<p>^I think they are for finalists, don’t know about semifinalists. </p>
<p>My stats are… really bad. But if you want them: 3.5 UW GPA, 2220 SAT, 2012 Siemens Semifinalist. I think what hurt me most was that in order to keep a mentor, I ended up needing to do research in something I didn’t actually like. That probably showed in my application.</p>
<p>Does anyone know what effect being a Intel STS Semifinalist will have on college admissions? Previous threads about STS talk about the amazing impact STS has on the application but I’m a little confused on how the college will know about the semis if applications are already submitted. Thanks! 
Congrats to everyone for becoming a semifinalist!</p>
<p>Colleges know because you tell them. You need to email an update to the admissions office telling them of any developments and honors since submitting.</p>
<p>What are student initiative badges awarded for? The other badges seem straightforward enough, but are the student initiative for good essays or novel project or something else?</p>
<p>@storylover132<br>
<a href=“http://badging.societyforscience.org/sts2014-criteria[/url]”>http://badging.societyforscience.org/sts2014-criteria</a></p>
<p>thanks @jamini for the info on the badges</p>
<p>I second that. Thank you :)</p>
<p>@Phlogiston Thank you for your feedback! I am asking about the application because I’ll do my best of course but I’m not expecting it to be impressive. I’m going to enter a project for the Behavioral and Social Science (BE) category–more so on the social science end than on the psychology end–so I do not have much relevant lab experience do discuss other than some menial, research assistantship work I’ve been doing for my mentor on the side. I also do not expect to pull perfect SAT scores or the like. </p>
<p>I would enter Siemens if it is purely project based, but Siemens does not seem like it takes on social science projects. I thought Siemens was more like actual inventions, or clear science and engineering applications, but I concede that I may be mistaken. I just didn’t think I could enter Siemens with the sort of project I plan to do for Intel if I’m not in that domain.</p>
<p>@terminatorp Why don’t you think the stats are important?</p>
<p>@quidditchcat Your SAT score is very respectable. I hope to pull something like that, and I hope that doesn’t mean I’m automatically out from Intel no matter what project I pull together. </p>
<p>Contrary to my lack of experience and unlikely perfect SAT score, I do believe I can potentially pull together a decent project. Of course that is not for me to judge. And I understand that it would sound unlikely that I can indeed do that given those two factors. I just didn’t know if I’m automatically out of the running for Intel because of my application & statistics.</p>
<p>Sorry, I meant I had a bad GPA. I guess I’m just always in the mind set that GPA is more important than test scores so when I say stats I’m thinking mainly on GPA.</p>
<p>does anyone know how the judges pick the finalists from the semifinalists?</p>
<p>Hi guys! Fellow Intel (and Siemens) Semifinalist here 
For the person who asked about stats: 3.93 UW, 2400 SAT single sitting (retake), one patent pending, no science fair experience other than Siemens/Intel STS but quite a few science olympiads and tech stuff.</p>
<p>For those of you who need to email updates about making STS to colleges, have you already sent the email, or are you waiting on the finalist announcement? :)</p>
<p>I’ve already told most colleges… kind of not expecting to be a finalist. Has anyone received any packages/letters from intel?</p>
<p>nope, not yet.</p>
<p>and re:badges-- I’m not exactly sure what they’re for, but I looked at the 2013 finalists and there was definitely a mix. Some finalists had the research report badge, some had both the research report and student initiative badge, and some had neither. So I’m not sure if they are indicators of anything… ?</p>
<p>I know contact for finalists is via phone but I looked back at application and don’t see any phone number requested… Only address. How/where would they have our contact number?</p>
<p>They have our phone numbers on our applications! I know in previous years, finalists received phone calls. Also, do you guys know if the Research Report/Student Initiative badges account for anything?</p>
<p>Not seeing any phone number on my application printout. Where did you enter yours? anyone?</p>
<p>I just checked my PDF and there is no phone # listed there, but maybe we had to enter it when we were creating our accounts?</p>
<p>I checked the “profile” on the application website. Again, no phone number. Weird.</p>
<p>Also in the past, the finalist booklets had pictures of the finalists…did we have to upload a picture of ourselves?</p>
<p>guys… three days until calls/four days until the announcement!!! So excited and scared at the same time :D</p>