<p>Wow. That letter really hurt. I actually thought I had a chance if not for my crappy standarized test scores. But I suppose everyone probably thinks the same of themselves. At least, we'll have something in common. Join the club. So what shall we start with!? Introductions sound like a good idea. (So good is what you thought could've gotten you into RSI and the ugly is why you think you got rejected.)</p>
<p>GOOD:
UGLY:</p>
<p>Plans for the summer:</p>
<p>ME:</p>
<p>GOOD: NASA SHARP, Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam, ISEF Finalist
UGLY: There is a reason why I despise Collegeboard.</p>
<p>Plans for the summer: SSP for free but waiting on decisions from Garcia, HSHSP, YSP at FSU, UMich SAP, Baylor</p>
<p>GOOD: I'm valedictorian, captain of math and academic decathlon, I have a pilot's license, I had a summer internship at MIT last year.
UGLY: My math psat score (70) and general lack of AP courses (stupid school).</p>
<p>Plans for the summer: PAID research internship at MIT :-D</p>
<p>Good: I can dedicate the summer to relaxing, playing tennis, and hopefully making lots of progress on my research project at a national lab around where I live.</p>
<p>Ugly: The amount of pressure regarding m project is amplified and I feel like I HAVE to make some progress. My grades are sliding and I have 5 AP's to take. Gah</p>
<p>Good: BIG Project I started and am about to launch, collaborated with nobel laureates, MIT profs, Harvard profs, etc etc</p>
<p>Bad: School is a major bummer. I just focus on other things - i C'ed up a few math courses and such. Although, I have perfect/near perfect math test scores and my previous research is math heavy...</p>
<p>Plans for the Summer: expand it, maybe we'll start up operations in australia?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Good: BIG Project I started and am about to launch, collaborated with nobel laureates, MIT profs, Harvard profs, etc etc
[/quote]
That is effing insane.</p>
<p>[I'm not a member, by the way, though it's a likely occurance for next year. I would make some mention concerning how it's not the end of the world and you guys are still awesome, but frankly that seems condensending, and with what everyone's new plans, it doesn't seem necessary.]</p>
<p>GOOD: Pretty good scores, 2280 on SAT, 234 on PSAT, 780 on Math IIC,
UGLY: School kept me in precalc this year instead of putting me in calculus, no research experience, fewer APs than people from most other schools since my school has these lame restrictions on the number you can take, no real outstanding ECs in science and math except for maybe FIRST robotics.</p>
<p>plans for summer: praying i get into gov school for math, science, and technology</p>
<p>I haven't received my decision, but looking at all these excellent stats and the "elite rejectees" of the other RSI thread got me thinking.</p>
<p>I think that maybe many of you are rejected not because you have a fatal flaw in your app, but perhaps of overqualification?</p>
<p>It would be perfectly reasonable to assume that RSI wishes to extend their research opportunities to those that does not already have huge awards and huge research projects going for them. If you are already doing stellar research, I see little point of RSI extending you their research opportunities because obviously you're already doing fine elsewhere. Wouldn't it be possible that RSI wants to give those who cannot/haven't researched on their own a chance to research at MIT through the program?</p>
<p>GOOD: an internship and the Naval Research Laboratory, still waiting on a confirmation from a lab in England (woohoo!)
good SAT scores and such (2300/1580, 800 IIC, 800 Chem, 800 Bio)</p>
<p>UGLY: Spend an entire summer wallowing in self-loathing, trying to come up with an alternate "hook".</p>
<p>CrazyGlue, I wish you the best for Gov school! It is SO much fun. Don't worry too much about the application. The whole process is based on numbers anyway.</p>
<p>GOOD:SAT Scores, 1570, PSAT 233, 3 APs including Calc and Bio Sophomore year, 6 this year. I also thought my questions for number two were very good, I even had a college prof look over the ideas to make sure they were plausible and he said they were.
UGLY: No former research experience, no science ECs (been at three high schools in three years) or awards. My recs might have been mediocre too, since I had only known these teachers for about 5 months. I know one of them was bad, the teacher even asked me to proof read it, and it looked like it had been copied and pasted completely, it even referred to me as a "she" at one point.</p>
<p>Plans for the summer: Still hoping for an NIH internship but thats probably going to fall through. Will probably end up doing research at my uncle's lab at upenn for 3-4 weeks.</p>
<p>I have to sort of conclude that people overestimated the importance of the essay questions because it seems like a lot of the people who did it last minute got in. (I worked on mine for about a month.)</p>
<p>GOOD: salutorian, 4AP's(its alot for my school), previous research experience, 6week science program last summer(biology project)
UGLY: Collegeboard as well
Plans: idk yet, still waiting for all the responses.</p>
<p>I applied last year and got rejected. And now I've entered the Intel and I've been in a lab at a major university for over a year. Trust me, there are tons of research opportunities outside of programs like RSI.</p>
<p>screw you, RSI (this coming from a reject last year)</p>
<p>I thought I had a pretty decent shot with recs/standardized testing/grades/etc
but looking back, my essays were quite terrible (compared to my college ones at least)</p>
<p>Ya Sectum, my essays were horrible too. I didn't know how to approach them. I think if I had discovered CC earlier, that would've helped.</p>
<p>But hey,</p>
<p>GOOD: got to relax, got All-American at this national quiz bowl competition, start college essays early so my whole Christmas wasn't waxed out.
BAD: no research experience going into college</p>