<p>This question came into mind when people always say that you have to be a semifinalist/finalist if you want to go to top colleges. So I was wondering if the colleges give you any credit for atleast doing research/research project and submitting it.</p>
<p>So does participation count for SOMETHING?</p>
<p>Of course it counts as something. If you feel the need for special emphasis, you could elaborate on it in the “pick one ec and describe…” section. </p>
<p>Personally, I worked way more on projects that didn’t go to ISEF than the one that did. It’s a nice recognition. But in the end, it’s still just a title.</p>
<p>sure, it counts for something. But your title asked if it is enough, as if whether it would be sufficient for your main or only EC. For that, you’d need to be a finalist.</p>
<p>Being a <em>finalist</em> for Siemens and/or Intel is not enough to get a candidate into top colleges.</p>
<p>OP, there are plenty of students who do research, design things, and experiment who never even submit stuff to Siemens or Intel. If you like doing this stuff, do it. Submit it to competitions if you want. Write about it in your essays. Show who you are. </p>
<p>Do not do research for the sake of getting admitted to college or winning awards.</p>
<p>@ CountingDown</p>
<p>I totally disagree with what you said</p>
<p>A finalist is Intel in fact is a HUGE advantage
Way too huge that it is actually unfair. Those finalist don’t do most of the work anyways.
I had a friend who had fairly low GPA, SAT but won something in Intel because he had lots of money and can get a lot of researchers, and guess what he got into Penn.
And he’s Asian too.</p>
<p>and I also read his essay too
He didn’t have a strong essay either
And he was a gamer, so he didn’t spend a lot of extra time doing other things either
so, the Intel Science Fair is the only reason that got him in</p>
<p>
Your opinion. Being a finalist is extremely selective. In 2008 there were 14 finalists from the entire state of California. New York had 18. If being a finalist isn’t a state honor, I don’t know what is. </p>
<p>And to be more specific, being a finalist isn’t going to get someone in on its own. But its going to be at the high end of the charts when ECs are evaluated.</p>
<p>OP if this is the only competition you participate in and you have no research in
prior years (irrespective of whether you participated in a Science fair or not)
colleges will view this very dimly. Especially the USNR top 5 schools.</p>
<p>Top 5 schools see the level of passion you associate with doing research.
Achievements and awards are just an outcome that the quality of your work
can be judged by.</p>
<p>Personally, I am quite sure that my admittance to Stanford, Princeton and of course
Harvard were more due to my supplemental ‘performing art’ material submissions
than my research (despite having a significant number of awards nationally and
internationally).</p>
<p>Caltech is the only school I am somewhat certain that my Siemens may have had
a major effect on (since this occurs during the EA time). At the time of my EA
admission to MIT I noticed amongst the fellow-admittees who registered that
roughly 20% of them in the major states were Siemens semifinalists- so maybe
any award is of some value to their app (?) Just participation though without
an award is going to possibly signal not the best of messages about your
potential?</p>
<p>Duke, Penn and Cornell seem to favor Siemens award recipients but along the lines
of what mikemac pointed out the achievement could be significant even if it is just a
semifinalist status.</p>
<p>It helps but is not the be all and end all. My opinion falls somewhere between CountingDown and maruhan2. I applied to Caltech and MIT EA but at the time was NOT an Intel Semifinalist. I got into Caltech, deferred MIT (so Caltech was content that I had went to the State Science Fair every year without an Intel placing). Later that year I got Intel Semifinalist and went to ISEF with my research. I subsequently got into MIT and every other school I applied to but I am of the opinion that those two recognitions were at the same time RA decisions were made and sent out so its possible they didn’t even factor into my acceptance. Take from that what you will but I will just say to OP, some research is better than none and I know tons of people at MIT who didn’t do research at all in HS and are there…Having to have LOVED science/math in HS to be at MIT is a grossly unnecessary misconception.</p>
<p>I’d say it’s a pretty big boost on your app…after all, they’re both prestigious awards that not many people get. One of my friends was a Siemens finalist and Intel semi-finalist, and he got in EVERYWHERE. Then again, he was brilliant to begin with.</p>
<p>Do research because you like doing research, not for colleges. I am pretty sure anybody that did research learned a valuable lesson that will help them in college, regardless of what they got. That said, I would have to agree with some people in that being a finalist is a huge boost; however, semifinalist is not that great, because I know 3 semifinalists that went to like third or fourth choice colleges (not HYPSMC + any top 10).</p>
<p>Furthermore, I read on CC on a post by another user that a reason why colleges don’t really distinguish between semifinalist and participant that much because there are many people out there that borrow data from professors, which is totally unfair, and they know they can’t seperate them.</p>
<p>It’s not opinion…an Intel or Siemens finalist who isn’t a strong candidate over all is not going to get into a top college. It’s not enough ON ITS OWN, is what the commenter said – not that it’s not a great accomplishment or that it won’t be weighted heavily in admissions. But a Siemens finalist with a 2.5 GPA and a 1500 is likely not going to get into Yale.</p>
<p>Doing the research – actually doing it yourself (and not paying someone else to do it for you) is far more important the awards that you win for it. Research is one of those ECs that you can’t really do half-heartedly, especially if you really want to win awards for it. It’s a passion, not something to take lightly.</p>
<p>There’s nothing wrong with using a professor’s data – senior scholars use each other’s data all the time. As a matter of fact, there are large national data sets that are completely open to public use; that’s what they were collected for to begin with. You can use already collected data; the important part is what you do with that data – how you analyze it and how you design your study. An innovative study design in which you do your own analyses is distinguished against something that’s already been done, or something that’s obviously done by your professor.</p>
<p>It’s absolutely not enough to just do sci research and call it quits. It’s also not enough to place at Intel/Siemens/etc (while it DOES help) - finalists and semifinalists get turned down at HYP all the time! Also think about (or look at their profiles/pictures) the group of kids who even win those awards - do they look similar to each other? Of course! They all have more or less similar profiles. Colleges want diversity. Moral of the story: don’t expect semifinalist status to guarantee the Ivy of your choice.</p>
<p>I think the original question of mine has been sort of misconstrued (partly due to my confusing OP maybe).
What I ment to ask is does participation in those competitions count for ANYTHING?
like will colleges just brush it off because you did not win a National award?
I know well that JUST doing research isnt going to get you anywhere if you are not well rounded
thank you for all the responses btw</p>
<p>Yes, it counts for something. However, there are some high schools where many of their students participate in the competition. I know of some in our area. It was not enough to get many of the participants into the most selective schools despite top stats in grads and test scores along with the participation.</p>
Wrong thread
Hmmmm. OK…
I think everyone is a bit different. I never did Siemens/Intel (in fact, I’ve never even really heard of it!), and I was able to get into my dream school with an intended major of Computer Science. I think if you want to go to a top college its also important to look at the bigger picture, since there isn’t really a set checkbox for things that will garentee admission (unless you save the world or something)