<p>wow...that's crazy.</p>
<p>after glancing over this thread I feel like I have absolutely no chance at getting RSI .. I got my application in on time, but, ahhhhhh, I feel so inadequate</p>
<p>Stats:
GPA: 4.244 (no B's to see) (but I think the transcript RSI got only showed 4.1952 with my semester grades listed as works-in-progress)
Class Rank: 1/~650 (NOT REPORTED .. cause my school doesn't rank until senior year)
Scores: SAT I: 2270 (740R/740M/790W), no SAT IIs yet, PSAT: 223 (74R/73M/75W), AP: 5s in CompSciAB & Chem, 4 in euro </p>
<p>Current Classes: AP Physics B, AP Calc BC, AP US, AP English, AP Spanish, Madrigal Voice Ensemble, MG Computer Architecture (post-AP), MG Organic & Analytic Chem (post-AP), MG Electric Engineering (not AP level, but only available) </p>
<p>Extracurricular: Scholastic Bowl, Theater, Chorus, Mu Alpha Theta, (applied for .. no word yet) Aeronautics Research Team, Spanish Honor Society.
Extra-extracurricular (mentioned in responses): Wikipedian, read lots of books (current: Art of Computer Programming, GEB, K&R (C Programming Language), PickAxe (Ruby Programming), CamelBook (Perl Programming), the World is Flat), play nerdy games</p>
<p>Community Service: Boy Scouts .. nearly Eagle, but not quite (project within 2 hours of completion and rest of requirements done, now I just have to find a day that they can help me out) </p>
<p>Research (weak): FutureSolutions Expo at NYLF/TECH 2006 .. won category, lots of lab experience .. but virtually no original research done </p>
<p>I said I wanted to do work in CS, Computer Architecture/ Systems Programming or Math, Number Theory & Euclidean Geometry.</p>
<p>I just feel like I look so weak compared to say, the thread starter.. also .. in the fact that due to lots of other stuff the RSI essays got pushed off until the night before (FedEx'd into McLean on due date) and didn't get proper proofreading (apparently I consistently misspelled pursue as peruse .. <em>sigh</em>). </p>
<p>I realize its my own fault for not giving the application enough time (not that I had much choice) and not generally having any better extracurriculars ("wasting" too much time on theater and chorus, I suppose). I applied for a VA governor's school program with NSASA/Langely that I may get, but I would have liked RSI so much more, both from a personal and resume perspective; anybody think I still have a legitimate shot at it?</p>
<p>Thanks,
~Donald</p>
<p>I think I'll be too busy late March to worry. All these competitions going on...but I'll probably end up worrying anyways. Maybe I'll just take 5 minutes out of each day to worry from now until April so that I don't have to worry that much in the end. Now if only I took the same approach to homework.</p>
<p>YOU FEEL INADEQUATE?</p>
<p>Damn. I'd kill for your stats.</p>
<p>Hey, you're a wikipedian too? Did you make admin yet? =D</p>
<p>nah .. I never get around to making a RfA because I don't feel like my editing is significant enough .. but I really should cause every time theres a colbert panic I'm in #wikipedia on freenode being like "ahh .. protect this, block this user (pure vandal account), etc." while I'm personally like "revert, revert, revert, {{test1}},{{test2}},{{test3}},{{test4}}, revert, revert, revert"...I love the Colbert Report..but I hate what he does to us. Anyway, you admin?</p>
<p>Edit: I see no evidence you are on [[User]] .. Its sad .. I've had a {{busy}} on my userpage since August 20 .. I need to find more time for editing .. stupid real life.</p>
<p>Lol, I know this admin that changes the history information right before big tests in history class. Martin Luther the reformer did not get shot while making a speech.</p>
<p>don't worry about misspellings and small stuff like that. i reread my app, and there were a couple of sentences that made no sense.</p>
<p>hmm, i'm not sure if i would call your application weak. because mine's definitely weaker than yours. i mean, here are my stats:</p>
<p>GPA: 8.4/9.0 (our school's weird), basically an A- Honors student, except it's more an A Honors student with a C+ in regular French... =P
Scores: PSAT: 214 (69CR/80M/65W), SAT II: 730 Chem, APs: 5 Comp Sci</p>
<p>APs Currently Taking: AP Macro/Microecon, APUS, AP Bio, AP Chem</p>
<p>Extra-curriculars: Varsity track, varsity soccer, science team, GSA
Community Service: 2 years as a chinese school TA
Research: what?</p>
<p>so yeah. i mean, i liked my essays, and hopefully my recs were good, but definitely nothing of your caliber. still, can't hurt to try.</p>
<p>donaldguy: your stats are like mine except you have better SAT scores. I don't think my app is totally hopeless.</p>
<p>I was hoping aa counts at least a little, because I'm from WI. My school doesn't know anything about RSI, and I've never heard anyone else talk about it. Lucky thing my bro got into MIT and met Jason (this korean dude from RSI 06, if you know him).</p>
<p>it would be great if everyone in this thread got in. I think there are less than 50 people who posted.</p>
<p>alternative to summer activity: I was thinking about Stanford Debate Camp</p>
<p>maybe because barely anyone is posting in this topic, that means that barely any one is applying...hey it could happen</p>
<p>well, on my app, i wrote "Systems Biology" for my 1st subfield in big, bold letters (so they'd know right away). the only problem with that was that i misspelled "biology". later, i misspelled "believe" twice. </p>
<p>alohasam89, there was no korean jason, but there was a white jason :)</p>
<p>maybe. but apps generally increase each year.</p>
<p>Coolphreak-
wishful thinking ;)</p>
<p>yeah, sorry guys, there are at least 3-4 people from my school applying who don't post here. every year it's a record-number-of-applicants year, it seems</p>
<p>That's actually pretty interesting about the question part. Just out of curiosity, what sort of research did rickoids conduct at RSI?</p>
<p>research varies greatly. it completely depends upon what your interests are. cee generally trys to accomdate you, but sometimes it doesn't always work out. (ex: if you put immunology, you might be placed in cancer; you will likely get the general field you want though)</p>
<p>i want to throw out a word of caution to people who expect to get an intel or siemens winning project out of RSI because, truthfully, it's not likely to happen. Although RSI has 9 people become an intel sts finalist, i think most, if not all except one, did their project outside of RSI (myself included). There are exceptions though, as in 2004, the 3rd place winner of STS completed her whole project at RSI. Five weeks is just a really short amount of time to complete a meaningful research. For me, RSI was more about the experience (i now know that bioinformatics is NOT for me) and the friendships that I formed than the research project itself. You might a better research project by working at a local university, as you will have more time and greater access to the professors. Some mentors at RSI are great, and others not so much. The issue with working with professors at Harvard and MIT, is that they work at Harvard and MIT, meaning they are near the top of their field. They are busy people, and often assign grad students or even undergrad UROP students to help you out.
The point of saying all this, is that if you don't get into RSI, don't feel like you've lost an amazing research experience because you haven't. You still have plenty of other oppurtunities and the rest of your life to cure cancer.</p>
<p>Actually, I am iriseyes, but I've been insanely busy lately prepping for the New Englands and all sorts of school, so I don't think I've edited in several weeks.</p>
<p>I haven't made RfA but I hope to next year, once things calm down and I can overhaul the geisha, shinto, and GWB pages. Geisha has definately gone downhill since I went on wikibreak.</p>
<p>This is a 3 week program that looks interesting as an alternative: <a href="http://www.clarku.edu/admissions/specialprograms/summerscienceprogram/index.cfm%5B/url%5D">http://www.clarku.edu/admissions/specialprograms/summerscienceprogram/index.cfm</a>
applications must be received by March 1.</p>
<p>Vanilea,</p>
<p>that was an excellent and insightful post! thank you. --^</p>
<p>I feel like as an applicant .. I lack two things .. two important things.. math scores and research experience.</p>
<p>Its not that I lack math skills .. and not even that I do badly on the standardized tests.. for example the PSAT, I got a 73 on math, but I didn't miss any and I only omitted 2 (one because I misread it and the other because I took geometry in eighth grade and had a momentary brain fart) and on the SAT I got a 740 on math, but I only missed 2, one of which was in the grid-in (so wrong is the same as omitted in raw scores) .. I clearly didn't do badly .. why did it kill my scores so badly? (I'm worried about this not only for RSI, but for college admissions) </p>
<p>As for research, I am perfectly competent in a lab environment, doing background research, and even somewhat in experimental design .. I just never get to do real original research.. and I lack any competition achievements. </p>
<p>Do I have a point .. probably not. Also, I agree with poignantpiantist, good post Vanilea. All things said though, there are many reasons I'd love to get into RSI.. more so than another program. First off, it looks more impressive resume wise than say .. VA Governor's school (which is my probable second choice). Secondly, RSI is known for having a lasting commitment to its attendee's (and vice-versa) and having a great community; seriously, how many other summer programs do you know with an alumni association? Third, MIT is pretty much my first choice (I'm still debating a little between it and Stanford) and its close ties with RSI probably help with admissions, and going to RSI would mean getting to know the MIT campus really well and, I found out reading here yesterday, getting an Athena account (I know its completely superficial... but I would feel so cool to be truthfully able to write my email on my MIT application as something to the effect of <a href="mailto:donguy@mit.edu">donguy@mit.edu</a> ). I don't know.. I just really want to go >_<!</p>
<p>Really though, its now out of our hands; we should all calm down and just chill. Hopefully, some of us will get in (most hopefully me, of course ^_^ ) ... but we have no control. </p>
<p>Anyway .. Later,
~Donald</p>