Where would top three in the state in UIL competitions fall? Number Sense, math, computer science, etc.?
The challenge is for students who attend schools that don’t really promote competing for any of the prestigious awards. In that case, maybe a student studies on their own and attends the local junior college for more challenge?
Do you know what constitutes as a “publication in a relatively prestigious journal”? Given that it seems to be ranked quite highly, what makes a journal prestigious?
Highly respected peer-reviewed journals such as Nature, Science, Cell, PNAS, EMBOJ., etc.
Where do USAPhO medalists stand? Say, the silver medalists who in the top group of semi finalists but didn’t make it to the camp?
Those would qualify as 10s. Post-docs would be ecstatic to get published there.
There is a continuum to publications. The strength of a publications really only matters for students obviously strong enough in research that the application gets sent over to faculty for their opinion. I suspect that the faculty will look at it quickly and ask themselves “Is this something that is way above level for a high school student, and perhaps something that one of my upper level undergraduates or fresh graduate student could have done?”
If you look at the publications of graduate students at these elite colleges, most of them are in very specialized journals. I just reviewed the publications of post-doc who was at Harvard Medical School, and while he does have publications in Science and Nature, he also has publications in journals like Diachronica, Molecular Evolution, and Frontiers in Neural Networks. Math graduate students might get published in journals like the Journal of Combinatorics. In other words, there are plenty of peer-reviewed journals that are not household names that are still considered important enough to impact an admissions decision.
These descriptions (e.g. “almost a ticket to a prestigious school”) assume a strong base-level academic record in addition to the listed achievement or award, and nothing that could be construed as a severe “defect”, right?
Yes.
Absolutely. Just threw a few top ones out there.
A high schooler published in any peer-review journal is impressive (unless mom or dad is the PI). Many scientists go thier whole careers without publishing in some of the journals I listed.
Hi, are there any specific reasons for ranking Clark Scholars over SSP? Is it due to the self-decided research opportunity available?
Clark accepts much fewer students than SSP - I guess.
Quite simply, that’s a mistake. SSP should be an 8.
What about te US Senate Youth Program?
Where would HOSA state and international awards rank?
isef best of category is no more, I was there, and they said 1st is the new best, they awarded much fewer than they usually do, with most categories only getting one, and only the largest getting two. the original best of category ($5000) prize money is also given to firsts with the rest staying the same. Firsts were also invited to stand in the same place at the end of the ceremony that bests normally do. I think the list should reflect this, with first taking the place of best of category and 2nd through 4th taking where 1st through 4th lies right now.
i wouldn’t agree with the we the students essay contest. Winning one of those 16 spots whether it be grand prize or honorable mention is quite impressive especially since upwards of 6000 people apply yearly. In addition the prompts are very difficult and broad the level of skill shown by the winners is extraordinary. Id say it’s tier 9.
this is an impressive list. thanks for the post!
Hey! Where would you put being a USSYP delegate?
Where do you think World Scholar’s Cup would go on this list?
Are a lot of the contestants for these contests from the Northeast or California?
YoungArts finalist/honorable mention/merit awards should be listed somewhere, while Presidential Scholar in the Arts should not, since the finalists are not announced until May of senior year, long after applications and acceptances are in.