I am a rising high school junior and I am very much interested in doing the NJ Governor’s School summer program in 2016 for Science (I am passionate towards the medical field). Although I have not been nominated yet by my high school (application process doesnt start until this fall anyways), can you guys give me any advice towards applying, how to stand out, or what the governors school looks at? (Btw, I have been practicing for the new PSAT, as thats the scores my hs looks at, I have been hitting the high 1400s range and I also have a 98.2 unweighted decimal gpa average).
IMHO, it doesn’t matter that much what your application looks like. Unless they’ve changed the process greatly, your county, and its demographics, matters a lot. I was in a suburban town in a county with several cities as well, and I was told that there was no way a suburban kid would win with inner city kids applying too (and out of high schools with 2000 kids).
I would talk to your guidance counselor and/or the head of guidance at your high school and express your interest. I also was told last minute so I only had a few days to put together an application - find out as much as you can online.
FWIW, I still ended up being accepted to two Ivies after being rejected for NJGSS, but I did marry a NJGSS graduate He liked NJGSS a lot, actually met a girl and they dated for nearly two years (of course they were across the state). He was dirt poor, from a terrible HS, and valedictorian.
But you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket, so be looking at a backup summer plan if NJGSS doesn’t work out. My parents didn’t have money to send me to a paid program, so I had no backup except working all summer.
(and another thing - if you really want to become a doctor, I would seriously consider pre-college programs directed specifically at that - NJGSS is more towards engineers and research scientists, again unless it has changed significantly)
Thank you very much for the advice, I will ask my counselor for more info! And I totally agree that getting accepted into governors school is not the end of the world. I also wanted to hear what others had to say regarding how the essay portion is the most important factor (probably shouldve added that to my question haha) and general info. And by the way, I do have a few backups that are non-paid but also pretty selective programs like Memorial Sloan Kettering Center’s Summer High School Program, NIH’s summer internship at maryland, and MIT’s Research Science Institute program. Also may I have advice from you regarding how to stand out to Ivies? (If you want, maybe PM me?) @rhandco Because my goal school rn is Brown for its PLME program. Again, thank you very much for taking the time to respond
Top notch scores are important because everyone has them. But because everyone has them, the essays are quite important.
I think what makes an essay really stand out is a demonstrated passion for science. A lot of essays talk about “I’ve loved science ever since I was 3 months old”, but not as many prove it – through joining and making a difference in science clubs, doing research, volunteering in labs, etc. If you love it and you can show it, that will definitely make you a better candidate (and make that clear in your essays!)
In my personal essay I focused on my experience with science (hospital volunteering, research at a university). In my other one, I wrote about non-Euclidean geometry (despite not applying to GSET. :P)
So first, I wanna repeat what was stated earlier, have a lot of backup programs ready. Also, the programs that you said are half backups are not backups at all. RSI and NIH are definitely harder to get into that NJGSS and also the Sloan Kettering program has an acceptance rate of 4.5%, significantly lower than the NJGSS one, 30%. (I understand that this is a faulty comparison because of the nomination system for NJGSS, but it is something to note). You need some other forms of backup. My suggestion would be to email as many professors as possible to see if they would offer an internship opportunity. And when I say many, I mean a lot. I personally emailed 80 and got 1 person to actually say yes. My suggestion would be to a- be persistent and email as many as it takes and b- to email professors at smaller universities as well as they more likely to give you an internship. Also, be aware of how random this process is. I actually think these summer programs are more random than college. For example, my friend who attended NJGSS this past summer got rejected from the Sloan Kettering program while I got rejected from Engineering governors school and got into the Sloan Kettering program.
I ended up going to the Sloan Kettering Program and had a blast. Being in the city during the summer is absolutely amazing.
In terms of tips for the application, this is going to sound corny, but essays are the most important. When they discussed admission at Sloan Kettering, they basically said it came down to the essays. And even for my friends who got into NJGSET, they stated that the admission’s committees almost solely relied on essays. My fault with my engineering essays was probably that I don’t have any engineering extracurriculars to write about. I honestly had no interest in engineering, I was just nominated for the program. I tried to tailor my essay to make it engineering related, but it was not a great attempt, and I probably got rejected because of it. My Sloan Kettering essay, on the other hand, had a direct connection with my extracurriculars and interests, and I benefited because of it.
He liked NJGSS a lot, actually met a girl and they dated for nearly two years (of course they were across the state). He was dirt poor, from a terrible HS, and valedictorian.