I’m currently a freshman in HS and am very interested in participating in a science olympiad next year. I’m striving to get into a top college and I’ve hard these can be very helpful on a college application if you do well on them. I plan on majoring in something in the STEM field.
Because I have all this free time now I’m trying to do some research on these competitions with the goal of deciding on one to participate in and hopefully even start studying.
So I’m wondering, how does one go about choosing one to participate in?
From my understanding, there is:
USNCO (US National Chemistry Olympiad) / International Chemistry Olympiad.
U.S. Physics Team / International Physics Olympiad.
USABO (USA Biology Olympiad) / IBO.
USAAAO (USA Astronomy and Astrophysics).
North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad / International Linguistics Olympiad (ILO)
United States Geography Olympiad / International Geography Olympiad
USA ESO (US Earth Science Olympiad) / International Earth Science Olympiad
US Philosophy Olympiad / International Philosophy Olympiad
Are there any that are significantly better or worse than the others, or is it just based on interest?
Are there any that are significantly harder/easier than the others?
As far as previous experience, I took Honors Biology this year and will take Honors Chemistry and AP Biology next year, though I’m not sure if that actually makes any difference. As far as interest I would say I’m least interested in the latter four on this list but I’m not necessarily opposed to them either.
If someone could give me some insight on choosing an olympiad I would really appreciate it. I know it is going to largely be a decision I make on my own but I’m looking for a place to start. Thanks in advance!