@angie414 how much experience do you need to get into math?
Just finished the personal statements…tired, but I think I conveyed what I needed to. I just have no hope, because I’ve done neither research nor olympiads 
@heslumbersnot Honestly, I have no idea, and I don’t think there’s any specific cutoff. Though reading through past years’ threads, it seems that qualifying for USAMO is the norm for RSI math, but there are always deviations.
@picats3141 Same!! (except I have not finished the personal statements xD)
Just curious, how in-depth are you guys going on question #1 in terms of describing your research interests?
http://semioverachiever.blogspot.com/2010/11/more-on-those-rsi-essays.html --past RSI attendee’s blog, was pretty helpful for me.
Just wrote most of my essays today too. Regretting that I’ve never done any Olympiads or anything and I just started everything science-related this year. The only thing I have is research which is common to a lot of other applicants anyways…
Under ‘Academic Documentation: Transcripts and Tests’, what do we answer for #1 – the names of the school officials, or their email addresses, or both?
Also, is it okay if we don’t have official score reports for our MAA tests? I’ve talked to our school’s AMC/AIME coordinator, but he claims to not be aware of any such score reports… 
@goonersfan17
I don’t know about your first question. I am wondering the same thing myself.
I think that MAA doesn’t have official score reports.
For the 1st personal statement, I am having a lot of trouble coming up with research questions that interest me. I know a decent amount about the subfields, but I still can’t think of questions that aren’t too simple.
I did some research/Googling and most research questions/open problems in my fields are much too deep and technical for me to understand.
What should I do?
@Runkeeper Oh okay, I’m relieved that he isn’t being a rather irresponsible bloke, haha 
I don’t think the first essay has to include truly in-depth technical knowledge. For example, say you want to discuss P vs NP - I think it would be important to understand the distinction between “easy to find” and “easy to check”, but you wouldn’t need to understand every single word of the 12-page long official problem statement. I don’t think they’d expect high school students to be completely familiar with questions that professional scientists/mathematicians are actively researching, but want to see that we’re interested in learning more.
And if the problem’s open, I wouldn’t say it’s too simple (or else it wouldn’t be open, would it?). If you think it’s interesting and can write about it, I’d encourage you to go for it!
Let’s hope someone else comes along and answers our question about the Academic Documentation
@goonersfan17 I think you just need to list the name, but also list the school official as a reference on slideroom (in the same fashion as you reference your recommenders)
Since slideroom says that we need to have our MAA scores uploaded by our school officials, is there no way to provide verification? (especially for our AIME scores which aren’t listed on maa.org) I guess that isn’t of greatest importance though 
Also, for personal statement #1, do you think there is a preference for writing about uncharted territory (i.e. undiscovered/unconfirmed theorems or hypotheses), or do you think they’d prefer us to write about researching something already discovered in depth? I plan to write about sub topics that I am passionate about, but I also don’t want to seem overly bold talking about my potential research topics xD
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Does anyone know if research is considered an extracurricular?
I put it in as one, but also know there is a specific research tab.
I go to a normal high school in Texas, I was accepted to TAMS, but declined. Should I somehow include this in my application?
I am really interested in Neurobiology, but my school has close to 0 Science teams and all I feel I have is good AP Scores (5 on Chem/Physics) and ongoing research (for this entire year). If I write good essays that display a passion for the fields I am interested in and proof of my scientific knowledge and ability based on the limitations that my school had, do I still have a chance? My computer experience is also lacking compared to many past attendees.
@Gambleco0310 are you going to put neurobiology under biology or cognitive science? i think you’re a perfectly legit candidate
@mischiefmaker I put molecular biology, as that is the general overarching field, but I went into depth on the neurobiology aspect in my essays, as that is the kind of research I feel can really help many people.I will also add it up there under biology. Thank you!
No, you shouldn’t. Institutions are not impressed with what you would have, could have, show have done. They just want to know what you have accomplished given the environment you’re in.
Even if they did care, which again they don’t, they don’t have the time or the inclination to verify these kinds of claims so everyone can say they got into some great HS or program or activity but didn’t attend.
You need to dazzle them with what you plan to do and what you have actually done.