oh and LAWL @ SSP being above olympiad semifinalist…
I’m still trying to figure out much these awards add to S’s application, as far as hooks:
ISEF: 4 first place special awards (including 1st place in animal science from Navy), 3rd place ISEF grand award
National Jr. Science Humanities Symposium: 2nd place (1st in state)
1st place state science fair
Grand award Houston science fair/ alternate grand award Houston fair
Placed in the International Student Technical Writing competition (waiting to hear what place)
Entering Siemens and Intel talent search this year
Other possible hooks:
National film festival awards for documentaries
2 grants from non-profits to make documentaries
documentary shown as part of PBS series
Any thoughts?
Lol. I love CC. 
Any other thoughts?
I’ve been told a lot of other kids have these awards, so I really don’t know how much to encourage S about applying to schools that are selective, but would be slight reaches for him, and/ or to schools that are reaches for everyone.
I also wonder which schools might be most interested in these awards, and which schools might be most likely to offer merit awards for them (assuming S’s scores meet their minimums for merit awards).
btw— S is homeschooled so we don’t have an admissions counselor to ask–
We need to differentiate the essay contests. Some are FAR more prestigious than others, note the Ayn Rand Essay contests. It is incredibly difficult to place in these, with even people in top high schools (exeter, TJ) placing in their 220 or so spots inconsistently. Does anyone have any idea how many people submit essays for those 3 (9/10,11/12,college) ayn rand contests?
It should be a 7 to win, 5-6 to place.
10 - D1 athlete, IMO/IPHO/ICHO/IBO gold medals, Intel (top 10), Siemens National Winner/National Finalists, ISEF top 3 Grand Prize
9 - ISEF(1st places), Siemens Westinghouse (finalists), MOP, Intel Finalist, Presidential Scholar, Davidson Fellow
8 - TASP/RSI/NIH Research, Science Bowl/Ocean Science Bowl/NAQT winners, USPhO/USChO/USABO/USAMO/USACO national finalist (inclusive of USAMO qualification), Siemens Semi-finalists/ISEF(2-4 places), Intel semifinalist, Scholastic Writing and Art, Running your own <em>successful</em> business,
7 - Selective summer programs or competitions, such as SSP, Clark Summer Program, ARML top score
6 - USPhO/USChO/USABO/USACO semifinalist, AIME, Science Olympiad National medals, Congressional Award Gold Medalist
5 - National Latin Convention 1st Places Academic Contests, All-Eastern/all-regional music
4- Perfect Score (Multiple Years) on National Latin Exam, or other languages, some state awards (all-state music, etc), Science Olympiad state medals (depending on what state you’re from), USAMTS Gold
3 - All-County music, winning at local/regional science fairs, Eagle Scout, National Merit
2 - Bank of America Awards, most local awards/trophies (art, music, community - although they will say something about your character), Essay Contests
1 - National Honor Society, Beta Club, School Departmental Awards, School Honor Roll
0 - Who’s Who, National Honor Role
Let us first categorized and quantify each award before ranking these awards based on the prestige.
Please add the number of recipients in the parenthesis and add awards to the categories.
You also need to take into account all competitive awards are self selective that is not every students tend to participate in the competition while academic strength and summer programs are across the board as it involves a large chunk of students.
<ol>
<li>
Athletic Competitiveness: (20% of students involved)
D1 athlete (Some one please fill in a number)
</li>
<li>
Academic Competitiveness: (10% of students involved)
IMO/IPHO/ICHO/IBO gold medals (At most 16)
USPhO/USChO/USABO/USAMO/USACO national finalist
USAMO qualification (200)
USPhO/USChO/USABO/USACO semifinalist
AIME Qualifier (3000)
USAMTS Gold
Science Olympiad National medals
ARML top score
</li>
<li>
Research Competitiveness: (10% of students involved)
Intel Research (top 10),
Siemens National Winner/National Finalists (10)
ISEF top 3 Grand Prize (3)
ISEF(1st places)
Siemens Westinghouse (finalists),
Intel Finalist (50)
Davidson Fellow
Siemens Semi-finalists (400)
ISEF(2-4 places)
Intel semifinalist (400)
</li>
<li>
Academic Strength: (80% of students involved)
Presidential Scholar (100)
Perfect SAT1 Single sitting (250)
Presidential Scholar Candidates (3000)
AP National Scholar (Junior year) (550)
National Merit Finalists (15000)
</li>
<li>
Summer Programs: (40% of students involved)
Summer Research Program that pays Stipend:
NIH Research (500) - $1000 - $3000
CCIS or SIMR (35) - $1500
</li>
</ol>
Free Summer Programs:
TASP
RSI (50)
Clark Summer Program
Paid Summer Programs:
SSP (100) - $3000
MIT WTP (60) - $3500
<ol>
<li>Miscellaneous:
Congressional Award Gold Medalist
Scholastic Writing and Art</li>
</ol>
Ivyhope,
There are 300 Siemens semi-finalists (60 finalist projects) and 300 Intel semi-finalists (40 finalists). Since my son is entering both competitions this year, I have been on their websites a lot.
For ISEF, in addition to the overall grand award winners, each category has a “best of category” and 1st -4th place grand awards. For most categories, there is more than one winner for each place grand award. For example, for earth science this past year, there were two 2nd place grand award winners.
At ISEF there are also special awarding agencies, such as Homeland Security, that give out big scholarships to 1 or 2 students each year.
How would you rank these special awards?
Would you include the National Science and Humanities competition in this list, and if so, where?
[About</a> Junior Science and Humanities Symposium](<a href=“http://www.jshs.org/about.html]About”>http://www.jshs.org/about.html)
where does national ap scholar fit? and what about if you are a regional finalist for national science bowl?
You can’t just list the number of students who have achieved something like USAMO or USABO qualification, you have to look at the percent of initial applicants/competitors that qualified…Although, many more people qualify for USAMO than USABO finals, only about 0.08% of initial competitors make USAMO, whereas about 0.4% of initial competitors make USABO finals…
In terms of academics, I would rank the following something like this:
- IMO/IPHO/ICHO/IBO gold medals (At most 16-24)
- USAMO Qualification/USPhO/USChO/USABO/USACO national finalist/ AMC Score of 144+/AIME Score of 11+ (Trust me, achieving either of these is almost as big of a deal as being a national finalist.)
- USPhO/USChO/USABO/USACO semifinalist/AIME Qualifier
- ARML Top Score/ USAMTS Gold
- Science Olympiad National medals
(I have experience with most of these competitions in some shape or form, but your perspectives will more than likely differ)
Obviously, you don’t know much about USAMO yourself, it’s not the semifinals, that’s the AIME…
IvyHope, what are you talking about? I seriously don’t understand anything you post.
10 - D1 athlete, IMO/IPHO/ICHO/IBO gold medals, Intel (top 10), Siemens National Winner/National Finalists, ISEF top 3 Grand Prize
9 - ISEF(1st places), Siemens Westinghouse (finalists), MOP, Intel Finalist, Presidential Scholar, Davidson Fellow
8 - TASP/RSI/NIH Research, Science Bowl/Ocean Science Bowl/NAQT winners, USPhO/USChO/USABO/USAMO/USACO national finalist (inclusive of USAMO qualification), Siemens Semi-finalists/ISEF(2-4 places), Intel semifinalist, Scholastic Writing and Art, Running your own <em>successful</em> business,
7 - Selective summer programs or competitions, such as SSP, Clark Summer Program, ARML top score
6 - USPhO/USChO/USABO/USACO semifinalist, AIME, Science Olympiad National medals, Congressional Award Gold Medalist
5 - National Latin Convention 1st Places Academic Contests, All-Eastern/all-regional music, National History Day winner
4- Perfect Score (Multiple Years) on National Latin Exam, or other languages, some state awards (all-state music, etc), Science Olympiad state medals (depending on what state you’re from), USAMTS Gold, National History Day
3 - All-County music, winning at local/regional science fairs, Eagle Scout, National Merit
2 - Bank of America Awards, most local awards/trophies (art, music, community - although they will say something about your character), Essay Contests, State History Day
1 - National Honor Society, Beta Club, School Departmental Awards, School Honor Roll
0 - Who’s Who, National Honor Role
Adding in History Day
What about AP State Scholar? I know it depends on the state, but surely it is at lest ranked as a 7 for any state, with a few exceptions I suppose. I am going for AP State Scholar this year as a Freshman in Oregon and I don’t think it will be that difficult to accomplish. Can you win AP state scholar more than once in your high school career?
I’d rank it as a 9, considering the fact that only 2 people per state get it each year, meaning out of over 21,000 high schools with god knows how many students, only 100 students per year win this award. Pretty prestigious in my opinion. But again, I have not factored in the average APs per state, etc, so someone more experienced should do this 
lol
A NINE?!?! Are you crazy?
There are only 10 intel finalists every year.
I think MOP is better than Intel and Siemens.
MOP takes far more ability. While you have to be INCREDIBLY smart to get finalist for Intel and Siemens, MOP is like the camp for math geniuses.
Geez, sorry Ostonzi! I am new to this, remember, I am only a frosh you know. I am, however, aware of the fact that Intel only has 10 finalists each year, but still, earning AP state scholar as a freshman has probably never been done before, so I think that would be prestigious. Just my opinion. No need to get so upset.
BTW, can someone give me some info on the Bio Olympiad? I read Campbell’s from cover to cover, and am interested in testing my luck. Anyone got any suggestions? And how do you participate? Thanks!
In my humble opinion MOP (Black + Blue)>Intel>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>yeah, you get the idea>>>>>>AP state scholar (esp. if you’re from a state like idaho…)
Hey guess what. I’m a freshman too!
Sorry bout that. But placing AP state scholar with Intel/etc finalists is like. Lol.
The biology olympiad is harder than just knowing the campbell books.
However, it will be a great help if you could memorize the whole thing.
<a href=“http://www.cee.org/usabo/Sample_PartA_B%20questions.pdf[/url]”>http://www.cee.org/usabo/Sample_PartA_B%20questions.pdf</a>
Here’s some sample questions from USABO.