<p>So what do you mean by really good essays?</p>
<p><em>sigh</em> .. I really wish my essays had been better... I mean, content wise they are fine .. but I left them until the last minute (cause of other applications) and I was really tired.. so they have a few typos (major one being that I typed pursue as persue and then spell checked it to peruse, consistently) and are rather dry.</p>
<p>I hope they were good enough</p>
<p>saidu10: I'm from Glendale, Wisconsin -- around Milwaukee area. w'sup? Are you applying this year?</p>
<p>I think scores matter more than research experience.</p>
<p>Good essays = good essays</p>
<p>I was wondering whether to use artsy language like college apps or just just simple and to the point.</p>
<p>when do we find out if we got in or not?</p>
<p>scores matter, but only to an extent. bad scores can keep you out of RSI, but they can't get you in. If CEE were to chose between an Intel ISEF winner with a 210 or a perfect PSAT scorer, I'm pretty sure they would chose the former.
I know a some people who were rejected that had perfect scores, great aps, and more, but still didn't get in. Based on my experience, the people that got into RSI have a sincere interest in science, are creative, initative, and curious, but not nessecary test taking machines (although some can be). </p>
<p>hmmm...a good essay. well "good" is really subjective, so its hard to define what a good essay is. In your essay, you should show an understanding of your research topic and be able to convey that interest in a way that both a regular person and a researcher could appreciate. I don't really know else to say about this because a good essay can be two completely different essays. </p>
<p>Don't worry about typos, it happens. There were more than a couple of mistakes in my essay. Plus, I heard that RSI misspelled research on their bronchures on year. the admins realize that you're human.</p>
<p>Oh gawd, my writing was completely weird. I started out painfully formal...then I decided to add in random lines that sound ridiculously contrived thinking I would remove them later. Forgot to. And of course, there's the last minute typing...at 1 in the morning. With tons of caffeine. Conclusion: I think I talked more about candy more than I did about research. Actually, it might be a good thing if the reader is hungry.</p>
<p>alohasam89: thanks. that's what i figured. :)</p>
<p>if you want to ask someone to mentor you over the summer, would it be better to ask them before the summer (like...now?) or right before you are ready to work in the lab?</p>
<p>Vanilea, when you say bad scores can keep you out of RSI, what would be considered as a "bad score"? Below 750? 700? Would they still matter if they were SAT IIs?</p>
<p>cee only asked for psat scores. i wouldn't have sent in sat 2 scores that were below 750. if they are above 700, you're ok. below 700...that's not so good.</p>
<p>Ah, thank you clearing that up Vanilea! I'm okay, they were all above 700, and only one was 730 because I was being stupid as a freshman and didn't bother studying for bio... I actually wasn't going to send them until I realized that they were on the same official score report as my SAT I scores, so I couldn't really avoid it. Too late now though, so I'm not really going to worry about it.</p>
<p>For those of you who attended RSI last summer, do you feel it helped you get into the college of your choice?</p>
<p>saidu10: if you read the previous posts, the alums said that it definitely helped them (because it doesn't hurt, of course). i don't know how much it helps. but mostly, the goods come from a good research at RSI, then winning in ISEF, Siemens, JSHS, or Intel cuz those are known all around. Top colleges, especially around the Boston area, will recognize RSI tho. </p>
<p>so I'm guessing 1st place will top RSI + 3rd place if it really came down to that. I would hate to work in an admissions office trying to figure those out.</p>
<p>Someone needs to invent time travel (although it's been proven impossible) so we can know the results right now.</p>
<p>no, we can travel forward, just not backward</p>
<p>we are traveling forward in time RIGHT NOW</p>
<p>reminds me of this:
<a href="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/kayak.png%5B/img%5D">http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/kayak.png
</a></p>
<p>no, really?</p>
<p><i>"If CEE were to chose between an Intel ISEF winner with a 210 or a perfect PSAT scorer, I'm pretty sure they would chose the former."</i>-vanilea</p>
<p>My only hope.....i sure hope your right..... surely I do.</p>
<p>And I concur about the who time travel, just as long as it doesnt turn into a "Click"(adam sandler) scenario.....</p>
<p>I don't think RSI necessarily helped me very much as far as the apps went. in the maybe 50 essays i wrote for college, only one actually mentioned RSI, and I haven't heard back from them yet (Stanford). A lot of what I did was achieved prior to RSI. It really depends on the school. Some schools really want RSI people and show it with the amount of scholarships they give out (Rice), but at places like Harvard or Stanford, it may not make much of a difference. All in all, if you were good enough to get into RSI, you're already good enough to get into a lot of great schools, but if you're not good enough to get into RSI, you're still probably good enough to get into a lot of great schools. funny how it all works.</p>
<p>my dad thinks getting in to RSI means game over - as in 'don't do anything more cuz ur already good enough to get in anywhere'</p>
<p>SpudmanKA: what college are you in? or are you RSI 06?</p>
<p>i'm RSI '06</p>
<p>actually, it may be possible travel both forward and backwards in time if we find a wormhole in the universe. </p>
<p>getting into RSI does NOT mean game over. (well, it may mean game over if your goal is to go to Rice, U of Michigan, Chicago, or other schools of such caliber.) MIT and Caltech accepts nearly all rickoids, so your chances are pretty high there too. But with regards to Harvard, Stanford, and Princeton, it's really hard to say. Rickoids do have much higher admission rates to the top universities compared to other applicants, but it's never a guarantee. If you don't get into RSI, there are other things that are even better than it on a college applications (ex: siemens nationals, sts, and etc.). The $50000 winner at ISEF in '05 didn't get into RSI, and instead, spent her summer working at the University of Florida on that project. </p>
<p>some of you may find this site interesting:
<a href="http://planetrickoid.comclub.org/%5B/url%5D">http://planetrickoid.comclub.org/</a>
it lists the admission stats for RSI '05.</p>