Why is everyone saying colleges don’t care about this and they don’t care about that? Colleges care about all this stuff because it shows that you’ve done something outside of regular high school. Even if you sent an application for one of these and didn’t get in, it still shows that you’ve got some ambition. Too much emphasis is being placed on the very few who are recognized by these awards. Though this is a list of top, prestigious awards, that doesn’t mean colleges don’t care about anything else.
Does anyone know what the requirements for the Prudential Spirit of Community Award are?
USAMO is definitely more prestigious than any of the other olympiads. You can just do well in Bio, Chem, or Physics AP class and qualify for the corresponding olympiad. Whereas, getting an 100% in Calculus BC probably won’t even qualify you for AIME if you don’t know a little of number theory and stuff.
RSI should be higher. That thing is really hard to get into.
^um, qualify you for aime means getting 100 on the amc (which you do not have to know number theory for)…maybe you mean qualify for the usamo
Ok sure, you probably don’t need to know that much, but there are always questions that would help with number theory. And you still need to be good at geometry where 8th grade geometry certainly falls short.
If all you know is AP Comp Sci, then you basically have no chance at all to get more than a 0/1000 on any of the USACO contests (computing), while you could at least get some points on the AMC if you’re in AP Calc BC.
But I still think that the USAMO series is harder than the USACO series.
There are ~300 people who take the USAMO. The top dozen or so get invited to MOSP. The USACO Invitational is top 16, following six compettions held throughout the year. There are between 12-20 finalists for the Bio/Chem/Physics Olympiads as well. From there, the international teams (4-6 people, depending on the subject) are selected.
Actually, among the USACO Invitational folks are several folks who have gotten to the highest levels of other Olympiad competitions. You don’t succeed at USACO without CS knowledge way beyond AP CS AB and very, very advanced math/algorithmic skills.
First off, can someone explain how you qualify for Science Olympiads or USACO? Because no one at my school has ever heard of that…
Also, where does it rank to be apart of the Math and Science Bowl? Its a national competition, and all the top schools send teams to compete.
For USACO, go to <a href=“http://www.usaco.org%5B/url%5D”>www.usaco.org</a>. They have training materials that will help you get the skills to handle the competitions. It’s all free. Just sign up. You’ll be on a mailing list and notified when the competitions take place – generally they are once a month from Oct. - April. They are run over a three day weekend, and you have 3-5 hours (depending on the contest, but generally three) to do the problems for that competition.
It doesn’t require any school involvement – with the exception of the USACO Open, which takes place in April. If you want your score to be counted for consideration for advancing to the USACO Invitational, you must have a test proctor, and if you can’t get one at school, I think you can arrange for a non-teacher to proctor if you get it cleared with the USACO coordinator in advance.
Actually, I’ve used my dad as a proctor for the US Open for the last 3 years, so I’m pretty sure it doesn’t matter.
For the other Olympiads though, there does need some school involvement, but if you go to the websites for them, and then talk to some teachers at school, you could probably get your school to run it for you (that’s what I had to do for the AMC).
what about a gold congressional medal? (FYI: 400 hrs of community service, 200 physical fitness, 200 personal development. Also, it’s a 3 year program. Before the gold, you have to get 100/50/50 for a bronze and for silver 200/100/100.) About 200 people get it per year nation wide. The gold ceremony is held in DC.
So it’s not possible to take AMC test without your school. Because no one in my rather large school does it.
From reading this list I still think National Merit Finalist should go below National AP Scholar after junior year because there are so many national merit finalists<em>thousands</em>, & only a couple hundred National AP Scholars after junior year.
What about:
CMU Pre-College
Published by Poetry.com
Kodak Young Leaders Award
Bausch and Lomb Honorary Science Award
AIME
Club Founder/President
?
poetry.com is negative 2. For getting caught in their scam.
Being a club founder or president is probably 2-3 at best, unless it’s a club with state or national recognition.
I would not put AIME above 4, seeing as what else is ranked at that level. Over 8000 kids qualify for the AIME. If you first qualify before high school, it may be something of note, but not otherwise.
RSI I think is definitely a 9. About 50 kids nationally and 75 total is very, very difficult to achieve, especially since well over 1000 of the absolute best kids in the nation apply. I would put it as basically a lock for any college notwithstanding severe infractions back home or something.
0 - 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, USPhO/USChO/USABO/USAMO/USACO national finalist, Siemens Semi-finalists/ISEF(2-4 places), Intel semifinalist, Scholastic Writing and Art, Running your own <em>successful</em> business
7 - Perfect SAT scores, USPhO/USChO/USABO/USAMO/USACO semifinalist, Eagle Scout
6 - Selective summer programs or competitions, such as SSP, Clark Summer Program
5 - National Latin Convention 1st Places Academic Contests, All-Eastern/all-regional music, National Merit Finalist, National AP Scholar AFTER Junior Year
4- Perfect Score (Multiple Years) on National Latin Exam, or other languages, AP Scholar, some state awards (all-state music, etc), Science Olympiad state medals (depending on what state you’re from)
3 - All-County music, winning at local/regional science fairs
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 Roll
-1 -
-2 -robbing local stores
-3 -robbing local banks
-4 - School suspension
-5 -county jail
-6 - regional vandalism campaign
-7 - Crack cocaine dealer,
-8 - Imprisonment, regional drug dealer
-9 -national drug dealer, national vandalism campaign, 1st place on the HTBAC (How to be a criminal) Test.
-10 - Belonging to a species other than Homo sapiens, international drug dealer
excuse my satire
^ LOL
“If all you know is AP Comp Sci, then you basically have no chance at all to get more than a 0/1000 on any of the USACO contests (computing), while you could at least get some points on the AMC if you’re in AP Calc BC.”
shravas, I think that only applies to the higher divisions of USACO.
11: Nobel or Wolf Prize Winner; Fields Medal; Internationally recognized musician; Best-selling novelist; God; Buddha; Shiva; Allah (although I’m not saying that the latter four are on the same plane as a mere Nobel laureate)
-11: Clones of: Hitler, Mussolini, and Lindsay Lohan.
By the way, how is being suspended from school worse than having robbed a bank?
poetry.com is a scam … dont put it on. basically they publish everyone that submits.
I think national finalist for science olympiads should be moved up to 9. All those guys seem to end up at top schools.