Research Science Institute

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>I am an international student in Alberta, Canada. (citizenship in Korea, so basically I am on a student visa here) I am going into grade 11 in september, and I am thinking of applying to RSI for next summer. The problem is, I have never written any SATs, nor have I started studying for them. My questions are,</p>

<p>1) For an international student, are SAT scores necessary for applying RSI? If yes, do I need some SAT II scores too, or is SAT I score fine enough? </p>

<p>2) How competitive is getting accepted to RSI? I just heard about it like 2 days ago from Suze =P and I am really not sure about its acceptance rate. I kind of want to put my stats here again and ask for my chances, but since my stats have been up at "What are my chances?" for a few days now, I feel dorky putting them up again lol :P For those of you who are eager to help, you can search for my post in "What are my chances" (should be in the first 2~4 pages, the title is "What are my chances?") and evaluate my chances. =)
Also, it'd be great if you can tell me the range of SAT scores that I need to have, if I were required to have any.</p>

<p>3) How important is computer skill level in applying to RSI? Yesterday, I looked up on the internet and saw the applicatino form. It wanted the applicant to check of his/her course level and skill level in programming. The thing is, I have NO programming experience whatsoever. I am thinking of Grade 10 and Grade 11 Computer Science IB course this year (gonna cram up both courses somehow), and I don't know if that's going to be ok for applying to RSI.</p>

<p>4) How smart are people at RSI? Are all of them really accomplished in math and science and are all award-winners in national competitions and olympiads? Or are there students that do very well in school but are not so involved in competitions? I'm just curious, hahah :P</p>

<p>Yeah, I guess I really should be researching and preparing myself if I want to get involved in ECs like RSI and get accepted to some of the top colleges, but I've decided that I'd rather depend on you bright CC folks </p>

<p>Thanks a lot!!!! =)</p>

2

<p>International student admissions are radically different from domestic admissions. I'm pretty sure that the CEE doesn't even handle most international admissions, but leaves them to the organizations from other countries with whom they are partnered. Programming skills are not necessary. I had no programming experience prior to RSI, and I did a project that was fairly heavy on programming, learning it as I went. I can't really comment on the international admissions, but getting into RSI is competitive. There were over 1200 applications for 89 spots at RSI 2005.</p>

<p>The thing about the people at RSI is that while they're all extremely intelligent, they are also the most awesome and amazing people I have ever met. Everyone who applies to RSI is intelligent, that's a given, but the people who end up at the program have this sort of unquantifiable quality that makes the program what it is. In my experience there was a range of achievements in math/science competitions. There were the IMO medalists and then there were people like me who have never qualified for the AIME. I use that example to say that you can't write yourself off because you have no outstanding achievements in competitions, but all the awards in the world won't get you into RSI.</p>

3

<p>coolness_rookie, I'm applying to RSI 2006 next year (from Canada too). What I heard was that Canada doesn't even have a exchange sponsor yet (funny because nortel was on that sponsors list). </p>

<p>Anyways, have you ever taken the Canadian Math Competition or the COMC? if you did, would you mind tell me what you got on it?</p>

4

<p>Heh, I wrote a lot of Canadian math competitions...didn't do too well in gr. 10 =P maybe its cuz I wrote all the gr. 11 and gr. 12 exams rather than gr. 10 ones....but here goes.....</p>

<p>Fermat Top 25%
Hypatia Bronze
COMC Top 25%
Euclid Top 25%
Alberta High School Math Competition Top 50
There was also this national math/science competition called "Michael Smith Challenge", on which I got 1st in Alberta.</p>

<p>how about you dooit?</p>

<p>Um....also...that sponsor matter...does that mean students from Canada has a very SLIGHT chance of getting in?</p>

5

<p>When I saw this in High School Life I thought it was the thread for next year already. Thank god.</p>

6

<p>wow nice, I did very well on them but I guesss it's because I took the grade 10 one in grade 10. They only give out top 25%, which is stupid, but do you know your actual mark? (out of 150) I already posted this in college admissions forum so I didn't want to do it again lol I'll pm you</p>

<p>Without a sponsor, we have NO CHANCE at RSI :(</p>

7

<p>I wish I could get into RSI, but I'm better off hoping to get in MITES, which is a competitive program but not as much as RSI. At least, I have a chance at MITES.</p>

<p>Good luck coolness.</p>

8

<p>Do you know what the cutoff for CMO from COMC is?</p>

9

<p>the cut off differs every year I think...you gotta be in top 50 or 100, but not too sure. If RSI is not a possibility, I guess I'll try to find a Canadian summer program thats pretty rigorous. Im considering Shad right now, but gonna try to find more.</p>

<p>I actually don't care too much if I go to RSI or not next summer, cuz one girl from my school got accepted to MIT this year without going to RSI. She wasn't REALLY AMAZING either (everyone at CC says that a person has to be really special in some way to get into top schools). She probably was like within top 5% in our school (which I guess is pretty good, considering our school is extremely academic), I don't know her SAT scores but Im guessing 2300+ (well...most people that write the SAT from our school gets like 2250+), but she didn't really do well on any science or math competitions. Her EC's weren't that splendid either. There wasn't anything "unique" or "special" about her.</p>

10

<p>Thanks a lot, Private_Joker!!!!! :D Good luck to you too, whatever you do! :)</p>

11

<p>coolness_rookie,
You should also look into Deep River Science Academy (<a href="http://www.drsa.ca)%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.drsa.ca)&lt;/a>. With this program, you spend 6 weeks at one of two campuses in Ontario working on research projects under a professional researcher. Another program you could apply to the Alberta Heritage Youth Researcher Summer Program (<a href="http://www.ahfmr.ab.ca/HYRS/index.php)%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ahfmr.ab.ca/HYRS/index.php)&lt;/a>. In that program, you conduct medical research.</p>

12

<p>The HYRS looks good (it's free), but the drsa looks like a rip-off. I read about Shad in the newspaper, but I'm gonna have to look into it deeper haha</p>

<p>CDN_dancer, do you know any good programs in Ontario that's not hosted by University of Toronto?</p>

13

<p>I'm not very familiar with the programs in Ontario, but here's some that I've found.</p>

<p>-Queens University: <a href="http://www.queensu.ca/enrichment/EMC2/index.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.queensu.ca/enrichment/EMC2/index.php&lt;/a> It's a one week enrichment camp in a variety of subjects. It's for grades 9-12
-Shad Valley has a few campuses in Ontario (McMaster, Queens, UWaterloo, Carleton)
-<a href="http://www.abcontario.ca/new/links.htm#can"&gt;http://www.abcontario.ca/new/links.htm#can&lt;/a> has links to organizations for gifted students that you could looks into.</p>

<p>I'll post more if I find any.</p>

14

<p>hi,
i just learned about rsi today. I'm curious as to what cs topics are researched at rsi. </p>

<p>I do a great deal of stuff relating to servers/linux and what not. I also have a good deal of programming experience (Alot of C++, C, Java, VB .NET, PHP, and various other random programming langs). However, I'm not sure what kind of computer things can be researched, other than AI which I have limited experience with.</p>

15

<p>sorry for bringing up the thread again.</p>

<p>but for qualifying for CEE.</p>

<p>do they look for leadership, academics, etc like college do?</p>

<p>does it depend more on ur essay or your ECs during previous years.</p>

<p>would having done almost nothing much (not like ppl living in US who have the opportunity to take 20 Mathematical competitions, do science research all years, clubs, and summer programs) during softmore/freshman year because of limited opportunity have a really bad effect on it?</p>

<p>all those things i coudln't do it because the schools never offered it and i lived in a country that spoke different languages. and couldn't afford to pay for summer programs that are 5000 $ if i include the airplane ticket.
Overall my math/ science skill is by my description is one of the best i've seen so far considering the thinking level not the course level or how much you know (not necessarily people in CC but people i've seen with my eyes and met). but i hadn't had much opportunity to learn or participate in much stuffs.</p>

<p>since i can do more things in junior year, is everything put more emphasize on my junior year and my essay?</p>