Just did Catapult

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
1

<p>HS Senior here who just completed Catapult. It was awesome. Rose was awesome. I think I'm in love. Just have to explain that to my parents who are big about "exploring all my options". Also have to figure out how to pay for it. I guess if all else fails loans aren't the end of the world.</p>

<p>I think I'm pretty much a lock to get in, not to be over prideful. 1550 SAT, 4.0 GPA, 7 AP's, all honors, I'll have graduated with about 30 credits when the requirement is 22. Got some unique EC's like sports technology, theatre, and umpiring.</p>

<p>Man, the only thing that really sucks is I have one more year before I can go there. Should find out in October the admissions officer said though because Catapult students get the first looks. Just cross my fingers for financial aid.</p>

2

<p>Haha, I know exactly what you're going through right now.. I did Catapult going into my senior year, not even considering Rose as an option and ended up leaving with it as my first choice. It's such an amazing school and a great opportunity for anyone interested in science and engineering. I'm glad that you had such a wonderful experience and are now excited about the school!! Senior year will come and go really quickly (even though it'll feel like FOREVER when you're in the thick of it) and before you know it, you'll be going to college. It's just a matter of time. :)</p>

<p>You're stats are incredible and since you did Catapult, you're definitely in. Two questions, are you a female, and are you from one of the coasts? Your gender will defintely help you in admissions (the guy-girl ratio is close to 4:1, I'm sure you saw that already though). This'll also help with scholarship opportunities. Also, if you are from one of the coasts, there's a special scholarship offered to 3 lucky recipients called the Percopo scholarship. You have to basically be in the top 10% of your class (which I'm sure you are) and be involved in your school community as a leader and participant (which you are). Otherwise, you will definitely get pretty good money just based on your stats.</p>

<p>And just to let you know, if you send in your application as soon as possible, they start reviewing them around September 1st so you should hear around the 21st.. I got my letter on the 25th (I live in NJ and get my Rose mail 3 days later than my Indiana friends :P).</p>

<p>So good luck with the college process.. if you have any questions or anything, feel free to contact me on AIM at irishsweetiexx. :)</p>

3

<p>Unfortunately I just live in boring ole Georgia and am a male. But oh well. All I have to do to complete my appplication is get my school to send the transcript and senior shedule, the Catapult application and short supplement that I did while there covers eevrything else. I should find out in mid-October which is really nice.</p>

4

<p>Tell us more about the Catapult program. What did you do? What did you like?</p>

5

<p>It was awesome. besides spending 3 weeks working in a Chemical Engineering lab and machine shop building a hydrogen fuel cell from scratch, I did a boat load of fun things like: Movies(3 in normal theater's, 1 at the IMAX in Evansville, sweet), paintball, caving(5 hours, awesome), trips to Chicago, King's Island(fun, fun, yes fun), video games, ping pong, bowling, volleyball, ultimate frisbee, kickball, soccer, Wacky Olympics(pretty cool), morning meetings and off-the-wall punishments like serenading professors with love songs, the talent show was great, midnight and 2 o'clock runs to Taco Bell, Steak'n'Shake, Tropical Sno, IHOP, and Wal-mart, movies in the game room(5 plasma screens, pool tables, ping-pong, foosball, DDR), falling asleep in counselor's rooms(slightly embarassing), Euchre, Halo, Super Smash Brothers, and Poker tournaments, also took a day trip to an oil refinery, speaking of which Super Smash Brothers was amazingly popular, pretty much on whenever people were in dorms.</p>

<p>Did I sufficiently overwhelm you? All in all, it made me want to go to Rose, not because I think it will be fun, fun, fun but because it's a great school.</p>

6

<p>Yeah, that's probably a decent enough summary of what Catapult is like.. haha. It's just an amazing experience for anyone to have. Although it's not completely like what going to college is, it's still a chance to see what it's like to be on your own for 3 weeks. I know my parents are more comfortable sending me away (especially to Rose) because I was able to get along fine without them for the duration of Catapult. It also gives you a clear sign of what direction you should go in after high school - most come out loving the school and eager to begin their extremely math-and-science-oriented education, while others come out realizing that engineering (or an education that focused and intense on that concentration) might not be for them. Overall, it's an amazing experience and I wish everyone who loves physics and wants to pursue engineering would attend this program; it's that awesome. :)</p>

7

<p>Hey, I also went to Catapult. What session did you go too? If you went to session one I have an idea of who you are. Do you live in Canton GA?</p>

8

<p>No I went to session two.</p>

9

<p>Hi. Can anybody explain what Catapult is, and how you ended up going? Were you invited or what? Thanks!</p>

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<p>Catapult is a 3 week program aimed for people who want to explore being an engineer/science major in college.</p>

<p>I'd suggest going to the website <a href="http://www.rose-hulman.edu/catapult%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.rose-hulman.edu/catapult&lt;/a> and checking it out.</p>

<p>Applications I think come out sometime in the winter and it's almosty like a regular college application. </p>

<p>Also for more details on what exactly you do you can go to Arrgggh I can't remember the web link.</p>

<p>It's a lot of fun, you do a project for 3 weeks and learn about the college experience.</p>

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<p>Seems Catapult is more about Steak/Shakes and movies than engineering - guess I got lost at the corner!</p>

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<p>No, because half of your waking hours are spent working, well actually a little less than half because you have so many waking hours, but nevertheless you spend a lot of time working, but it isn't tedious work.</p>

13

<p>I'm sure it's a terrific program - I read about the projects from sessions 1 and 2 on the RH site - but it would be great to hear about the stuff you did during the day! What was it like? Lectures/labs/projects?</p>

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<p>What was the town/city like? Never been to Indiana - I have some impression of the coasts but the midwest escapes me! How about the dorms?
Thanks,
OC</p>

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<p>The midwest is relatively boring to drive through. A lot of farms, a lot of it is rural. Terre Haute's fairly large, although Rose is sort of on the outskirts, it's a 10 minute drive into the downtown area which includes this big mall and all. There's a lot to do down there, bowling, movies, Taco Bell, etc... But for things like paintball and the IMAX we had to drive a little ways. THe dorms we stayed in, Percopo, are very nice, they're fairly new.</p>

<p>Here you can look through all the dorms: <a href="http://www.rose-hulman.edu/StudentAffairs/res_index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.rose-hulman.edu/StudentAffairs/res_index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Pretty much every day we went to a lecture, usually they had us in groups of 20 and a professor would talk to us about some little part of what they teach, for example the biomed lady talked to us about arthritis and prosthetics and the chemE talked about distillation. Thos lectures are one hour, right before or after lunch. We also had some lectures from english teachers to help us with our reports and presentations.</p>

<p>We also had a lecture from the professor in charge of Project X(National Alternative Fuel Competition thingy) and a VP from Cummins come talk to us about what they do.</p>

<p>Every professor took their groups on a field trip for a day. We, the ChemE's went to an oil refinery in Illinois, met a bunch of recent Rose grads who were working there and they showed us around and told us about how the whole gig works.</p>

<p>Other than that we usually spent 6 hours in the computer lab/machine shop/lab working on our projects, one day we spent 8 hours and usually like 2 hours Saturday morning. Most days we were done with projects after dinner(6 o'clock) and did intramurals's from 6-8, but sometimes we had 2 hours after dinner to work. So we rarely had much free time until 8 o'clock at night unless you were going on a trip. And for intramurals your team only plays for an hour, so you might be done at like 6:45 or your game might be at 7 so you just hang out after dinner.</p>

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<p>Hey nic,<br>
Fantastic response - very informative and as "comprehensive" as could be reasonably expected! Your description of what you did during some days and what you did on some nights provided nice balance! Can't wait to apply for next year's Catapult! I'm a rising junior so next summer would be the only time I'm eligible, I think. Anyway, thx for the great info! Is RHIT your first choice?</p>

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<p>Yes, pretty much Rose is my first choice. barring a financial aid catastrophe, I will go there.</p>

<p>The worst part is waiting. I couldn't wait to go to Catapult and I can't wait to go to Rose.</p>

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<p>With great stats like yours, I'd say your chances are excellent! I always wondered whether the adcom will place greater weight on comments written by the profs who actually observed Catapult students. Seems they would have more faith in their own faculty than in high sch teachers and GCs they've never met! Either way, I'm sure you got a great shot and I hope you get in plus get the finaid!! Good luck!</p>

19

<p>Yeah, i just did catapult too. It's soo much fun. I love it. I used to think that i'd be happy at any college i went to. But now i so want to go to Rose. All I have to do now is get it. I don't think it will be much of a problem, but my stats are nothing to yours Nic :-p</p>

<p>Catapult was a great experiance. It showed me that i will be ok a ways from home, and that i wont die of homesick-ness.</p>

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<p>Hey kidrufus, nic wrote a nice summary of what he liked about Catapult. Can you tell me more about your experiences? What was it that made it great for you? Hope you both get good news from Rose!</p>