point made. I agree. That is why we need competitions such as Intel STS to reward the level of academic achievement these students reach. Even the top schools recruit athletes and actors. Why not academic stars?<br>
If you want regionally allocated scientific awards- enter the Seimens competition. Even if the 300 semifinalists get a boost in their college apps, it is only 300 out of 29,000 applicants at Harvard this year. And the top schools admit based on building a diverse class. They do not want 300 scientific whiz kids in a class of only 1300. That leaves many spots for the rest of the applicants.</p>
<p>CountingHouse, you're right that what was then the Westinghouse competition was extremely well-known, and well-publicized, in the New York area as far back as the 1970's (at least). I went to a very good private high school in the Bronx that wasn't particularly science oriented and had nobody (as far as I know) participate in the competition, but I remember very well reading in the papers every single year about the large numbers of students from Bronx Science and Stuyvesant who became semi-finalists or finalists. So, it's a long tradition around here. I think the prominence of Long Island schools may be a little more recent, but probably not much. Odd that one doesn't hear about suburban schools in northern New Jersey that much, since the demographic of many towns isn't so different from parts of Long Island and Westchester.</p>
<p>DonnaL -- I agree, that it's a bit unusual about NJ, esp. since there are a lot of schools in Westchester that also seem to garner a fair number of Intel SFs. (A good friend of ours -- also a BxSci alum -- lives in Croton and I keep an eye on these things, as she has an 8th grade S who is science-oriented.)</p>
<p>Then again, there were NO Intel finalists from California last year. I was really surprised.</p>
<p>It is sad to see so many people out their who wants to abolish the top high school science and technology competition. Now I understand the reasons that fueled my success here without a USA degree. Outside of USA most people will celebrate an achievement like this and will encourage universities to enroll such students but if you look at Stanford university acceptances it is easier to get in as a start athlete than a star science wiz kid.
Stanford takes in more 200 athletes every year and I don't see any complaints about that.</p>
<p>POIH, you are right that in recent years, not many Intel finalists have attended Stanford. Not sure why that is. Most of them seem to head to Harvard and MIT.</p>
<p>Now wait a minute</p>
<p>Your daughter was accepted to Cal Tech--a school that has produced at least 30 Nobel Prize Winners, is ranked by some methodologies as having the top chemistry and earth sciences departments in the country and in the top ten for engineering, physics and math, and has as its 25 percentile for Math SAT 1 a 770 (which puts the BOTTOM 1/4 of students as doing better than 98% of all test takers in the country)--and you are bitter about Stanford having decent athletics??!!</p>
<p>It seems that the system does work. Your daughter, who has an interest, passion and exceptional achievement in the sciences and technology, as evidenced by her success in the Intel competition (and I'm sure also by her GPA, SAT scores, ECs etc), was accepted to one of the premiere science and technology schools in the country.</p>
<p>How is this evidence that acceptance to the elite schools of higher education in this country has somehow gone off course? Or that the American higher education system (and Americans in general) value the wrong things?</p>
<p>And for the record, just look around here at CC, and you will see many complaints about elite schools accepting star athletes, even though many of these star athletes also happen to be stellar students.</p>
<p>If you are upset about Stanford having accepted a few decent athletes, feeling that it somehow debases the academic community there, why would you worry if your Ds Intel status will help her get into Stanford? Cal Tech, I believe, is not a strong school athletically. </p>
<p>It seems that Cal Tech values the same things that you value, and is a tippity-top school academically? Why are you so worried about a HYPS acceptance(all of which participate in D1 athletics)?</p>