I’ve been fairly interested in applying to some of the competitive STEM summer programs out there, and RSI looked promising. But, after doing some research on the program, it seems extremely competitive and I haven’t done any research either. My stats are listed below ( is RSI purely merit based?).
My primary question is: should I shoot for the stars and apply, or would I be better off just saving the 60$ and look for a different summer program?
I am a high school Junior and am trying to apply to college this year because I have taken all of my school’s available STEM classes and don’t have any left for my Senior year. I intend on applying to fairly selective colleges as a long shot, and if I don’t get in then I will stay at high school another year and then try again (albeit, with a wider range of targets and safeties).
Will applying as a Junior be a significant detriment to my application? I planning on applying to Harvey Mudd, Cal Tech, Northwestern (legacy) , Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, and possibly Carnegie Mellon. My stats are listed below
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1540/1600
ACT (breakdown): Composite: 35; Reading: 36; Math:35; Eng: 33; Science:34; Essay: 27
SAT II: Math 2: 800 Physics: 800 World History: 790
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA:4.5
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):1
AP (place score in parenthesis): 9 Tests, all 5’s. Five of them were self-studied (SS)
Freshman Year: Calculus BC (SS), Computer Science (SS), Statistics, Human Geography
Sophomore Year: Physcis C: Mech, Physics C: E and M (SS) , Psychology (SS) , World History, Macroeconomics (SS)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP National Scholar by Sophomore Year; First Place in CSTEM Robotics State Competition; So basically, nothing much
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Volunteer/Community service: Started A Non-Profit Organization focused on setting up after school programs at Elementary Schools with high school volunteers to help teach students how to code.
School Activities: President of school Chess Club; President of School Programming Club; Leading Member of school’s First Robotics Team (we’re decent, ranked low at worlds last year)
Summer Activities: Heavily involved with my school sailing team year round. We were ranked first place on the West Coast last year
Note: I have taken a few college courses at a UC including: Multivariable Calculus, Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, Abstract Algebra, and a Physics course. My current UC GPA is a 3.9