<p>"one of the best things you can do to increase your chances is to write contests"</p>
<p>What. The. Heck.</p>
<p>Yes its true that SHAD has amazing ppl, but most of them are far from amazing. If you are in IB, and if you have an 85% average, you are in. No EC/accomplishments required. This is speaking from a friend of mine who got in.</p>
<p>i didn't read everything slowly, but i think i caught someone's post that writing contests was of little or no use. </p>
<p>joethemole, you're basing shadvalley off a friend who got in with an 85%. I take it you have not gone yourself? How many people have you known gone? you seem to have this idea that if something is "easy" to get into to, it must be bad. eg canadian universities, shad, contests. however, just because something is competitive does not automatically make it the best and vice versa. perhaps you value prestige, but things without the brand name can be just as good in quality.</p>
<p>from personal experience, out of the 50 people at my campus during shad, 40 of them played a musical instrument at a high degree, 40 of them also played at least one sport competitively. some people did everything yet maintained some of the highest marks i've seen. sure, i think each campus had about ten people that were below standards academically, extracurriculars etc. but if you're looking to meet people like yourself joethemole, i can't think of a better oppurtunity. </p>
<p>reading from some of your posts, you seem to like entrepreneurship. I don't see any reason why you wouldn't apply to shad if you know the emphasis it puts on it. it may not have the same appeal as a research project over the summer, but it's such a good experience to grow, try different things, develop your leadership abilities and have fun.</p>
<p>"one of the best things you can do to increase your chances is to write contests. out of all the people who have gone to the states, all wrote and did well in math, physics, chem contests. perhaps it's the high number of international olympiads in our school over the past 7 years, strange."</p>
<p>uhh, exactly here did you hear that? I think that's pretty erroneous info you got there. HArvard and its equivalents have ample asian math geniuses begging them for acceptance. I don't think they need to procure them canada, not saying that they're not very bright, but for tyou to say all acceptees have won chem, physics, or math competions, or for you to say, one has to compete in such contests to get accpeted by the ivies is asinine.</p>
<p>well, perhaps you were reading out of context or maybe i left something out
but i was referring to out of all the people who went to the states AT MY SCHOOL (sorry about that)</p>
<p>both harvards were winners of the CIC (national chem)
princeton was international physics olympiad,
mit was also international physics olympiad
cornell did well enough on contests</p>
<p>we've had 3 IMO and one more IPho who went to UofT and waterloo, and are enjoying their university, we may have one more going to MIT this year (IMO)</p>
<p>a family friend who is now at yale, went to provincial chem olympiads</p>
<p>im sure people who don't write contests get in these top universities, but from my personal observations in my school, contests do seem to help.</p>
<p>both harvards were winners of the CIC (national chem)
princeton was international physics olympiad,
mit was also international physics olympiad
cornell did well enough on contests</p>
<p>well theres the catch. we are talking NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL awards here. How many people win those? certainly not the average contest taker.</p>
<p>im just saying, don't dismiss these contests, even a 4th place in the kumon contest is notable</p>
<p>math/science contests are different from other ec's because they reflect your academic ability. which universities always look at first, before your extracurriculars and your essays. plus, i wouldn't say it's impossible to place well (top ten percent) in these contests.</p>
<p>"math/science contests are different from other ec's because they reflect your academic ability. which universities always look at first, before your extracurriculars and your essays. plus, i wouldn't say it's impossible to place well (top ten percent) in these contests."</p>
<p>This is about as wrong as it gets.Adcoms may look at your academic profile first, but they don't matter NEARLY as much when decision time comes. Ec's and essays are what cause you to make it or mreak it. Honestly, it's pretty obvious that HArvard isn't going to accept someone just because s/he has a 95% average or has won a few contest(which DON'T reflect academic cogency). </p>
<p>International and national contest winners herec are akin to siemens finalist in the states, and rsi scholars in the states. Using them as examples is just plain worng.</p>
<p>think of academics as getting your foot in the door and the rest of the application is what decides if you go any further. if you can't get your foot in the door, the rest of the profile doesn't really matter, now does it?</p>
<p>"has won a few contest(which DON'T reflect academic cogency). "
actually, contests reflect your academic ability because they are standardized. it may be easy to get a 95% in one school and hard to in another. but these contests are a standard which universities can measure by. think of them like SAT's. even if you have the good ec's and essays, without the academic backing, there's nothing to make or break.</p>
<p>plus, the people i mentioned didn't win national contests until after they were accepted into the schools. they didn't go to the olympiads until the summer after high school. however, they did write it in previous years even though they didn't win.</p>