<p>What would be the most impressive to the top 5 colleges (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT) out of the following:
USAMO Qualifier
USAPHO Semifinalist
USABO Semifinalist
Siemens Westinghouse Regional Finalist
ISEF Finalist
MOSP Qualifier
USAPHO Finalist
USABO Finalist
Siemens Westinghouse Finalist
ISEF 1st place in category</p>
<p>Basically, I'm trying to get an Idea of what's more impressive, the math and science olympiads, or research experience. Thanks for your input!</p>
<p>Also, where do the prestigious summer programs rank?
RSI
TASP
MITES
SSP (The one in Cali funded by Caltech, not the Harvard one)
Governer's Schools (does every state have one?)</p>
<p>What I can tell you is this: Research takes a fairly long time to bear any actual "fruit." I'm not sure about research at the high school level, but with what I'm doing at the graduate school level, research projects go on for years. It can take 6 months to a year before you even have anything that's of publishable quality (barely), and even then, you may very well submit a paper and get rejected.</p>
<p>If preparing for one of those competitions will take you less time (and you don't have the luxury of a lot of time ahead of you before admissions season starts), I'd go with the competitions. However, research may be a more intellectually rewarding experience. It really depends on what kind of opportunities are available to you now. Do you have easy access to a professors/research lab?</p>
<p>Well, this is not actually a question for me, it's for my little sister, who is just beginning the high school experience as a freshman next year. I've already chosen the competition route (i became fascinated with math/science competitions in middle school through mathcounts and science olympiad and I never really looked back). I've never qualified for the science olympiads though (only the USAMO twice), so I'm not sure about how prestigious those are. We have the main campus of KU here in Lawrence, so it shouldn't be too hard to find professors or a research lab (in fact, many family friends are professors, my dad himself is a professor). Is being published on par with winning some of these research competitions such as westinghouse? (I'm not really familiar with research having never done any myself).</p>
<p>Well, a quick relevant answer to your list is that qualifying for MOSP is without a doubt more prestigious than USAMO, as you necessarily must qualify for USAMO to make MOSP. However, I think simplifying the question to "impressiveness" is probably not a good idea. Colleges generally seek out a diverse group of students, meaning they don't want to take everyone who qualifies for one of these honors. However, my inclination would be that of the competitions, the math ones are most likely the highest in prestige as more people enter them. Furthermore, science competitions can't demonstrate talent in the same way that mathematics does(People with great promise in science often do not discover either their passion/ability or means to pursue it until later in their careers whereas great mathematicians are usually recognized for their talent at a very young age and thus enter competitions).</p>
<p>Thanks, that was kind of what I was looking for. I was wondering if someone could rank these for me in order of prestige? I was thinking something along the lines of:
Siemens Westinghouse Finalist
RSI
MOSP
TASP
ISEF 1st in Category
MITES
USAPHO Finalist
USABO Finalist
USAMO Qualifier
USAPHO Semifinalist
USABO Semifinalist
Siemens Westinghouse Regional Finalist
SSP
ISEF Finalist
Governeor's Schools</p>
<p>
[quote]
it's for my little sister, who is just beginning the high school experience as a freshman next year. I've already chosen the competition route...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Life is totally and completely unpredictable, you can't set out routes like that. You can only set goals and let life take you to that direction. Let her find what SHE is passionate about and let her follow in that route and success will follow in whatever area it is. A lot of times things will turn out better than you ever imagined, they did for me.</p>
<p>Yeah, but most of the time, these things aren't mutally exclusive. Applying to RSI doesn't rule out applying to TASP for example. So I was wondering where she could devote her time to maximize her chances at Harvard (her dream school). She's a math and science person, and she told me that she'd enjoy doing all of these things...</p>
<p>She should also consider Caltech, which probably appreciates such awards more than HYPSM because its admissions is more merit-based. Plus, you get better professor access and research opportunities because Caltech is much smaller than its peer schools, with each entering class having about 220 students. Caltech is at least on par with the other schools academically (and most probably tougher in terms of rigor) in math and science, and it has some humanities that are getting to be pretty strong such as economics and political science. If she's a math and science person, I can't imagine a better place.</p>
<p>Or your sister will realize that she has a passion for the theater or music or sculpting and either completely ignore the path you're setting for her, or fight you or your family on it every step along the way.</p>
<p>It makes me sick to think that somebody is 'setting a path out' for one of two times (college being the other) that we actually get to explore life and all of the different things it has to offer.</p>
<p>This entire thread makes me completely sick.</p>
<p>And if you tell me that she "knows" she's a math and science person or "knows" she wants to be an enginner or she "knows" she wants to go to a great math & science school, you have to be kidding me. She's (I'm assuming) 14 years old. If college sophomores, 19 and 20 year olds, don't "know," I really doubt that she does.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Yeah, but most of the time, these things aren't mutally exclusive. Applying to RSI doesn't rule out applying to TASP for example. So I was wondering where she could devote her time to maximize her chances at Harvard (her dream school). She's a math and science person, and she told me that she'd enjoy doing all of these things...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I totally understand what you mean, and I know you mean well. But as I said, life is unpredictable. I have a sibling to who I would like to see succeed more than myself. However, what I meant was that you shouldn't try to order these in order of prestige, but whichever one she would enjoy and would have a good chance of succeeding in AND would have the time to take part in. You should also encourage her to explore other things as well. </p>
<p>Myself, of course I had my dream schools (including the aformentioned school) but they seemed so distant at one point that I really stopped focusing on them and just did whatever I could to succeed for myself. I know it sounds cliche, but sucess is not about filling the resume, of course the resume is what tells other people what you've accomplished, but in the end, it's truly ENJOYING what you are doing, being able to sleep at end of the day and feel as if you've really accomplished something (But then again I laughed throughout the SAT test-- so maybe it's just me). The schools see that too, at least based on my experience they do. Ironically, for me, now those schools don't seem distant at all. :p )</p>
<p>You want to be a good mentor?-- stay by her side, encourage her to try things even when she is afraid, try to help her always see the best in herself. Encourage her to reserach these programs for herself instead of slapping them in her face and find where her interest lies, encourage her to look in her school for opportunities that come by and always grasp them. </p>
<p>There is no secret formula to maximize chances of success. Encourage her to find her passion, find her voice, and devote her time to that-- everything else comes after.</p>
<p>You forgot USACO Finalist (US Computer Science Olympiad -- there are no semifinalists) and USAChO (chemistry semifinalist and finalist) ....</p>
<p>DS did what he loves. The Olympiad and research flowed from that. It's not a binary thing at all. The kids I know who made national finalists and Int'l Olympiad teams didn't spend their lives preparing for competitions -- they played around with their interests, got into research, and success in the competitions flowed from that. They also found their passions LONG before high school. </p>
<p>Other kids may approach it differently, but that's what I've seen in my experience.</p>
-MITES</p>