70% of RSI participants were rejected by who?
Do you have any source for your claim?
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Saying this list means nothing is as misguided as saying that this list is gospel. The way to think of the higher level accomplishments is as improving your odds rather than guaranteeing a certain outcome at a particular place.
I will talk about STEM because I know that well. The IMO gold medalist I know was accepted everywhere he applied. The 3 x USAMO qualifier I know was originally deferred from one of the HYPSMs, and then accepted to three of them. In general, USAMO+ kids do pretty well. Likewise, the vast majority of those who attended PRIMES and published something afterwards ended up at a top 10, with a plurality of those ending up at MIT.
If 70% of RSI participants were rejected from Stanford, that would mean that their acceptance rate is 30%.
Increasing acceptance rates to one of the very best schools in the country by over 500% wouldn’t be considered “nothing” to most people, IMO.
One could argue that more World Top 30 golfers participated at The Memorial than at the Masters, so the Memorial is a more “prestigious” event.
But it isn’t.
The AMC/AIME/AMO/MOP/IOM sequence has existing for a long, long, time and is universally recognized as a measuring stick.
hmmm…
Not familiar with golf, so not sure if that’s the best analogy. But how long it has existed doesn’t necessarily seem a good measure of its significance by itself. There have to be some underlying reasons that are more convincing.
What would All-State Guitar be?
Hmm I get this is a subjective list, but some of these are blatantly off lol. For example USACO gold in my opinion (and others) is around or below AIME qualification. No way it should even be close in the same tier as amc 10 perfect score lol (only like 10 perfect scorers every year). AMC 10 perfect score should be same tier or above USAJMO (you have to royally screw up AIME to not make USAJMO and I have never heard of such an example). To make USACO gold time spent maybe at most 100-150 hours, and like 200-250 for AIME qual. Just my two-cents
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Is top 32 in the International Public Policy Forum so high??? Surely it’s not an 8 right
Ack…I had hoped this thread had finally died…
Me too 
First of all @skieurope, nice to see you posting again.
But I don’t understand why the animosity about this list. After this admissions season I have a lot of visibility to participants with accomplishments in four specific activities, one at level 7, two at level 8, and one at level 9. Here is what I saw:
Students with this particular Level 9 activity were accepted to an average of 3 HYPSM colleges. In other words, getting that accomplishment was basically a golden ticket.
Almost everyone with either of the two Level 8 accomplishments was accepted into at least one HYPSM.
About 35 percent of those with a particular Level 7 accomplishment were admitted to a HYPSM, with a large majority being admitted to an Ivy plus college.
In other words, for these four specific activities, this crowdsourced list proved pretty accurate.
Now there are plenty of ways to get into elite colleges without getting these high numbered accomplishments (my older child did just that).
I like this thread becasue I had never heard of half of these awards before. I actually bookmarked it to find again.
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How about concord review/other history awards. I have personal experience w/ NHD ([redacted] award at nats) and it rly is not as intellectually stimulating as other stuff that’s out there… and def not the equivalent of being a D1 athlete.
Correlation is not causation. I posit they were not admitted to a college because they had a “College Confidential level 9 activity”.
To what percentage of the students that applied to HYPSM colleges did you have visibility? Do you think it is a statistically significant number?
One of the four awards I listed is at Level 8 and is a pure merit award that does not consider anything else about the student, such as character, grades, recommendations, or other extracurriculars. Of the dozens of people I know who have received this award, almost every one was admitted to at least one HYPSM or CalTech. And one who didn’t had a pretty clear character flaw. That’s a pretty good indication that the colleges admitted these students because of this award as long as there was nothing disqualifying about them.
The other three awards (one each at 7, 8, and 9) all take into account personal characteristics. So you are right that they were not admitted purely because of this award, but getting such an award shows both considerable merit and other personal characteristics desired by these elite schools which the applicant can demonstrate elsewhere on the application.
That’s not the right question. I don’t need visibility into every HYPSM applicant.
But I do have nearly 100% visibility for the outcomes of students on three of the four activities (two for one year, one for multiple years). One of them announces where everyone is going, and in two others there are chat groups where students celebrate each other’s admissions. And for the last one, I have visibility into dozens of outcomes across multiple years.
Just a few updates (ie Google Science Fair is gone and RSI is now more competitive than Stanford)
10: Congrats
D1 athlete
IMO/IPHO/ICHO/IBO/IOI/IOAA/IOL
gold/silver medals
Regeneron STS Top 10; ISEF Top 3 Grand Prize;
History Day National Winner
Single/First Author in High Impact Factor Journal
Special performance/Solo at Carnegie Hall
International Competitor in a Sport
Boys Nation President
RSI (Research Science Institute)
9: Almost a ticket to a prestigious school
Regeneron STS Finalist; ISEF Best of Category
MOP
NSDA Nationals winner
Tournament of Champions Winner
NCFL Nationals Winner
Published in a relatively prestigious journal
TASP
National Student Poet
Jimmy Awards (musical theatre)
8: Amazing accomplishment; Large boost
USAMO qualification; AMC 12 Perfect Score; USAPhO/USNCO/USABO/USACO National Finalist
Intel ISEF 1st-4th place category; Regeneron STS semifinalist; Davidson Fellow; Presidential Scholar; MIT PRIMES; MITES
FIRST Dean’s List winner; top 5 at FIRST World Championships
Google Code Jam Round 2, 3 Qualifier (Vast majority of Competitors are College students and professionals)
Facebook Hacker Cup Round 2, 3 Qualifier (Vast majority of Competitors are College students and professionals)
International Public Policy Forum Top 32 team
Writing Portfolio Gold Award; Presidential Scholar of the Arts; Scholastic Art;
All National Band or Orchestra performer
Boys Nation Participant
SIMR
Clark Scholars
7:
ARML Tiebreaker Round; USAMTS Gold Medal; HMMT top 50
CMU SAMS; NIH Research; Iowa Writer’s Workshop; SUMAC; ROSS; SSP; Simons; PROMYS; Mathcamp; Garcia
State governors schools with acceptance rate <15% (PGSS, NJGSS, most other science governor’s schools)
USACO Platinum Division
ISEF Finalist
Top Team, YES Competition (Young Epidemiology Scholarship)
History Day National Level
Scholastic Art & Writing National Gold Medal. NFL Nationals (speech and debate) “breakers” (elimination rounds), Tournament of Champions (debate) “breakers,” Congressional Award Gold Medalist
International Public Policy Forum Top 64 team
Foyle Young Poet
US Senate Page
6:
(6.5) Google Code Jam Qualifier (Vast majority of Competitors are College students and professionals)
(6.5) Facebook Hacker Cup Qualifier (Vast majority of Competitors are College students and professionals)
USACO Gold Division
AMC 10 Perfect Score
Less competitive governor’s schools (Acceptance rate between 15% and 25%), any other scholarship summer programs not aforementioned
Congressional Award Silver Medalist; NFL Nationals; Tournament of Champions Qualifier
Science Bowl/Ocean Science Bowl/NAQT winners; Technology Student Association Nationals
FIRST Dean’s List finalist; Top 5 FIRST Super Regionals (FTC)
Scholastic Art & Writing National Silver Medal
State Science Fair Winner/Top Award (Depends on state)
Academic Decathlon State (CA) Honors Top 3
University-run poetry contests (Patricia Grodd Prize, Lewis Center at Princeton Prize, etc)
Very selective summer programs (acceptance rate 10-15%: TASS, UC Davis YSP, IOWA SSTP, BU RISE, UCSB RMP, HCSSiM, BOA Student Leaders, HSMC, Rockefeller SSRP, EFL, M&TSI…)
5: Pretty good; will complement an already strong record
FBLA Nationals
USAPhO/USNCO/USABO/NAO semifinals
AIME qualification
National Latin Convention 1st Places Academic Contests,
All-Eastern/all-regional music, State History Day top 3 place
Top 5 FIRST State Championship (or Regionals for FRC), JETS TEAMS National Finalist, Skills USA Nationals
Academic Decathlon State (AZ/TX/MA/WI), Nationals Top 3 Honors & California Event Golds
Selective summer academic programs (acceptance rate 15-25%: UC COSMOS, UF SSTP, Wharton LBW, MIT Launch…)
4: Fairly difficult
USACO Silver Division
Science Fair Regional winner
Science Bowl national qualification
Perfect Score (Multiple Years) on National Latin/Spanish/French Exam
State awards (all-state music, etc)
Academic Decathlon State (AZ/TX/MA/WI) Event Golds
National Merit Finalist
MUN Gavel
AMC 10/12 school winner (depends on your school)
Art and Writing Regional Gold award
Top 5 FIRST Regional (FTC)
Position in Local Government
National AP Scholar at Junior Year
3: Some effort involved, but not uncommon
Student Body
Winning at local/regional science fairs
All-County music
Eagle Scout Gold Award (with prior Silver and Bronze Awards)
Head of a competitive club that you did not found (ex: Mock Trial, Model UN, Science Olympiad)
Editor in chief of award-winning school newspaper
Head of a club with large membership and substantial activities (Interact Club)
2: Your average go-getter
Bank of America Awards
Presidential Service Award Volunteering Gold
Local awards/trophies
Essay Contests
Regional History Day
1: Common activities
National Honor Society
Beta Club
School Departmental Awards
School Honor Roll
Key Club; CSF; Interact Club
National Merit Commended
Member of a club with no distinctions earned
0: A dime in a dozen; meaningless
Who’s Who; National Honor Roll; National Society of High School Scholars
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And just to reiterate, all of this is complete personal opinion, with no factual basis, especially at the top few levels.
(Fwiw, a co-worker’s son was a highly ranked snowboarder (International Competitor in a Sport) and is at state college with his 3.2 and 1100 SAT. If only he knew he was guaranteed into Harvard and MIT).
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For what it’s worth, some parents on this board went to school in another country. The American school experience their American-born children are having bears no correlation to their own educational background. (I suspect there’s American parents who feel this way as well about their own kids.)
This list is an imperfect but enlightening “ranking” of experiences that can (debatedly) be “expected” of “top” students. The holistic admissions process in the US feels positively mercurial. Especially if, as a parent, your past experience was simply applying to a few schools with your major where your senior grades met the cut-off rate.
Of course, not everyone is aiming for Ivy prestige. But certain schools all along the spectrum also look to the competitiveness of a student’s ECs.
Hopefully, this list is merely viewed as some notable options a kid can pursue if they have an interest that they’d like to take to the next level. There’s way too many paths in life for a student to limit themselves to just this list. It merely quantifies an applicant’s demonstrated level of interest in a subject or an EC from a (small but by no means exhaustive) grouping of known programs.
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Isnt USABO/USAPHO harder then NAO/UNSCO so they should be at 6 at least with USACO gold
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Is the YES(Young Epidemiology Scholars) program still running?