<p>I'm gonna go ahead and make this thread, since the Siemens competition deadline is in a month. Who on CC is gonna submit their research to these competitions? </p>
<p>This is gonna be my first year doing these competitions. Do any past participants have any advice/tips for increasing my chances for semifinalist/finalist? Is there anything important to know about the competitions? Thanks!</p>
<p>If you don’t have your Siemens paper already DONE, you are behind the eight ball. Having it done now gives you time to reflect on it, and to let others offer their comments. S found this to be a big, big advantage – he was not trying to cram in writing the paper along with apps and senior year coursework. Having the paper done also give you the chance to knowledgeably discuss it in a college essay or include it as a supplement!</p>
<p>Links from prior years –
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/584560-siemens-competition.html?highlight=siemens[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/584560-siemens-competition.html?highlight=siemens</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/591841-intel-sts-2009-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/591841-intel-sts-2009-a.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/538959-first-time-siemens-intel-applicant.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/538959-first-time-siemens-intel-applicant.html</a> (page 2 has links to more threads)</p>
<p>Yea, I know. I didn’t find out about research or anything like that until spring of this year. So I haven’t had much time to actually spend a lot of time on research. I’ve been doing one since February, and just started one beginning of this month. All I want to do is finish it and submit to the competition. </p>
<p>I want to discuss my research in a supplement, do you think it would be okay if I also said that I planned to submit it to Intel/Siemens?</p>
<p>Siemens is due in a month. Intel is due mid-November. They will either be submitted (or not) by the time you apply to your colleges (with the exception of Intel and EA colleges). No “planning to submit” about it.</p>
<p>MIT has specific instructions on what they want you to discuss re: your research. Caltech wants to see the actual paper.</p>
<p>Ok thanks! I’m about to mail in my Siemens stuff.</p>
<p>I was going to but i decided I’d use my research maybe for the state science competition. Siemens deadline is Oct 1st!! This includes supplemental forms along with the research paper. It has to be THERE by Oct 1st, not postmarked. 
Basically if you haven’t sent it yet they you can’t really submit…</p>
<p>As for intel- they suggest you start freshman year, so I highly doubted that I would even have a shot at being chosen as a semifinalist since I just started this summer. </p>
<p>You can still write about your research experience in your college Apps. You wouldn’t find out if you are a semifinalist for intel until after the submission of most of your college apps.</p>
<p>P.S. The kids that win the Seimens and Intel competitions are crazy smart… it’s ridiculous… but also humbling.</p>
<p>Yea I’m going to send it on Monday (28th) one day rush delivery, so it gets there the 29th.</p>
<p>I’m a sophomore, but I’d like to do this when I’m a senior as well. How would you start researching a topic?</p>
<p>contact professors from a local university in the field of interest. It may take some time though to find someone willing to work with a high school student.</p>
<p>hi, i’m also submitting a paper for siemens tomorrow or monday. just wondering about my chances for becoming a semifinalist. i know that people from programs like RSI or science magnet schools usually do well, but does anyone have an idea about how many of the 300 semifinalists do research at big name/labs or programs?</p>
<p>i did my research project at an internship last summer, so i didn’t get to finish it entirely due to time constraints. i completed about 3/4 of my initial objective, but i also wrote about the 1/4 i didn’t solve…does anyone know if most semifinalists have major results?</p>
<p>I’m not sure if my results were major or not. I did a math research report, with a mentor from a local college. My report is around 10 pages. </p>
<p>Is anyone here familiar with the specific requirements? Like, am I supposed to send in the Abstract and References separately, or would it be fine for them to be part of the research report itself?</p>
<p>I dont get how the mentor form works if we have no mentor.</p>
<p>In the directions, it says “If the sutdent does not have a mentor, a teacher or other high school administrator must complete this form”</p>
<p>So I gave it to one of my teacher.</p>
<p>Then in Section III of the mentor information, there are only two choices:
I am the mentor
There was no mentor. I am a high school administrator.</p>
<p>Uh…the directions say that a teacher can fill it out, but apparently section III contradicts it? As a result, my teacher already filled it out aside from that part…but is that not allowed or something? Do I have to reask an administrator…becuase the deadline is almost up?</p>
<p>My paper is literally 15 pages of writing (like an english essay) and 1 page of math, and the math is high school AP level. But I am still going to submit it and see how I do…you’ll never know. However, I do wish they had it like Intel STS, where you have to submit other information. I did not have a mentor (actually I did but I wanted to do my own project because I wasnt really interested in my mentor’s idea and I wanted to do something that would be a lot more fun and focused on my intended college major). Just looking strictly at a research paper (which Siemens does) might not give that great of an impression; however, if it was like Intel STS where they look at other criteria, then it might put everything more into context.</p>
<p>^Wait did you do RSI? Or were you on the Questbridge forum? I forgot lol. Anyways, I have everything ready now, just gotta find one of those big staplers to staple these huge packets together and mail it off.</p>
<p>No I got rejected from RSI.</p>
<p>I didnt apply anywhere else. Like 5 people from my school are submitting a Siemens project. A lot of them did things at a university lab over the summer, but I didnt apply to it because it said it was only for underprivaledged kids (income bracket under 30K)…however, for some reason, they accepted the people from my school, whose families make $100,000+.</p>
<p>hopefully, no one else from my region applies (like only 50 apply), so we can all be semifinalists…apparently its not just top 300, its top 50 from 6 regions.</p>
<p>If I get Semifinalist, Ill probably consider it the best achievement that I have gotten because I did not have a professor.</p>
<p>I submitted my paper yesterday. It was 17 pages long and fairly technical. It’s probably moderately important in its (rather narrowly-defined) field, but nobody outside the field will care, so I doubt I’ll achieve much…</p>
<p>The problem isnt that I dont have a professor, but its my topic.</p>
<p>Its not really a technical topic. I dont know if I can say it on the internet, but the topic has more to do with popular culture than science or math. </p>
<p>As a result, most of my sources are from the internet in my paper (there are very few published research papers over my topic).</p>
<p>I have a question regarding research. I’m a junior who as begun work with an experimental particle physicist at a UC campus in my area. I’m learning all the data analysis skills and concepts and the theory behind particle collisions and whatnot. It’s really cool and in about a year I’ll integrate myself into the network of physicists (at Fermilab and CERN) that are searching for the Higgs particle. It’s a really large collaborative effort and from the way it seems so far, a very unique opportunity. But I don’t think it’s something Intel-esque, meaning that it’s not a biology project that has medical applications for instance. And there’s really no projected end; either we find it soon or we wait and continue running collisions. So, I think it wouldn’t make a suitable project, just by its very nature.</p>
<p>I will of course put it in my college apps and make sure my mentor writes a recommendation, but is there any potential for something like this? Usually the only physics projects that win are related to engineering right? What do you guys think of my situation?</p>
<p>To clarify, what might I be able to do to put myself out there, besides just a section on my college application and a recommendation?</p>
<p>Maybe essays? Idk. I mailed my Siemens project on Monday, they received it yesterday. Good luck guys, hopefully we get Semifinalist! Notification on the 23rd.</p>
<p>hi so i sent mines a couple of days ago
do you think they will disqualify you if you include the abstract in the research report?</p>