How prestigious is this program?
@imbep49 - A very large number of kids that complete this program go to HYPSM
For almost all of these programs (with the exception of RSI), it’s not the name of the program that matters it’s the work you do. HSHSP at Michigan State along with a half dozen to dozen other programs are all good and allow you to do high quality research depending on who your mentor is and how hard you’re willing to work.
For select programs like Simons, many kids do end up going to HYSPM type schools but they probably would have ended up going there anyway as long as they did something meaning during the summer. In other words, they were strong BEFORE they got into Simons. The ones who attend Simons and do well in competitions like Intel STS or Siemens just increase their chances that much more.
The research opportunities at Simons are strong and probably rival RSI in quality but the program certainly doesn’t have the cache of RSI. Bottom line: don’t go to Simons if you think its “prestige” will help you get into a good college. Go to Simons or any of the other good research programs out there because you enjoy research and hope to make new contributions to the field you’re interested in. I’ve know quite a few kids who have gone to top summer programs because they were obvious and overt prestige hounds and they didn’t end up getting into their top choices. It was the ones who went because they were passionate about the research opportunity that was being offered them. I know of a kid a few years ago who turned down RSI to go to Simons because he liked the research problem (and mentor) being offered to him better. Not many kids would do that. He’s at Stanford now.
Good luck!
^ Great post!
I also think that RSI’s cachet is somewhat disproportionate to the work that can be produced in 5 weeks. RSI admissions is so competitive that it’s effectively a college screening tool.
^^ Thanks! It’s technically six weeks but your point is valid nonetheless.
^^ It’s technically a 6 week program, but I believe it’s 1 week of classes/orientation and only 5 weeks of research with a mentor!
Yup! I stand corrected! It’s remarkable how well the kids do in competitions after only five weeks. Their prior experience certainly shines thorough. It has been said that many kids are doing a continuation of prior work which they bring to RSI and is the basis on which they were accepted in the first place. No one that I know has ever confirmed this however. Perhaps a former Rickoid could chime in about this?
^ In math at least, MIT-PRIMES was started in part because of dissatisfaction with what could be accomplished at RSI in 5 weeks. Tanya Khovanova, who was the math coordinator for RSI, became the head mentor at MIT PRIMES, and then at PRIMES-USA. PRIMES was started in part because RSI just didn’t give enough time for kids to develop their research:
http://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/2012/09/primes-usa/
Since then, many of the kids who have gone to RSI in math have also participated in PRIMES, giving them a much longer window to do research. Noah Golowich, who won the 2015 Intel STS and who was a Davidson Fellow Laureate, was a 2x PRIMES participant and 2014 RSI participant; the 5 weeks at RSI was just a tiny piece of his overall. Peter Tian, who won the 2015 Siemens for math, was also an MIT PRIMES-USA participant before going to RSI in 2014. So at least in math there seems to be a trend towards what you describe. I don’t know if it’s true for other fields, however.
For any of you who want it…
does anyone know of any stony brook summer programs that have their deadline in January? My teacher who is supplying a rec for Simons told me about another kid at our school who is applying to some Stony Brook program that’s due in February…
@mochilate1897 r u thinking of garcia program?
@cougar123 That’s probably what it was, thank you!
Do we have to send official copies of our standardized test scores? My scores are apparently included as part of my transcript, which my gc is sending, but just to be sure, since they’re not “official reports”.
Also, do they really need our teacher recommender’s phone numbers? I don’t have them, but I do have their email addresses.
They usually have the teacher’s ext. number or the deptartment’s ext. number on your school website. If not, just provide the school’s main number. If the school sends the scores with your official transcript, you are fine.
Thanks @Falcon1
still waiting on my teachers to give my gc my letters of rec…
@mochilate1897 same here; it’s making me really nervous.
Is anyone else going over the 5 sentence minimum in the short answers? For the problem solving one I’m probably going to write 6, although I’m going to try my best to cut one out. Does anyone think this writing 6 will hurt me?
Try to combine your sentences so you have as close to 5 sentences as possible. Although, have 6 sentences should not negatively impact your application.
Does anyone know about the dorms? The website says it’s not air-conditioned. Is that the case for prior year Simons participants?
lol we’ll have to bring a fan