<p>Wow, tupac, the whole RSI connections deal has nothing to do with what I know. And trust me, I was selected to attend this year.</p>
<p>Did you know that MIT Undergrad Admission Officers are also involved in the selection of RSI attendees? Yet you keep talking about connections.</p>
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1. It considers your location so that if you are from a high-achieving state it is extremely difficult to get in, while if you are from a state like wyoming, south dakota, new mexico, it is quite easy.
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<p>No, it is NOT easy. It is easier to get in from SD or NM <em>than</em> CA, but not at all easy. If the strongest of SD applicants was not qualified, then s/he's out. There is no easy way to get into RSI.</p>
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2. Some teachers have the ability to let students in: For instance a teacher at a high school near mine used to be the director of RSI and therefore recommends around 3 students every year who are told in advance that they will be accepted. Consequently, other applicants from the state are barely even considered.
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<p>According to your profile, you are from Virginia. I just checked the RSI handbook, and the attendees from VA this year are from 3 different schools and places. Uhh, talk about false assertions. </p>
<p>No one really knows why or how they got in. Most of the attendees have perfect or close to perfect SAT's (1550-1600). Another student scored 5 on AP Calc as a 7th grader. Among the rickoids are USAMO winners and qualifiers (scores: >15, and a honorable mention). Siemens regional finalists. ISEF Grand award winners.</p>
<p>Prospective Rickoids: Yes, by all means apply. You could very well be the one selected to attend.</p>
<p>You forgot the integral part of the process: the application. I attached an abstract of my project with my application, but I know a few people who have gotten in with no olympiad awards or prior research experience.</p>
<p>my sat score is not quite perfect but i have taken many college math classes and plan to take more during the school year...i guess thats not something i should bank too heavily on</p>
<p>two kids seem to get into rsi every year from my school(since iv been there). i don't really think nasa sharp is as good as rsi but i could be wrong(biased by a student who chose rsi after winning a 1st in category prize at the international science fair).</p>
<p>in dc/metro area many choose to do SEAP over SHARP as its more popular here. In SEAP, you research at a national facility(over 30 .. the smaller ones only have one or two students while NRL takes 50): Naval Research Laboratory, Walter Reed etc. If you're into biology a very good opportunity presents itself to high school students at NIH. They take limited kids and NIH internships are sought by many college students as well so the competition is stiff.</p>
<p>I'm at NRL btw and enjoying it. hopefully ill see some of you guys at isef or intel next year(if we make it!).</p>
<p>so, you don't need to win those genius-level science/math competitions to get into RSI as long as you have near perfect sats and sat 2s? and aps? and maybe a research intership. (and of course the advanced math classes, high gpa, the usual) i'm thinking of applying to RSI from nj in 2007...</p>
<p>PinnedBot, I am a 2-time ISEF Finalist and Best of Category winner (top 1st place grand award) which was won with no mentor. I have also been a presenter at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (top in VA). I have collected thousands of fossils, donated several to museums where they are now part of permanent collections. I also had about 50 other smaller science and math awards, straight A's, advanced knowledge of all computer science languages on their application, and amazing recommendations. The only thing that I think could have got me rejected was my lack of high standardized test scores (I hadn't taken SAT2's at the time because I saw no point, and my PSAT was 229).</p>
<p>I also know for a fact that Dr. Dell, a teacher at Thomas Jefferson High School was the director of RSI a couple of years ago. Mysteriously every student that he writes a recommendation for gains admission to RSI (and I know that their stats are not that amazing). I was actually told by a teacher chaperone from Thomas Jefferson this year at the ISEF that if he had known me last year, he could have got me in touch with Dr. Dell, who has connections at RSI.</p>
<p>I have good grades, scores, activities, etc, but nothing that stands out. I'm currently in contact with the outreach coordinator at Princeton University's Environmental Institute (PEI). How much would research with a faculty member there help my chances (with a recommendation from the faculty member)?</p>
<p>Probably not much. I submitted a reference from a geneticist at NIST for whom I created software (to be submitted for publication and hosted on NIST website).</p>
<p>Ah. Well, I'll still apply. But I guess it looks like my first choice will be Governor's School for the Environment.</p>
<p>In this year's graduating class, the salutatorian went to RSI and will be attending Harvard this fall. A girl I know went to Governor's School for the Environment and will be attending MIT this fall. I'm sure the first guy would've gotten into MIT anyway (he applied to Harvard SCEA), but still. Kind of ironic, eh?</p>
<p>On standardized test scores: I had no SAT's, ACT's, or SAT II's when I applied; in fact, the only standardized test scores I submitted were the PSAT (231) and one AP exam. </p>
<p>On the Olympiad status: I had no Olympiad experience, but I had plenty of research.</p>
<p>The number of people from different states reflects the quality of the applicant pools, not quotas</p>
<p>No teacher has the kind of power described. Someone mentioned Blair; my counselor this year, as a random sample, was from the same county as Blair but did not go to it. Kids who get in regularly are probably just really good. Plus, some correlation might be expected since the teacher might have gotten good at writing the sort of recommendation RSI likes.</p>