<p>Affirmative action: The people involved in admissions say pretty explicitly that the process is as just about as purely meritocratic as it can be. Yes, there were students from states like Alaska and Oklahoma, but - seriously people - not all smart people interested in science and math live in CA and NY. </p>
<p>The research experience is also completely different from doing an Olympiad. There are usually a few people every year who have to choose between MOP and RSI if the dates conflict, but the programs don't correspond one-to-one. If you have your heart set on RSI and don't end up getting in, the experience of working in a university lab doing research over the summer would actually be more comparable. It's the difference between being up at 2 am doing problem sets when you know there's a solution, and being up at 2 am staring at a computer screen trying to figure out why your program is refuting all of your previous results. You spend a lot of time at RSI thinking "oh geez what do I do now?" If you like the research process, it's an amazing experience - but it's very different from doing problem sets. </p>
<p>Admissions are the result of sooo many factors - which is why anyone interested in going should take the risk of applying. Most college admissions officers will tell you that they look at applications holistically, so everything is taken into account in the context of the application. i.e. I was absolutely convinced I wasn't getting in, because I didn't have any individual competition awards except in stuff like acadec, or qualifications in the AIME or other olympiads. But I was also doing astrophysics, and I'd gone to SSP the summer before and worked junior year in a lab at Brown, and my school doesn't offer particularly extensive math/science options. And I poured my soul into those essays. :P So, anyway, this is just to say that you put what you have to offer into the application, and it's probably going to be quite different from every other one. They leave questions pretty open, so there's no "right answer" - you just show them how you would add to the program and benefit from what it offers you.</p>
<p>That was a very insightful post, thestral :) Kudos to you. </p>
<p>I have to say that I agree that although affirmative action is somewhat... undesirable, they do have it in the sense of a geographical bias. However, I'm equally sure that it is not immensely unfair, and I have faith that the RSI people really do want to get the BEST people they can (what that means to them is the question.)</p>
<p>In case anyone is confused, yes RSI does do some geographical bias (no racial bias, though... I don't think there was a single urm in 2008). But only like 38 states are represented, so they clearly don't care to get perfect diversity. I would guess that students from weird states can get in only on really good standardized test scores and grades, while students from other states may need competitions and/or research experience.</p>
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Well if you're serious about math, I wouldn't see why you wouldn't go if you got in. I mean even Eric Larson (IMO silver when he was a soph) went to RSI, thus skipping going to the IMO this year. Other really good math people such as Marianna Mao and Patricia Li both went to RSI. So why not?
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<p>Well, Eric Larson didn't skip IMO, he didn't make MOP...so there was no chance of him going to IMO...
Marianna Mao and Patricia Li are great mathematicians but certainly not among the top 20-30 in the country</p>
<p>yea that's tru. but really, everyone says it's their essays that get them into RSI, cuz they fill it up with passion for science/ math and stuff. still trying to write that -_-</p>
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Well, Eric Larson didn't skip IMO, he didn't make MOP...so there was no chance of him going to IMO...
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<p>Um, I remember he had the choice of going to either MOP or RSI. He could only choose one since MOP and RSI overlap by 1 week (end of MOP is beginning of RSI), and going to RSI means that you forfeit any spot you might have on an Olympiad team/training camp. So in other words you can't really "make" MOP and RSI, because you can't go to both.</p>
<p>@ databox: if you are only a sophomore now, and you want to continue with all those varsity sports and MUN things while taking all those AP's and extra courses... well good luck.</p>
<p>if you do manage to get through that successfully, I'd say you have a really high chance of getting in. </p>
<p>It might be nice, though, to have experience in more than just usamo... I know people from the SFBA had qualified to the final rounds or camps in at least 3 different science olympiads while taking at least as many ap's and extra math courses as you. arml and mathcounts are pretty lightweight (no offense)</p>
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Um, I remember he had the choice of going to either MOP or RSI. He could only choose one since MOP and RSI overlap by 1 week (end of MOP is beginning of RSI), and going to RSI means that you forfeit any spot you might have on an Olympiad team/training camp. So in other words you can't really "make" MOP and RSI, because you can't go to both.
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<p>Oh yeah, my bad, I meant to say black MOP, he qualified for blue MOP last year...</p>
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@ databox: if you are only a sophomore now, and you want to continue with all those varsity sports and MUN things while taking all those AP's and extra courses... well good luck.</p>
<p>if you do manage to get through that successfully, I'd say you have a really high chance of getting in. It might be nice, though, to have experience in more than just usamo... I know people from the SFBA had qualified to the final rounds or camps in at least 3 different science olympiads while taking at least as many ap's and extra math courses as you. arml and mathcounts are pretty lightweight (no offense)
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<p>Yeah, I'm pretty sure I can handle it, I actually cut about 5 of my relatively major EC's at the beginning of this year to ensure that I have enough time to successfully complete everything I do.</p>
<p>What other type of experience do you suggest? And as far as people who made finals in 3 different science olympiads, I can barely name 3 or 4 in the country that have made two finals, let alone three. Yeah, I realize that arml and mathcounts are lightweight, but I beat out several MOPpers last year to make the ARML A team for SFBA. Thanks for the advice!</p>
<p>oops; i meant either final round or camp level... aka MOP or just making it to USAMO, and similarly for USNCO, bio, physics, or computing. it's pretty easy to take a bunch of AP courses and get 5's (seriously, science AP's are a joke), so it's nice to make it to the level before camp for some of those Olympiads. and since your major area is math, you should be doing usamts too.. and I'm not sure if taking WOOT really belongs on your resume.</p>
<p>you might try to establish a research project this year/next year.</p>
<p>there are also competitions like science bowl and science olympiad that aren't as major, but are still boosters if you get to the national level.</p>
<p>edit/ didn't mean for it to sound so intimidating. what i recommended (doing lots of competitions) is a good one to take for sfba students because there are a lot of resources there available for people who do want to do those competitions... but its not the only way to get in.</p>
<p>you should always apply, even if you don't think you have a shot. there always has to be a first person at a school to have gotten into rsi... it might be you.</p>
<p>Ah this thread is so intimidating... and daunting... and I'm probably not going to apply nothing will make me stand out... like I stand out because I've achieved so much less and my grades are sucking. </p>
<p>No one at my school has ever gotten accepted into RSI including our two intel winners and everyone else... It's a good school with 1-2 USAMO qualifiers per year but no rickroids ever.</p>
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you should be doing usamts too.. and I'm not sure if taking WOOT really belongs on your resume.
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<p>I should be doing USAMTS, but I had way too many things going on during the first deadline and missed it, is there any reason to do the last three rounds when I can't receive a Gold? Also, WOOT will definitely not be on my resume.</p>
<p>yeah, that sucks, i guess there's no point this year then. </p>
<p>and being good at olympiads doesn't mean that you'll get into rsi. i know of someone who made MOP yet did not get into rsi... he ended up getting gold at ipho.</p>
<p>I think hyunsook was onto something when s/he said this thread is becoming a little too intimidating. There is probably no single ticket into RSI - except maybe Eric Larson's IMO silver and Philip Streich's ISEF success - but for the rest of us, we're students who love math and science and have devoted our focus and energy to further exploring them. If that's who you are and your resume reflects that (olympiads or no), you've probably got a perfectly fair shot. You just have to come to terms with the fact that RSI can only accept 50 domestic applicants.</p>