My Chances at Research Science Institute 2018?

Pre-College Issues Summer Programs
1

Hi! So I am junior from Arizona, and I am interested in pursuing research opportunities such as RSI!

Stats:

GPA: unweighted 4.0, weighted 4.4-4.5
AP Scores: AP Chem 5, AP Bio 4, AP World History 5, AP European History 5, AP Chinese 5, AP Spanish Lang+Culture 5,

AP Human Geography 5
AP Classes Junior year (current): AP Calc BC, APUSH, AP Physics 1
Scores: 1440 PSAT sophomore year, 790 SAT Subject Test: Math 2, 780 SAT Chem Test
Extracurricular: Tucson Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Science Olympiad Club (school), Math Club (school), Youth
Advisory Council/ Tucson Teen Congress, Advanced Dance (school), Mandarin teacher at Chinese Cultural
Center, Feminist Leadership Program, Competitive Piano Performance
Awards: Arizona team member at National Science Olympiad Tournament of 2017, 1 gold and 2 silver medals at 2017 AZ

State Science Olympiad Competition, 1 silver and 1 bronze at 2016 AZ State Sci Oly, 3rd place in 2016, 9th place in
2017 at AZ State Mathleague Competition, 1st place in chamber piano performance in city in 2017
Leadership: Vice President of Youth Council for 1 year in 2016, current president of Youth council, treasurer of Sci Oly club,
secretary of advanced dance class

In addition, I had previously taken a university summer course on chemistry before my sophomore year started. The course involved both lecture and lab work. But besides that very basic introduction into lab research as part of the course, I don’t have much experience with scientific research. Will my lack of experience with research lower my chances of getting in?

Also, I know that a lot of RSI applicants have learned at least basic computer science and have some programming background, but I have never taken a computer science course before.
Will it be enough if I only know how to use excel, windows, etc. well?

Finally how likely is it that I would be accepted as a whole?

Any advice or comments would be helpful, thanks!

2

Hey, fellow applicant here!

Looks like you have solid academics, your standardized test scores look great, and you have a pretty good mix of STEM and non-STEM national and state level ECs.

Lack of research experience will probably hurt you a little, but doing well in that university course helps. I’d try to show, through your essays, that you’re interested in pursuing research and capable of understanding it (i.e. know what you’re talking about when they ask you to describe your preferred field).

Programming background is pretty essential in all areas of science research, so that’s another weak aspect of your application. If you’re an advanced user of Excel, it won’t be too difficult, I assume, to transfer data analysis skills to another software/language. I’d recommend gaining a understanding of programming concepts like loops, conditional statements, etc. Choice of language doesn’t matter too much; I think what they want to see is that you have the ability to collect, organize, and analyze information computationally, since that’s important to so many disciplines. Python is an intuitive and versatile language to start with.

Unfortunately, given how competitive RSI is, it’s unlikely that you (or I, tbh) will be accepted. But do try, and also look into alternative summer programs. Best of luck and I hope this helps!

3

Thanks! Best of luck to you as well :slight_smile: