Last effort at a hook

<p>Im gonna be a senior this year so i know there isnt too much I can do to raise my chances this late. I feel the my main weaknesses are ECs and awards. Is there any last award I could win or something I could concentrate on this year that would kinda be a hook?</p>

<p>Where is Novkujbesevsk?
THere's Intel STS :)</p>

<p>its in Russia, but i live in the US. Im not sure about STS though. I dont know where or how to get started with research and i dont exactly feel good about bothering a local college professor to let me work with him.</p>

<p>Heh, great, I was born in Vorkuta :)
I don't think there's any more you can do except for essays and some math/science competitions right now.</p>

<p>I have no outstanding ECs or anything either. I've kind of given up on trying to improve my ECs (I did start volunteering though, but that's about it) and instead I'm focusing on school, SAT scores, and essays. It won't hurt to pick up an EC or something, but don't make it your main goal, especially since colleges are mostly impressed with ECs when you've been dedicated to them for a longer period of time.</p>

<p>are there any prestigious science or math competitions before november that I could do though? I think im gonna be applying to MIT and caltech early, and those two are my main concern.</p>

<p>Research AMC dates.</p>

<p>Volunteer for a thing or two.</p>

<p>Nope, AMC is always after Christmas. As someone suggest Siemens and STS are your best bet. I doubt you'll make it far in the competition though considering you have less than two months for the deadlines. No opportunites for hooks unless you somehow solve a complex mathematical problem, that could get you into those schools. Otherwise, sorry. Besides many students apply to those schools without significant hooks [I hope.]</p>

<p>The USACO has monthly contests, starting in October.</p>

<p>Is the AMC worth doing?</p>

<p>It will if you qualify for AIME or USAMO. It shouldn't be too difficult for AIME, but it'll require much more practice and dedication for the latter.</p>

<p>cool.
I think I'll sign up for the AMC this year.</p>

<p>
[quote]
I think I'll sign up for the AMC this year.

[/quote]

How exactly do you sign up for AMC? Do you have to attend math club regularly?</p>

<p>I honestly don't know.</p>

<p>Your school needs to sponsor it. If they dont, you may take it from another school for $15. Otherwise, you and your School's math club or sponsor will need to register.
I believe this is the URL:
<a href="http://login.yahoo.com/config/login?logout=1&.done=http://mail.yahoo.com&.src=ym%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://login.yahoo.com/config/login?logout=1&.done=http://mail.yahoo.com&.src=ym&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>There are a couple of ways to take the AMC. Usually, your school orders the test and pays for everything, and stuff. If they don't though, you could try to get them to run it for your school. They have all the information you need to sign up at <a href="http://www.unl.edu/amc%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.unl.edu/amc&lt;/a> .</p>

<p>If you can't get your school to offer it though, you could try to take it another school. I dunno how that'd work, but you'd probably need to ask someone who runs the AMC for a list of nearby schools that offer it, and then talk to them about it.</p>

<p>And then this year, they're trying this thing where different colleges can also run the AMC, so you could try that sometime too. They'll put up a list of colleges doing that on their web-site, sometime during the fall.</p>

<p>And if none of that works, you could just try doing it on your own. But you'd have to pay for the tests, and you'd need to find someone to proctor you (I dunno the rules about the proctoring).</p>

<p>last year, i wanted to take the physics olympiad test at my school. All I had to do was download the order form for the test online and ask my physics teacher if he could proctor. It shouldnt be anymore complicated to take the AMC</p>