<p>no, just most intertesting open questions in your field
for mine, i put down questions that were some of the biggest mysteries in genetics (that i obviously was not going to solve at rsi)
i think the point is for them to see that you know your field</p>
<p>ahh don't mean to butt in here, but you guys do NOT need to worry about silly formating questions on the RSI application.<br>
It's very informal YES, just make sure they get all the information they need from you, if you think its important find somewhere to say it. Don't worry about it! I just hope you get in cause RSI = awesome.</p>
<p>:-)</p>
<p>xinerz-"how many former RSI attendees actually read this thread? it seems like these questions keep piling up and piling up and piling up"</p>
<p>i think about 5 rickoids from 2004: stefo, frankenchris, dj_mack, me and justin...whose sn i can't remember off my head.</p>
<p>duckoftheyear- don't worry about the subfrield. i don't think they really care either.</p>
<p>random^4-like stefo said...write about what interests you. you're not going to solve a millenium problem while you're at RSI; you're not going to develop an RNAi drug in 6 weeks; and you're not going to find a new bond in chemistry. So of course they don't need you to find the answers you seek.</p>
<p>staticsoliloquy-sorry, i didn't mean to sound like you all weren't "paying attention" or weren't "answering our needed questions"... it just seemed like too many ppl were asking questions at all the same time. </p>
<p>but Thank you, for answering our questions. i, and the others, really appreciate it ^___^</p>
<p>so here's a few questions regarding life after RSI... >to alumns<</p>
<br>
<p>have your research won any science competitions? how did your teachers/other people see you after RSI? were you publicly acclaimed for participating in RSI? in local news, etc? did it help in college admissions? will you continue your project or research in general in college? <em>please answer honestly</em> -thanks-</p>
<br>
<p>I'm no alum, but life after RSI looks damn good to me.</p>
<br>
<p>have your research won any science competitions? did you know that about half of rickoids that applied to Siemens made it into semifinalist :) This year, a rickoid took 2nd in S/W for Individual Project. how did your teachers/other people see you after RSI? sigh...my physicist teacher assumed that i'm intelligent and that I can understand physics easily. Wrong! I can't even ask him a question because he's like "You should be getting this out of all people." It kinda irritates me. Other people like my boss at work trust me A LOT more, knowing that I can handle graduate-level protocol. Thus he allow me to lead a project of my own. I work with postdocs who view me as equal. It's great. were you publicly acclaimed for participating in RSI? in local news, etc? Nope. People at my school were like "What's RSI?"...."What's MTI?"...lol but you do get a cool letter from your Congressperson, personally signed :) did it help in college admissions? of course RSI helps in college admissions :) If you choose to apply anywher else EA but Harvard, your acceptance rate is around 100%. Harvard acceptance rate this year for Rickoids in the EA process was around 70%... will you continue your project or research in general in college? of course!</p>
<br>
<p>How similiar have your 3 projects been: pre-RSI (NIH), RSI, post-RSI</p>
<p>I know I've already asked but maybe it's good to have it on this thread.</p>
<p>HAH they're not even in the SAME FIELD!!</p>
<p>answers to questions:</p>
<p>yes</p>
<p>no one around here (kansas) knows what RSI is.. although most knew it was something good</p>
<p>nope (wait actually there was a little blurb in the paper)</p>
<p>probably</p>
<p>maybe....</p>
<p>i loveeeeeeee your answers chris :) they're very accurate!!</p>
<p>At least your state isn't ranked 48th in education!</p>
<p>if i was to select my field under computer science, what level should i be at? i do not know many algorithms but otherwise am very strong</p>
<p>zogoto-no offense, but i thought tennessee was ranked 48th... where are you?</p>
<p>fae...i'm going to let frankenchris answer that. he worked inside MIT Media Lab :)</p>
<p>He programmed in Java and before RSI, he didn't even know the language. You gotta pick it up quickly. We had a rickoid, Sasho, from Bulgaria. He knew 9 different languages.</p>
<p>Do you at least know sorting and searching algorithms?</p>
<p>Do you mean sorting and searching arrays or using all those fancy algorithms to search when you have 10^100000 things to look through? Just searching and sorting arrays is covered in any AP comp sci class.</p>
<p>I'm in Arizona. Last I heard, we were 48th, then some other state, and then Mississippi. I think I got this from some article on netscape.com and my history class was talking about it the next day. Oh well. According to the theory that RSI has quotas, I might have a bigger chance now except that a kid at my school with identical stats and ecs and awards (we have worked together on many projects) is also applying...</p>
<p>Sasho was plain awesome!
Also he had one of the lowest purity scores at RSI... :-)</p>
<p>Yeah I took APCS at my school and it was in C++, and java was just such a slow language to me I never learned anything about it. The first week of mentorship my mentor gave me two 900 page ish java books (he refered to them as Tomes) with the instruction "learn java". Thats all I did for the first few days, but I really only learned the things I needed to for my project, and I knew C/C++ so the concepts are pretty similar.</p>
<p>to fae:
its ok if you don't know many algorithms by heart, but understand the concepts and theory behind algorithms in general. It seems that CS people can get shifted around alot within the CS field. I applied saying I wanted to do, CS:AI and CS: Game Theory. When I was accepted I was told I'd be doing Game Theory. I got to my lab and I basically worked with a graduate student finding out somethinig to do, and it didn't involve game theory at all. Despite this it was still AWESOME! I know for CS (and probably math too) you'll get accepted and then your specific area in your field is subject to alot of change pending whats available with your mentor. If you have geniue passion for your field, you'll be able to learn anything you'll need along the way. But don't worry about it to much, they won't give you something you can't handle.</p>
<p>also nghi, I worked in the CSAI Lab!! the Media lab is our nemesis (not really), I was in the stata center too.... If there's one building on MIT crazier than the simmons dorm, its the stata center.</p>
<p>Apply to RSI!! </p>
<p>it = uber awesome</p>
<p>oh, great! i wasn't going to apply because i thought you had to know a lot more stuff than i did. i love cs too, it's the only thing that i'm really good at. i hope i can get a hold of my APCS teacher from last year, i was one of the best students he ever had. </p>
<p>thanks for your comments guys, i will definitely apply to RSI now.</p>
<p>oops was it kim who worked in the Media Lab?</p>
<p>I hope that this isnt a rediculus question, but how similar can our first and second research choices be (even the subfields), for instance are Cosmology and Planetary Astronomy, both subfields of Astrophysics okay?</p>