<p>I’m taking 3… The max in my school is 2 starting from junior year. Tried to do ap bio sophomore year but there is a very strict policy regarding aps…</p>
<p>@ryan96 8 applications. What our school did was call down the people with the 25 top GPA’s, and let them apply if they wanted to either school. ~8 applied to GSET and ~12 to GSS. Two were chosen for each and by the school’s selection it looks like GSET was all about EC’s and GSS was all about GPA. </p>
<p>@Hawkace That EC is wonderful. I assume they are looking for stuff exactly like that.</p>
<p>@PorcupineCup I know someone from our school went last year, however I sadly don’t know this person and have no clue who they are. </p>
<p>Yeah AP’s differs by school. I really don’t get it. They should let the kids take these classes if they can handle it. But yeah as long as you are rigorous for your school and have a good explanation for anything that may be deficient you should be fine. For example I had to take CP Physics this year, but the reason for it is wonderful and it simply shows how passionate I am. I do plan on taking AP Physics I/II or whatever in the world my school twists it into next year.</p>
<p>I did a lot of chemical engineering/ material science research. Would that be a strong EC for this? It seems like half of the applicants have built a talking robot or self-pulling elevator haha</p>
<p>@PorcupineCup Research is always a plus for engineering. Think you’re exaggerating the EC quality of the average applicant though lol. I don’t have any research, just success with robotics competitions and well-roundedness with other activities.</p>
<p>There definitely was an online part of the application… There were directions for it right on top of the application cover sheet.</p>
<p>@PorcupineCup I totally know what you mean! It seems like everyone has already done crazy things in engineering. Personally, I don’t understand how high school students have the resources to do these things.
I definitely think having done research is impressive and will be good to have on your application. I think what they really care about is your interest in engineering, not necessarily what you have accomplished in it, though I suppose that doesn’t hurt.</p>
<p>@porcupinecup
I doubt that will happen because there are so many people and nobody knows each others real names…</p>
<p>Well I didn’t do the online portion but it might be okay. I looked at the science application and it says that apps without that attached wont be considered (I literally almost died when I read that), but the engineering one says no such thing. Also, the checklist fails to mention it. I’ve asked a couple previous alumni and they don’t remember doing any online component, so I MIGHT be safe.</p>
<p>I don’t think the online app will matter. If you got everything else in, they probably will still consider it, if the online app is a recent thing. A bunch of kids probably didn’t even know that it existed.</p>
<p>According to what’s in bright red on the top of the application, this may be a slight problem. However it was only mentioned in a small box, and was not included in the checklist either. I think that if enough kids missed it, maybe they will realize it’s an application flaw and remove it as being necessary from the application.</p>
<p>I sure hope so. I’d rather get flat out rejected than have my application not even be considered.
I knew it existed but, when I went to fill it out, I didn’t have a lot of the required information. Then when I was informed of my nomination (2 days before the Friday), i probably just forgot about it.</p>
<p>The science application outright stated the necessity of the online portion. I’m sure that, if the engineering school required it so badly, they would have added similar outright statements.</p>
<p>While on the topic of names, what exactly does PorcupineCup mean? I’m guessing Blackdog is a Zeppelin reference, collegebound is self explanatory, hawkace is pretty typical, and mine is pretty obvious.</p>
<p>Oh and what did you guys talk about for the third short answer? I had a hard time thinking of a good topic, so I just wrote about the digitization of modern life and the need for advanced security implementations. And then I wrote how quantum cryptography and other stuff could help. I think the essay was pretty weak if the person reading it knows more than I do.</p>
<p>@ryan96
It’s from a random name generator back when I was using AIM and stuff from the early 2000s. </p>
<p>I wrote about interstellar travel and the problems with current spacecraft/ rockets. I think I should have written about nanotubes and agglomeration because I could sound like I knew what I was talking about… All of my essays were kind of out there.</p>
<p>Interstellar travel? That is pretty out there. I don’t know anything about space and all that stuff, but I thought travel to distances that far isn’t supposed to be possible for another 200 years at least? That’s still a cool and probably unique topic. I know at least 30% of applicants probably wrote about the energy crisis or something like that.</p>
<p>@ryan96 Yeah. I doubt they’ll cut a ton of people if a majority left it out. And correct. Good so see other people who know a Zeppelin song that isn’t Stairway to Heaven (and even that one is starting to diminish in knowledge in our day and age. How sad). If you were wondering about the second part, 1605 is the year of The Gunpowder Plot.</p>
<p>My third essay is on a similar subject as PorcupineCup, but it is simply the problems we are are facing with human access to space in general. Like how we really on Russia and stuff and need improved technology. I was able to tie in what I talked about in Short Answer 2 (Scramjets. Google them. They’re awesome.) into this short answer, and made sure I covered it thoroughly. And I don’t think being less knowledgeable than those who will read it will be a problem. They’re most likely professional engineers. They are guaranteed to know more than you.</p>
<p>Never thought I’d see someone else interested in aerospace! Awesome. I thought scramjets were air and gas related? Curious as to how you tied them into space.</p>
<p>I wrote that I probably can’t get the interstellar travel thing happening but that’s what I want to be working on, like building towards that one ultimate goal. Don’t know how the readers will see that…</p>
<p>@ryan96 Space is starting to become big again. And if anything is true, advancement always increases exponentially. Maybe not interstellar, but I’m going to go on a limb and say going to the moon will be much more common though.</p>
<p>@PorcupineCup Aerospace is absolutely amazing. As for the scramjets I mentioned using them instead of rockets to carry spacecrafts out of the atmosphere. They are faster (duh, point of their existence) as well as possibly being cheaper because eventually they may become reusable, unlike rockets.
It’ll be positive. Working on it doesn’t necessarily mean having it actually happening at the moment. Have to start somewhere.</p>