Summer Science Program (SSP) 2013

Pre-College Issues Summer Programs
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<p>Hey guys, I have a question regarding the importance of letter of recs.</p>

<p>My numbers/scores are medium-high (2330 for the SAT, and a 223 on the PSAT, 1/600 class rank), I received a 100.5 on the AMC 12 and qualified to the AIME (by the way, I haven’t seen any posts on this thread about this national math competition…how much of a factor do you guys think this plays?) and I’ve been working many hours on my essays to make them great, but i’m worried about my AP Calc teacher recommendation. I’m pretty confident my AP Physics teacher had a lot of good stuff to say about me for my second letter of rec, but for Calc, I’ve missed a couple homework assignments cause of unforeseen events, and my teacher said he might have to mark me down for the “Motivation” part of the recommendation because of this, even though my test grades are high. </p>

<p>If i showed enough interest/determination in my essays, would an average recommendation ruin my chances? I’m hoping that my AMC score/Honor Roll would tell them I’m good at math, but I’m not sure…</p>

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<p>@indianninja7 I’m in the EXACT same situation as you, but with the physics and Calc teachers reversed :(</p>

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<p>I sent my app. yesterday, let’s hope for the best.</p>

<p>RSI, SSP, SIMR, MITES, Rockefeller, NIH… I have a feeling rejection to all of them</p>

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<p>I can’t be the only one rushing to finish these essays before sending out the app tomorrow, can I?</p>

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<p>Studious, I think you’re the only one… I mean like even one day overnight shipping is risky. Haha</p>

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<p>What can I say? I live life on the edge.</p>

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<p>Like a boss!</p>

<p>We have eight people applying from our district, one from a high school across town and he’s sure to get in b/c he applied to RSI as a sophomore and got in but then rejected b/c he was a sophomore… the others are all from my school. And everyone but one sent in their apps in the last four days lol…</p>

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<p>@StudiousMaximus don’t worry i’m still finishing mine… thank god for one day shipping
plus on the website it said that the deadline is not a hard deadline, and that apps can be sent in a few days late
obv im not gonna rely on that but im just saying</p>

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<p>Cool, glad I have some company. Just finished the app; all I have to do is send it out tomorrow. Feels good!</p>

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<p>I don’t know anyone who is applying.</p>

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<p>@StudiousMaximus I sent mine today :slight_smile: lol thx overnight shipping!</p>

<p>Feel pretty good. My teachers showed me their recs and they were actually a lot better than I expected them to be. Both were glowing and pretty in-depth. </p>

<p>My essays were okay. Not great, not terrible. But then again, I’m never really satisfied with my writing :/</p>

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<p>@biovball that’s great that your teachers showed you their recommendations! Mine didn’t but I hope they were at least semi-decent :P</p>

<p>Does anyone know if we get our results by mail or online?</p>

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<p>for essay question 2, you guys just had two separate bulleted lists right?</p>

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<p>@am5042 I think it’s online.</p>

<p>@kooshbag That’s what I did.</p>

<p>Will it hurt me that I didn’t include a third recommendation or any supplement information?</p>

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<p>@biovball I don’t think it will necessarily hurt you, but it could mean that SSP readers may not get to know some important facts about you not mentioned in your short answers. If you mentioned most of your qualities/achievements in your short answers I think you’ll be fine.</p>

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<p>Do you guys know when will the result be declared? Cus they said it’s 5-6 week after the deadline, but what deadline?(I’m an international applicant).</p>

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<p>I think international apps results are released a lot earlier… (Judging by previous years’ threads and such…)</p>

<p>Did you guys apply to any other summer programs?</p>

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<p>Yep. So far I’ve done Clark, SIMR, Jackson, GMU ASSIP, NIH, and this.</p>

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<p>holy crap this thread exploded fast. @Maximus, Yes, it’s totally ok to write about what you’re most interested in! I actually wrote about neurobio too lol</p>

<p>@indianninja, you have a decent shot based on math stuff, but really science is much more heavily regarded than math is. Of course, both are really important. As far as recs go, I think they’re super important too, but if you don’t know what he said, there’s no point in fretting about it, no? I mean you can’t really change anything anyways haha. Just make YOUR part of app the best that it can be!</p>

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<p>Nice. I don’t think I qualify any of these as a Sophomore… I might try out for the City of Hope internship or some other summer programs from some big colleges for experience…</p>

<p>I’d probably just stay in West Lafayette and take some summer sessions in Purdue University, though.</p>