My High school has a bad track record with top schools

<p>I'm getting a little concerned about admissions this year. My high school doesn't send people to top schools. We did have one to Cornell this year, and no other top school admits. We have never had anyone go to MIT, one to Harvard on athletics a few years ago, and one to Princeton like 6 years ago. Sometimes we get one into Brown or Penn, but really none to Harvard Yale Princeton MIT etc. I'm getting concerned because we do have really smart high achieving students, but it seems strange that we never have any admits to top schools, and I think I'll be in the same boat since I'm applying to all those schools, I mean I have done some stuff unique from probably any past students, like I'm doing research for the Siemens competition. IDK, do you think this will impact where I get admitted?</p>

<p>Hey Neutrality, I wish you the best. Colleges really won’t (shouldn’t) take into account what school you come from. It’s only you that matters. At least that’s what I hope. </p>

<p>I come from a school even worse than yours because I’m pretty much one of the very few high-achieving students. The rest are either ghetto, country, or trashy. We’ve sent one to Cornell, one to Columbia (a valedictorian), and that’s pretty much it. But I’m doing my best to make the most of my high school years, even if it’s at a low-achieving school. </p>

<p>Could you tell me a little about how you got involved in research for Siemens? Did you approach professors? When did you start, and what qualifications did you have?</p>

<p>The best school anyone from my high school ever goes to is Case. (Well, we had one go to Michigan once.) Other than that, the best schools people go to are along the lines of Dayton and Cincinnati, which I doubt most CCers have even heard of. </p>

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<p>No.</p>

<p>Did you ever consider that people aren’t getting into top schools because they aren’t applying? Many students apply where they will get financial aid.</p>

<p>Burnout, it’s notoriously hard to get a professor to work with you. I emailed SO MANY professors and didn’t get any positive feedback, although one did say he MAY have an opening this fall(too late to start). My friend and I came across a problem that had very little work done on it at the beginning of summer, so we began looking into it. Our research is still legitimate, it’s just restricted to developing theory/developing models since we don’t have a lab, and we don’t have a university backing us. Anyway, don’t be daunted if you aren’t working under a professor, all the people I know doing research in Universities in high school have parents who are professors at the university. I don’t know if I will submit this as a supplement because we weren’t at a university, I still will write it on my app though. What Grade are you Burnout? Ideally you would do it the summer before your senior year(like me) or earlier is you feel you have good background in the topic, my topic is sort of Bio/Chem/Physics.</p>

<p>I’ve heard of both Dayton and Cincinnati (go bearcats)</p>

<p>@NeutralityACTo36, I’m a rising junior. This summer I’m doing some basic programming lab work with a local professor (nothing close to publishing a paper). I’m interested in physic, astrophysics, etc. I would also be interested in mathematics research but my background so far is weak. </p>

<p>Also, where did you find out about the problem that you’re working on right now? Do you read academic journals as a hobby or something? In order to get a background strong enough to do research in an area, wouldn’t you need much more than high school classes? Did you teach yourself whatever you need to learn for your field?</p>

<p>Initially I was looking for math research, but after not being able to find any math professors, I realized it wan’t realistic because I don’t know the “cutting edge” research. I looked in all disciplines where I had a solid basis and after an hour of reading I could have an idea of what the problem was. I emailed around a lot, even after they shoot you down to work with them, ask if they could direct you to other professors or if they could suggest a problem. Basically I came across this problem by a retired engineer who had a past interest in the problem, and he gave us his initial background knowledge on the problem. Yeah, we need more than high school stuff, I am a pretty rapid learner, and it’s a lot of work, but you seem like you’re determined and smart or else you wouldn’t be considering this competition.</p>