<p>Since there is way too much competition for the NJ Gov School nomination slot within my own school (about 8-9 people about as qualified as I am for 2 slots for the School in the Sciences), I started looking at other summer programs and MIT/CEE's Research Science Institute caught my eye. Not only is it held at the site of my dream school (and free unlike SSP as well as not relying on the dreaded "nominations"), but it also seems like an excellent opportunity to meet many other excellent students from around the world as well as garner some hands-on experience with the research cycle in the academic arena. One problem, however, presents itself: RSI's extreme selectiveness. </p>
<p>While figures have varied from <1% to ~5% from various sources, the truth remains that it is a pitifully low number, with the chances for over-represented Asian males such as I being far lower, especially without DoDEA ties. Before I send out my application, I just wanted to ask the forumers at College Confidential this: How likely is it for someone like me to be accepted into RSI, given the credentials that I provide below?</p>
<p>Page 3 copy below: (omitted blank columns)</p>
<p>Course Level</p>
<p>Subjects | Level | Date of completion
Calculus | BC AP | JUNE 2010
Statistics | AP | JUNE 2010
Biology | AP | JUNE 2010 (I am taking it by myself and will try for the exam... but should I check it on the application? It's not going to be in my transcript)
Chemistry | AP | JUNE 2009
Computer Science | A/AB | JUNE 2009 (Again I "officially" took A but did the AB exam since I learned that the course was going to be cancelled, checked it on application)
Physics | C AP | JUNE 2010
Calculus: BC </p>
<p>Skill Level</p>
<p>Computer Platform | Level | Date expected (what are we supposed to put for this? "today"? I can't exactly "level up" at predetermined points in time...)</p>
<p>C/C++ | Intermediate |
Java | Advanced |
Perl | Beginning |
MATLAB | Beginning |
Mathematica/Maple | Intermediate |
Unix/Linux | Beginning |
LaTeX | Advanced |
SQL | Intermediate |
XML | Beginning |</p>
<p>Scores:
PSAT: 80 Math, 70 Verbal, 70 Writing <!-- This year's writing curve was brutal! 2 questions wrong == 70 --->
ACT (from Feb 2005): 26 English, 29 Math, 29 Reading, 31 Science (Should I include this with the app too? It's over 4 years old though...)
SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 Math I, 800 Chemistry</p>
<hr>
<p><essay 2,3,4="" omitted=""></essay></p>
<p>Extracurriculars (compressed list):
-MATHCOUNTS National participant 2007, 4th place individual statewide
-AMC 12 participant 2008/2009, AIME qualifier 2008/2009, USAMO qualifier 2009
-School Math League team member 2008-2009
-ARML Central Jersey team member 2008-2009
-Science Bowl school team constituent 2009
-PUMaC non-school affiliated team organizer 2009, "Cougars" 5th place overall division B, 3rd place individual combinatorics
-USAMTS Bronze recipient 2008, Silver recipient 2009
-Robotics programming team member 2009</p>
<p>Hobbies:
-Programming, performing amateur research in computational complexity and analysis of the GRH</p>
<p>Involvement in non-academic extracurriculars:
-School literary magazine editor
-Distribution assistant for now-defunct Modern China Studies (Chinese-language scholarly magazine)
-Summer internship (curator and assistant tech) at HRIC (Human Rights in China) in NYC</p>
<p>Experience with programming:
-Mainly development in Java with C used when speed is essential (do not yet know how to code distributed computing projects effectively), clawed through about 170 Project Euler problems in my spare time, developed an applet for rendering fractals defined by arbitrary mapping functions in the complex plane (Burning Ship, Tricorn and Mandelbrot are easily defined variants), proficient LaTeX usage, but only little experience with data analysis and modeling from a mathematical standpoint. </p>
<hr>
<p>I guess that's all from the application that might be helpful. Please try to elaborate as much as you have time for in your responses, and whether or not this passes the hypothetical "minimum bar" for my resume... I know I'm a bit scarce in extracurriculars (without any "1st place" awards) and my transcript is not exactly showing a 4.0 GPA (more like a 94% unweighted average, which converts to a 3.4 I think). So is this a hopeless cause, or do I at least have an improbable shot at RSI? Thank you very much for your time.</p>
<p>*Please do not make one-word posts like "Yes", "Unlikely" or "No", because they really don't help much aside from arousing false hopes or unwarranted despair, depending on the answer.</p>