<p>i'm a rising junior...</p>
<p>first of all...i hear that RSI uses your PSAT score as part of the admission process. If i take the ACT and do well will they consider that instead of the PSAT? also...how much does ISEF help your chances? i've been there once (soph year) so far, but i do have more research exp than just that one year. oh...and how many people usually apply? i know the acceptance rate is like 1%. also...at what time during your junior year do u apply?</p>
<p>They take PSAT/SAT/ACT. I think ISEF helps a lot because few people have research experience at that age/grade. ~1100 apply, and well 77 got in this year. that's around 6% I believe. The application is due on January 31st.</p>
<p>PSAT isn't THAT important I think...I was rejected with a 238 (but no other science fair participation...).</p>
<p>I think your ISEF will help more than a high PSAT score.</p>
<p>Geographic location is pretty key, what part of the country are you from coolphreak?</p>
<p>^i'm from california</p>
<p>I don't think geography is a factor what so ever. RSI accepted 53 american students from 29 states this year, thus if you do the math, 21 states didn't have any students accepted, while some had more than one. For RSI acceptance, its all based no merit, screw geography, race, and gender. I definitely think that ISEF will help you a lot in terms of RSI. I got into RSI having went to ISEF sophomore year (didn't even win anything except a special prize, although the prize was the kodak award, and weirdly several rickoids have won that :) and PSAT= 226 (not low, but definitely not great). Do well on the essay questions and you have as great a chance as anyone. The weird thing about RSI admissions is that it almost seems completely erratic. I have a friend who goes to the magnet school in my city, and she made it to Siemens regionals with a team project, 234 PSAT's, violin awards, math awards, and all this other stuff, and got rejected....sometimes you neve know.</p>
<p>hmm, the reason i thought geography is factor is because I have friends in CA who have done much better than I and got rejected. For example, one kid went to MOSP freshman year, qualified for USAMO every year afterwards, and got a bunch of math awards, etc, which I don't have.</p>
<p>i guess you have to factor in your essay and teacher reccomends too. i know my calculus teacher wrote the best reccomend ever for me, and i have no doubt it helped me get in. i had never even heard of ISEF before this year, and my research experience was rather skimpy. i don't think geography is a factor at all, cuz there are several people who are at the same schools and are going. it's a really weird distribution of admitted students. not like what you'd see for college admission statistics, where they do take location into account.</p>
<p>For me, teacher recommendations either helped very little, or didn't at all. I think my science teacher put my weakness as writing bad lab reports (not that true). Don't worry about RSI, if you don't get in do another summer program. There are many out there just as great. A $50000 winner at ISEF in 2005 was rejected at RSI, but that gave her the chance to go to this research program in Florida where she did her winning project.</p>