Research Science Institute (RSI) 2009

Pre-College Issues Summer Programs
841

<p>dododo.. don't be bitter... awww.. if you can find me another summer program that represented four of the intel WINNERS (and 2 out of the top 3) this year, then we'll gladly concede that rsi isn't that great. </p>

<p>sarcasm aside, rsi is seriously probably the best program out there- if we're talking both social and academic aspects. there are probably other programs that are better geared for other interests (like MOP) but it's commonly acknowledged as (and deserves to be) the best high school research institution in the US. </p>

<p>and to answer your question, curiousgf- not to burst your bubble but he probably won't have much time for you.. and he likely will not want to miss a lot of rsi's social activities to be with you.</p>

842

<p>@curiousgf: Yeah, what areyoukidding is saying is correct, although you could probably meet him on campus for lunch or something.</p>

843

<p>Yeah, the program says that visits from family and friends are discouraged. I suppose it forces the kids to bond with each other, instead of clinging to their old security blankets and not making new friends.</p>

<p>This thread is pretty much dead, btw.</p>

<p>THE rsi thread from last year kept going and going. what happened this year?
oh, well. next year’s applicants will just have to do without hundreds of pages of posts to read.</p>

844

<p>because practically no one frickin got accepted…well I got into ssp so ha!</p>

845

<p>new info! RSI actually isn’t as great as you guys make it out be… the people there are great, but in fact, everyone at intel apparently did their project at their LOCAL universities, and submitted that to intel, NOT the one they did at RSI. so ha, along with tomjonesistheman.</p>

846

<p>I am hard pressed to believe that EVERYONE did that.</p>

<p>Also, I am skeptical about how you would have gotten such information.</p>

<p>I’m sure that many RSi projects are intel and siemens semifinalist worthy. Can a previous rickoid comment on this. </p>

<p>for ISEF, at least, sana raoof won with her project from RSI. I’m sure that she did well in Siemens and intel as well ( though I’m not sure).</p>

<p>Stop trying to take away from RSI dododo. It IS a great experience and we WILL do great research projects! No one is undermining the research that you might do, so stop undermining the research we might do. </p>

<p>God, dododo is really making me a tad angry. it amazes how far into denial people will go in order to validate their self-worth. I don’t think anyone SHOULD measure their self-worth by RSI or anything like that, but it seems like dododo had a little bit too much of his confidence vested in getting into the program. It’s like a woman qwho enters a beauty pageant, loses, and then spends the next weeks “finding out” that all the other girls have had work done, or were wearing too much makeup or something. It’s a little ridiculous. </p>

<p>I’ll show you when I’m a semifinalist next year (hopefully).</p>

<p>You can make up as many facts as you want and stretch as much information as you want, but RSI will always be RSI.</p>

<p>Good job on ssp, tomjonesistheman!! Good to see SOMEONE isn’t being a whiny baby and is taking advantage of other awesome opportunities… See you in boston this summer!</p>

<p>And another thing:
Maybe you didn’t get into RSI because you are the type of person who determines the weight and value of a wonderful research experience based solely on awards. </p>

<p>some people actually LIKE this stuff (<em>gasp</em>) and they do it for that reason, and that reason alone. Whether or not I do well in those competitions will play absolutely no role in how challenging and/or stimulating I view my research.</p>

847

<p>disclaimer: i was rejected from rsi last year.</p>

<p>from personal experience, it seems the bio/chem rsi kids who reach the top levels of research competitions are in fact bringing their “local” project, primarily because they might have been working on them for years, whereas their rsi project is only 6 weeks long. this usually differs from the math/physics/comp sci projects, which can be brought home to continue work and is largely independent of lab equipment etc.</p>

<p>nevertheless, congrats to those who are going this summer, and to those who aren’t, don’t worry. i had no idea what i would do in the summer after getting rejected, and i had no idea how id fare senior year. it turns out, many opportunities presented themselves, and if i had the choice to do it all again, to either attend rsi or do what i did, though rsi no doubt is an amazing experience, so too was mine. keep your head up and keep pursuing your interests.</p>

848

<p>I have the end-all answer as to how rickoids fare in college admissions. Remember: correlation does not establish causation; however, this list is pretty incredible. </p>

<p>I figured this would allow future eager-beaver potential rickoids’ minds to wander elsewhere, because this question gets asked a lot. It is from a few years ago, but whatever…</p>

<p>[Admission</a> Status](<a href=“http://planetrickoid.comclub.org/admission?display=full]Admission”>http://planetrickoid.comclub.org/admission?display=full)</p>

849

<p>Hey people! So, I didn’t get into RSI this year, but whatever. It seems that the discussion on RSI’s value is getting pretty heated, so I’d just like to put in my two cents worth :)</p>

<p>RSI is amazing. Best research summer program in the nation of HS students. That said, it’s not the creme de la creme, so to speak. The best is personal passion. I hate to put it in these terms (I hate when people look at it just in terms of college, but I know we’re all ambitious, smart people who are worried about college) but universities don’t care if you went to RSI or TASP or anything. It’s a def. plus, but you can do what you want at home. Or should be able to anyway. That’s assuming that you’re the passionate, possibly stubborn, intelligent person that will succeed anyway.</p>

<p>Some people forget this. Not just for RSI, but also in terms of college admissions (i.e. lying about their rejection). RSI admiission officers are NOT clairvoyant and yes, they will make mistakes. But not of that matters in the great scheme of things.</p>

<p>So to Dododo, while I do agree RSI is not the epitome of greatness, don’t bash on other people. Plus, who knows if you’d’ve even liked it there? I for one am happy to travel to Europe this summer for vacation and volunteering, research at my local university, and hang out with my friends. Take advantage of the fact that you don’t have to stay for a month and a half away from your closest friends doing research you may or may not be able to complete. </p>

<p>As for the list of college acceptances of Rickoids. While impressive, I think RSI is only one of the many byproducts of passion and intelligence. Not all RSI kids got into the best schools and those who did probably could have done it w/o RSI b/c they deserved it.</p>

850

<p>ya guys why such the hatred? The people that say “RSI isnt that great” are being sore losers…otherwise you wouldnt have applied in the first place.</p>

<p>I also dont think RSI participant= auto admit. There is a user called WaitingForGodot that got rejected from every college (except UVA) that he applied too this year. In order to be classified as an auto-admit, as some of you guys have put it, RSI is something that not only do you have to get in, but you have to do well in the program and do well in the competitions after the program to let you stand out to top colleges. </p>

<p>When you see all those RSI qualfiiers get accepted to top colleges (the link posted above), its not because they got into RSI…its becuase they did well at RSI and did well before RSI.</p>

<p>Btw, I was rejected from RSI like most of you guys.</p>

851

<p>I am not at all trying to imply that RSI is a guarantee for college admissions. Also, I agree that that factor has little to do with the awesomeness of RSI. I was just offering some hard information (which seems to be rare on these threads). I thought it could only be useful, but sorry if some of you took my post the wrong way.</p>

852

<p>Does anyone have the link to the research projects that RSI people have done in recent years?</p>

853

<p>Just for the record:</p>

<p>I don’t think we can use WaitingForGodot as any sort of representation for RSI and college acceptances. Not only did he get into RSI, he was also excelling at perhaps the most competitive high school in the country and he did well in research competitions (I can’t remember if he did siemens or intel or both) after rsi. On paper, he was the ideal applicant, rsi or not. However, there had to have been some circumstances that prevented him from getting in to top colleges. The reason was not at all that he was udnerqualified or was a “mistake” admit to RSI. For clarification, I DO NOT KNOW HIM or anything about him other than what I have written. I’m simply speculating. </p>

<p>And i would like to hope that RSI = admission to MIT…at least most of the time. It’s good for my sanity.</p>

854

<p>I just want to add, probably for people applying next year or are upset about getting rejected or whatever this year - I know a US applicant from an under-represented state who was a gold medalist at an international olympiad who got rejected. So even extremely qualified people can get rejected.</p>

855

<p>well what dododo says is right actually (from my brother who was an intel finalist thsi year). most of the intel finalists and winners this year (who went to rsi) did their research projects at their local universities. maybe one or two of them actually did their research at rsi… you have to realize that rsi is only 6 weeks and only 4 of them are really devoted to research-- that’s definitely not enough time to create a suitable project for intel or siemens.</p>

856

<p>whatever. I’m done arguing about the research component of RSI. Everyone is aware of the differing opinions, so let’s be done with that, okay?</p>

<p>Anyways, none of the kids from Singapore can go to RSI (that’s six people). Some virus or something… That could be great news for the alternates if CEE has enough time to tell them – which they very well might not.</p>

857

<p>^ Serious? Gahh that stinks.</p>

858

<p>Hey hopeful1992, seeing that you are the only really active user on here that made it to RSI, would you mind sharing with us your RSI experience afterwords/project that you did (especially MIT’s environment, facilities, mentors…)! Good luck to you at RSI; I didnt get in but I am also doing a project at my local university and maybe we both can get really lucky and meet at national Siemens!</p>

859

<p>I’m doing SSP, but do any of you have any tips on how to do an extended project after I come back that I could use for Siemens/Intel? Would I simply mass-email local professors about what I did in SSP and if they could help me? Thanks</p>

860

<p>@hipeople:
Certainly. Yeah, I will do that. I got a project that sounds really cool, and I would be happy to tell you about it. </p>

<p>@tomjones: I wouldn’t just mass email professors. It’s going to be hard to get a good research project done in such a short amount of time without being in a structured program. I would research what certain labs are doing at a local university and get in contact with the ones who are doing something that you like. Be polite, of course, and I’m sure you’ll find something cool to do. You might not have any results in time for competitions, but it could still be fun, at least. What field are you interested in researching. </p>

<p>the field that you’re interested in will likely have a big influence on how long your research will take. Biology and chemistry usually take while for some progress, but you never know. I helped out with a project that had been going on for almost a year (biochemistry), and we had a pretty major breakthrough within my first two weeks of being there. Anything can happen.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>