Hey! I haven’t seen a NJGSS thread on CC for this year and I just wanted to post one and ask if there’s anyone else who’s “attending” (virtually of course)! Feel free to message or comment or whatever!! So excited for this summer
hey sorry I’m not in the program but my brother is super interested (he’s a rising junior). do you have any tips for applying? thank you 
@palm12312 All good!! (in retrospect i wrote a lot I hope some of this does help though!!)
I think the most important thing for right now is making sure you can get your school’s nomination (some schools require STEM teacher nominations, others require you to fill out an app, less competitive ones just need you to talk to you guidance counselor in junior fall, etc). I know my grade has a lot of kids who are qualified and wanted to apply, but small schools can only nominate 1 student for each gov school, so people are barred from it from the get-go.
As for the application, it’s hard for me to consider what aspects lead to the acceptance because I had honestly thought it’d be a reject since I’m an ORM in a non-target region, I don’t have research experience, and my extracurriculars are generic (scioly, math league, columbia shp, etc). However, I think the main things that lead to my acceptance are:
- good LORs (I think this was definitely the biggest factor!!!)
- good PSAT score (1510; 750RW/760M)
- good GPA/decent course load
- decent-to-good essays
there’s a personal essay and an essay that’s more formal/article-like, so I think there’s a place for all different types of writers to shine, and it definitely helped me since I struggled through the first essay but had so many ideas for the second
Of course, if your brother has the crazy extracurriculars and the big research projects, it’s not to say that he won’t get in – he probably has a better chance! I just wanted to say that even without those seemingly unachievable things, if he has good relationships with teachers and a way to convey a passion for science through his essays, there’s definitely a way!
1 Like
@halocline Thank you so much for your detailed response! I think you’re right abt the hardest part being nominated from the high school (his gpa is a 3.85 uw and a lot of kids have a 4.0) so gpa is definitely his biggest concern. do you think expressing interest to his guidance counselor would be helpful? at our high school they make us fill out an application (with essays, ecs, gpa, and sat/act)
I hope you enjoy governor’s school!
@palm12312 yes definitely!! ask them around like junior fall or something, and he can even fake not really knowing about the school’s process and just ask some “dumb” questions (“oh yeah, so my friend did it, and i was wondering what the process is like here?” type things). otherwise, it’s definitely more specialized to the school. essays will be very important, so that’s probably something to start tackling first. also, make sure he has decent relationships with his STEM subject teachers (in my school, we have an application, and all applicants are reviewed by STEM teachers, even though they don’t tell us that teachers are involved, not just guidance – might not apply but just to be safe)
@halocine Thank you so much for your advice! I really appreciate it