It shouldn’t, but it doesn’t really mean much.
yeah, putting who’s who on your college app would hurt your chances b/c it makes you seem naive.
1 guy from my school(Lynbrook) won Tournament of Champions. Unfortunately he was a senior and college admissions were done.
Making it to the TOC is definitely merit-worthy, although that too could be debated…(no pun intended). There are some bid tournaments that don’t have quite the best competition, but at least you’re still on the national level, rather than local NFL district competitions.
Is conducting research at NIH really that impressive? Even if I don’t win any glamourous awards like Intel semifinalist?
As long as you have a paper, yes.
^ why is that?
I don’t see how conducting research at NIH is any different from conducting research at a local hospital. If you entered and didn’t win any competitions it obviously means your research is not very highly regarded.
Well what if you wrote a paper but it didnt’ get published? And also, NIH research mite be considered more prestigious than just a regular hospital because at NIH you actually have to apply to the program, and its actually pretty selective (20% acceptance rate). There is a good stipend to go along with it too. So its more than a normal job. But that doesn’t mean colleges see it in a different light than working at another lab. Does anyone know if NIH research is actually considered more prestigious than a normal hospital or lab?
Is 10 the most prestigeous, and 0 the least? or the other way around?
By the way what about rotary is that good/great?
uh…10 is def the most prestigeous? hah
What about the Laureates from National Olympiads? Does it count at all to be a prize-winner from a NO if you could not enroll on the intern. level? Is there a difference in the weight of NOs across the world… I mean a Japanese or US for example appreciated more than another one?
Just wondering… 
<h2>“uh…10 is def the most prestigeous? hah”</h2>
Well yeah usually 1 is the best and 10 would be the last like as far as rankings go.
USABO semifinalist shouldn’t be so high imho. You can just study the Campbells bio book and get in. USABO Finalist is much more important because you need to actually be able to analyze the stuff not just memorize.
Really? Except for a bit of self-study beyond that level, my knowledge of this stuff is right about at AP Bio test. I don’t have that much experience with USABO, but when I took an old test (open exam) on the Internet, I did pass the semifinal cut-off. I did go slightly above the time limit, but that’s becuase I spent 10 minutes or so on one problem because I forgot how to use Hard-Weinberg. I got the last two wrong anyway, so the time limit thing wouldn’t change my score that much.
I don’t think that MITES/YESS should be so high on the list. Well, maybe YESS. But I know three people that applied to and were accepted to (two from this year) MITES, and they weren’t really impressive. Judging from their stats, etc. it doesn’t seem as difficult to get in. But, I’m not sure.
gery_sun,
If you make it to the national finals (top 12-20 in the US, depending on the Olympiad), that is a big deal. Colleges know there are only 4-6 kids who will go to the international level in a subject, and they also know that the kids who get to the national finals have often worked for several years to get there. You don’t have to be a gold medal at an international olympaid for it to be a great hook.
what about boys / girls nation?
CountingDown,
Thanks very much. The problem is that I am an intern. and compete in my country, not in the USA. And it is very likely that as the adcoms can’t know the level of difficulty of the national levels in every countries, they may not put much weight on it.
Otherwise, yes :), I have worked for three years now and hope to enroll next year too.
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I’m in Girl Scouts. How about the Gold Award, the highest possible achievement of Girls Scouts?