<p>I think they send out their admissions on like April 14th (according to their site somewhere). Btw, does the second essay have to be science based if its about extracurricular?</p>
<p>These essays look time consuming for sure.</p>
<p>3000 words isn’t too bad when I have to write it also for Jackson’s lab. (research interest). The EC question is kind of overwhelming but good thing I signed up for hospital volunteer work which is going to help me build up characters/words.</p>
<p>My question to CC is… How easy is it to accommodate a place to live at Stanford and are people willing to split cost for rooming? I have pretty good credential simply because of the school I attend has pretty good discipline regarding anything a host family would worry about.</p>
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<p>Obviously it’s not a requirement, but think about the message you are trying to convey. Does talking about a non-science extra curricular adequately explain why you are qualified for and passionate about a program like SIMR? If so, then go ahead. </p>
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<p>Yes, people will split the cost for room/board.</p>
<p>Hey, fellow SIMR applicants! I’m really excited to apply to this program. I think I’ll write both of my essays this weekend, as I have a wonderful four-day break. Good luck to everyone!</p>
<p>Best of luck to all of you applicants this year. You’ll meet amazing peers and mentors at SIMR. I attended SIMR this past summer and it really was one of the best summer experiences ever. Depending on the lab you are placed in and the project you work on, you will be able to build strong connections with your research mentor or in my case, PI. If you’re lucky you may be invited to stay behind to continue your research and perhaps author a paper. </p>
<p>Advice for the application: Both of your essays don’t have to be about science. For the diversity question, someone ranted about affirmative action last year if I can recall. Have fun with them! Remember they read over 1200 of them last year! I personally believe there is not statistical advantage to applying to a specific cluster. Sure some are smaller than others, but it will depend on the mentors they secure this year. However, know that you are in a hypercompetitive pool of applicants. If you don’t get in, you honestly have nothing to be ashamed of. I got rejected from 6 different programs before I was accepted into SIMR. But apply anyways because you never know what could happen! </p>
<p>If you have any questions feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>@thesecrettolife Thanks for sharing your insight with us. Just curious: </p>
<p>1) when you receive your acceptance letter, do they already tell you what group and/or mentor they will assign you to? If not, when will you find out (ie, after you start the program, or just a little before?) </p>
<p>2) Are you given any choice(s) for research groups / mentor, or it’s just assigned to you? </p>
<p>3) Do you have any chance to interact with any Stanford professors, or only graduate students? </p>
<p>4) Since there is no dorm, are there many chances for SIMR fellows to interact with each other? </p>
<p>5) Do most of you finish your research in time and wrote / present paper at the end of the program? </p>
<p>Thanks for taking your time to share more insight.</p>
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<p>They call accepted students just prior to sending the emails, which is adorable and exciting. I got the institute I had ranked first, but I don’t remember how I found that out and I have no idea if everyone got their first choice. The institutes had unequal numbers of students, so perhaps everyone got their first choice? I really don’t know.</p>
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<p>You will receive a list of research groups in the institute you are in, each with a brief description of what you would do as an intern/what your project would be. You rank these groups. I personally got my 2nd choice. </p>
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<p>This varies. I interacted with my professor several times, as did most SIMR students (lab meetings, etc.). I know of one person who did not meet her professor, but that was because he worked remotely (which I think is really rare). </p>
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<p>There were weekly arranged social events, and we also made a pretty good effort to eat lunch in small groups, etc. Some became close friends/hung out on weekends, and some were more reserved/had enough going on at home (especially the local people). If you want to make friends, you will, especially if you are from out of the area. There are also regular lectures with people from your institute, so you will get to know them pretty well. Most of our time was spent in our lab and there wasn’t a huge focus on the social aspect, but if you want to make something happen in the evening/weekends, you can. </p>
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<p>This was hit or miss, honestly. Everyone will participate in the poster and presentation at the end, so there will be assistance with this. Not everyone had research significant enough for a research competition/to write a paper, to be honest. There were definitely people who did, though. Looking at the Intel STS Semifinalist list, SIMR was pretty well represented (There were at least 4, though I think probably more).</p>
<p>Thank you - very helpful feedback.</p>
<p>Another question (sorry I’m pretty clueless)- are there instances where two/more people work on the same project or is it all strictly one on one aid?</p>
<p>^totally up to the discretion of each PI. I, for example, know a kid who worked with an SIMR student on a project last year. He was not affiliated with SIMR at the time. </p>
<p>Question for everyone: in the files section, are you guys uploading other documents other than your transcript/test scores/etc.? If so, what are you uploading?</p>
<p>Do you guys know if we need letters of recommendation? I can’t seem to find it anywhere…</p>
<p>Instead of going to “edit application” on the page you get to just as you log in, look down and you should see a link that says “Teacher Recommendations”</p>
<p>@leatherlibrarian I’m just uploading part of my research paper</p>
<p>Is there a way to find out if the teacher’s recommendation has gone thru ? Please let me know.</p>
<p>based on my past experiences, I am worried about them not getting the letter.</p>
<p>Is there a contact #?</p>
<p>Hey @Holocene I was just wondering, since my mom’s african american, do you think I should write that in my essay?
Also Do you need a teacher’s recommendation?</p>
<p>Last question, I’m not that smart. After the first semester of junior year (i’m in my 2nd of junior year at this moment) I have a 3.29 GPA. I play football and baseball for high school, i don’t have any outstanding merits or anything like that.
Do you think I could get in?
Just wondering if I should even try… I live like 30 minutes from Stanford.</p>
<p>^ Since one of the essays is about diversity, you could definitely talk about race there. Plus there’s a section asking for race, so you can put African American there.</p>
<p>Yes, you do need a teacher’s rec, just click on the “teacher rec” link on the login homepage.</p>
<p>SIMR does like local/diverse students, so I think you should give it a shot still :)</p>
<p>while inputting the essays, should they be double spaced?</p>
<p>How would you upload SAT 1 scores in the application ? Do we have to take a screenshot and scan it and send ? Please advise.</p>