To the international applicants out there, what should I do if there is no sponsor for my country? Should I still try to apply?
You meant to say it was accepted but not published? If you made the major contribution to the work (as opposed to being one of the many co-authors), this would be very significant for RSI application.
@floweryice what are your stats?
Hey guys,
Just registered to participate in the RSI discussion. I know it’s gonna be really tough especially for my competitive state and high school with many strong candidates. But could you guys chance me for 2020 RSI anyways? Thanks a lot!
Stats:
Competitive state (think about a state with 2-3 RSI participants a year)
Attending a highly competitive STEM high school
SAT: 1580/1600, SAT Math II: 800, SAT Physics: 800
PSAT: 1480/1520. Don’t know what happened, Didn’t get perfect score in math, which I typically get for a test of this level. So kinda disappointing relative to my SAT scores, hopefully it’s not gonna negatively affect my application too much given my math course work and math ECs.
GPA: 3.98 UW/ 4.50W (as of end of sophomore year), expect to receive straight As for all Junior year courses.
Major AP/college level course work (achieved all As and 5 AP scores): AP Calculus BC (9th grade), AP CS (9th), AP Physics C M&EM (10th grade), Multivariable Calculus (10th), Linear Algebra (10th), Probability Theory (11th), Parallel Computing (11th), Quantum Mechanics (11th), AP Econ (11th), AP History (11th).
Rec Letters: will be from two mentors and a teacher from my high school.
Math Ecs:
USAJMO x2 (2019 score: 23), expect to make USAMO in 2020
AIMEx4 (2019 score: 12)
Team placed high in other major math competitions (ARML, PUMaC, HMMT etc)
Research Experience:
Published as first and primary author in Journal of Physical Chemistry in sophomore year (the other author was my mentor). The work was also presented at American Physical Society meetings.
Currently working with a different mentor (a local university professor) on a very interesting research project in a similar field related to the published work.
No major Science competition achievements (attended ISEF but didn’t make final).
Community outreach and leadership:
I’ve done a lot of these consistently, but nothing really significant.
Since there seems to be a lot of alumni/experienced people here, can someone chance me? Here are my stats:
I am a Chinese female. I go to a large public high school in East Tennessee.
PSAT: 1510 (226 index) so definitely national merit
ACT: 35 composite, but didn’t realized I signed up for writing portion and got an 8 on that…
GPA: 4.0 weighted; ~4.6 unweighted
APs: Took 5 classes between 9th-10th grade, and taking 6 this year
Other classes: taking AoPS WOOT class this year
Summer camps: IDEA Math x2, AwesomeMath x1
Rec letters: robotics teacher mentor and math team teacher who was also my Stats and Precalc teacher. I think my teachers like me (hopefully).
Achievements:
-AIME qualifier x2 (JMO index was probably ~170)
-Math Prize for Girls qualifier x1
-AP Scholar with Distinction
-FRC team won a regional when I was in 9th grade
-USACO in-contest promotion to silver
Leadership:
-FIRST robotics team programming lead (1 yr)
Volunteer and outreach:
-After school peer tutoring
-Various outreach activities through robotics
Computer skills:
-Very good with Java and Windows due to robotics
-Some experience with Solidworks CAD, Python, Javascript, and HTML/CSS.
Clubs and activities:
-FIRST Robotics (time consuming af)
-Math team
-Mu Alpha Theta
-Science club
-Local youth orchestra (I play violin)
-Tennis and table tennis for fun and good health
No previous research experience 
“Each participating country has its own selection procedure and selection schedule. Please contact Ms. Maite Ballestero, Executive Vice President of Programs to determine if your country participates. If it does, her team will put you in contact with the appropriate representative at the agency conducting selection for your country.”
Have you contacted Ms Ballestero at RSI to see if your country is participating for RSI '20? That’s the only way to know for sure. If the answer is no, then you can’t apply.
Does anyone know if I can find completed (IDEC if they were accepeted) applications? Not interested in copying or anything I just don’t know how to fill up these character limits all the way…
Hey guys just trying to send some positive vibes to everyone as they are finishing up the last touches on their application! We are all smart, capable beings! Keep following your passion no matter what! Any other last minute tips anyone?
Hey guys,
Is there a website that says what each mentor works on? I heard that it’s mainly CS and I wanted to find a list.
If you check 2019 thread some students posted there
What are the dates for RSI 2020? I don’t know if I’m being really dumb or smth but I can’t find the dates of the program on the website…
I’m pretty sure it is June 21 - August 1
@aptitudes
I found one through past chats- this is an old one, and the essays are really short. I personally used almost all the characters about what I want to do and what I am doing.
@encrxpted
1st I am not qualified but I have gone through like hundreds of these RSI chat
Your robotics skills and computer skills will definitely be huge plus you have great stats. Talk about those robotics activities in your essays, I would say your strongest point is robotics. It is a big negative that you have no research experience, but as long as your passion is robotics and math I think you have a chance. Honestly for everyone its a big iffy because sure maybe it all depends on the essays and whose reading them
I was talking to my teacher about a recommendation and she said that people who don’t have many AP classes get paper screened out and get automatically rejected? Does anyone know if this is true? My school does not allow science/literature/history APs or dual enrollment before junior year so the only AP class I took in 9th-10th grade was calc. I’m taking 4 APs now. Did anyone who got in previously not take AP classes before junior yr?
What are you guys writing for long range goals? Are you guys writing about world goals or your area of study and life in the future for you.
How long do our answers to the essay questions have to be? Is there a word/page limit for the essay (all 5 questions total)?
@descrex i could be wrong, but based on what i read online i think you should focus on scientific goals that you have (ie the type of research you want to do, what your career will be if you know or at least which field of science and why)
@gamergirl23 i think it’s 5000 characters for the first 4 and 2000 for the last
if you don’t meet the character limit for all of them, do they penalize you? cause im having a lot of trouble stretching the 4th essay to 5000 characters
@jerrysuwu I don’t think so. It would be quite difficult to write 5000 characters for all of them. I think most people write 3000-4000.
What are the options for the research topics? Are they just biology, math etc or can it be a little more specific? And if we pick to separate topics can our sub topics be similar to each other then?