<p>So RSIuser, are you claiming there’s a well-ordering on the applicant pool that corresponds to how they should be chosen? Can you define an antisymmetric, transitive, and total relation “<=” that orders the set of applicants, and has you in the top 80 or so?</p>
<p>I mean sure it’s possible to be somewhat rightfully indignant (maybe if you had some IMO medals or something), but if you’re confident you should have been at least an alternate, you should really be confident that you should have been in the top, I don’t know, 10-15 applicants by your metric, since you’re comparing a lot a people with a diverse set of skills; how do you really compare a top-notch mathematician to a top-notch biologist, for example?</p>
<p>(Also speaking from personal experience, people won’t feel sorry for you for long if you complain too much about not getting something)</p>
<p>RSIuser i’m gonna critique you ; don’t be offended in any way</p>
<ol>
<li>your SAT score’s low and getting a 700 in SAT I Math doesn’t help you in your research field</li>
<li>5 APs aren’t that strong … and if you took calculus BC , there’s no reason for you to take calculus AB</li>
<li>“I thought that I had had an original idea last year, but it turned out to be a rediscovery.” it’s not original ; people could assume you copied someone else even though you didn’t
your research experience doesn’t seem that strong and i’m pretty sure a lot of the ones selected went to ISEF, STS, or Siemens before … and probably won grand awards</li>
<li>basically your ECs sum up to be : all-american swimmer , founder of your TOWN’S chess club , members of clubs , and a math tutor … read that over and tell me how impressive that is</li>
<li>i don’t think you’re in a position to judge how well your essays were written ; you’re definitely partisan to this subject so …</li>
<li>maybe it was your teacher’s EC</li>
<li>i don’t understand how people can say their recs or essays or excellent . they can only be good in comparison with others</li>
</ol>
<p>don’t take this the wrong way ; those are great stats , but rather than finding a fault in RSI … yeah , you know what i mean</p>
<p>people really need to get over the fact that they got rejected. I did. Its smart to have at least one or two other options, in case RSI didn’t work out, which is obviously didn’t for some, including me. Im going back to Guyana to work with Apistogramma spp. and their morphological changes due to environmental stresses. But then again, I knew I probably wouldn’t get it because I’m a sophomore lol. @RSIuser, I really feel bad that you didn’t get in, i really do. But like the post above me says, your EC’s as well as your research are probably what got you.</p>
<p>Actualy, it is rare even for RSI applicant to have done math research before RSI because math is such a difficult subject to research. And there in no minimum SAT score. It is a suggested SAT score. RSI regularly lets people in with even lower scores than mine. And I don’t have 5 APs, I have 4 math and science APs as well as many others in different subjects and 9 other college level math and science classes. Partial Differential Equations in much higher than AP. Adding in my nonscientific APs, that is SIXTEEN classes of AP level or higher, and most of them are higher. Also, I didn’t say that it was RSI’s falt. I said that it was (probably) due to my lasily writen teacher reccomendation. And, WaitingForGodot, even though it may not be possible to make an ordered list of applicants, there is an order to them.</p>
<p>It might still be worth my while to apply to another summer camp. Does anyone know of any good ones whose application deadlines have not passed?</p>
<p>PROMYS
I’ll be JCing there (barring something strange happening) so you should def consider it. If you’re actually interested feel free to PM me and I’d be glad to give you details</p>
<p>And also, this minimum PSAT isn’t too restrictive. I got a 219 on PSAT, even though they say 220 is the minimum score, but I was also a Siemens Regional Finalist last year with a math project + published paper, so I guess it counteracts.</p>
<p>And wait, they send you the fields that you’re in? whoa.</p>
<p>I did not have great stats: 5AP this yr (all my school offers tho) pretty good test scores, little research-isef but no awards…i spent a lot of time on my essays and research choices were genuine. I have no idea why they selected me, i actually wan’t going to apply. So for anyone who comes back to this post next year, just try for it and spend a lot of time on it–you might get lucky too</p>
<p>@EldrWnd yeah same here, i feel really lucky to get in!!! im only taking 4APs this year, but i have good grades/rank and okay test scores (though probably bad by RSI standards). I’ve done a lot of research and i have a published paper, but no major competition awards. maybe my essay and recs were really good? i have no idea how i got in but im REALLY excited!!! :D</p>