<p>I am a junior and i am thinking of applying next year to major in chemistry, but i am wondering if my science ECs are good enough. Here they are:</p>
<p>Evaluation of Photon Tunneling Probability by Spatial Variation published in Citizen Scientist
District Oustanding Science Achievement Award (2006,2007,2008)
Top Chemistry Student 2 years (School)
4th Place Science and Engineering Fair of Houston
4th Place American Physics Society-Texas Chapter </p>
<p>Self Taught Quantum Mechanics research:
9th Quantitative Analysis of Electron Transition in Helium (150 hours)
10th Evolution of Time Independent Wavefunctions in an Electrostatic Field (240 hours)
11th Evaluation of Photon Tunneling Probability by Spatial Variation(200 hours)</p>
<p>I working on a project for intel next year, but i don't think it Intel works out in time for college admission?
I don't know i was looking through the MIT admit thread and it seemed like every body was in like Intel and Siemen's, or USNCO or whatever, but i haven't had as many opportunities as that bc I am the only one at my school who does science fair or who was remotely interested so I didn't have alot of resources for science, will they consider that?
Are these okay for science ECs?</p>
<p>As for Intel, that is something you can update colleges about following completion of your application. In addition, since results are publicized, if you do great (Intel finalist, for instance), your colleges will know. You can also let MIT know about the research you’re doing, perhaps in the Additional Info section, or if the question is posed (like it has been in previous years), “Tell us about an original idea you came up with.” (or a variation of that).</p>
<p>My son, and many like him, never heard of Intel, Siemens, robotics, etc. before applying to MIT. What he has is a passion for all sciences, and this shows in the classes taken in high school and at our local college, the six years of Saturdays spent at IMACS (Institute for Computer Science and Mathematics), and the four summers spent studying at Duke and doing research at the University of Florida. That’s not to say that you have to spend your summers and free time doing serious work just to get in to MIT; many kids go to camp every summer. But he just loves this stuff and would rather do physics problems and math proofs during free time on our family vacations than anything else.</p>
<p>One thing I think IS valuable to consider is a competitve summer research program, the kind you apply for, not the open kind where everyone gets accepted if you can pay for it. The MIT web site has a old blog by Matt McGann about this; search the archives. there’s a list of many such programs which implicitly are looked upon favorably.</p>
<p>I didn’t hear about any of this stuff until applying, either. I remember thinking there was NO WAY I’d get in with all these national competition people running around =P.</p>
<p>I didn’t think i would need better ECs, but i was going through the MIT admission decision page and like everyone was an Intel or Siemens. I have taken every science course offered at our school (except environmental science that they just added). I hope that combined with my independent stuff will compensate. But i am going to enter Intel and Siemens this year, but i don’t know how well i will do bc i am doing it on my own (got rejected from those summer programs T_T apparently if your not in the top five ppl in your class you get rejected, what a jib).</p>
<p>A lot of students (who do well) don’t do research through summer programs. And some who do do summer programs don’t submit the research they did in the program, as they have done more meaningful research not under a summer program.</p>
<p>I didn’t do any science research during HS. I didn’t go to ANY of those expensive summer programs. So, don’t feel bad about missing out on them.
The best science or any ECs are the ones that you care about.
colleges normally don’t care much about what you are missing out as much as what you did with the resources that you have.</p>
<p>@kyrptonsa: I think that the percentage of MIT students on CC who did Siemens/Intel/STS is higher than the percentage of all MIT students who did Siemens/Intel/STS.</p>
<p>To get to the best ones, you sort of have to make yourself more qualified than others. Most people do that by spending thousands of dollars in the summer programs preceding the best ones to gain “experience” and lengthen their resume.</p>
<p>To the OP:
I think your science ECs are fine; you’ve definitely followed what looks like a sustained interest in scientific research. You say you’ve been a sort of lone voyager at your school, which I also find impressive. </p>
<p>I think you’d enjoy yourself at MIT, so I hope you apply EA.
:-)</p>
<p>Your research sounds extremely interesting! =D</p>
<p>
If you’re applying EA it may not. If applying RD you’ll get preliminary Siemen’s results in time. Intel STS results are finalized early March, though. and Intel ISEF results will depend, but since you’re in Texas like me, unless you get to ISEF from your region (Austin has their regional fair mid-February, so I sent my results to them along with my mid-year report), you won’t have results in time.</p>
<p>I think your science ECs are extremely strong and impressive. Good luck =)
P.S. You’ve never been to ExxonMobil State Fair?! With your research I’m almost shocked; you definitely deserve to be there.</p>
<p>Actually i did go to State in eigth grade i got third. But you have to realize that i live in houston, and the competition is fierce, so i got fourth with quantum tunneling and the girl who got second did a two year study of like quantum computers, and the girl who got first did a project in soluminesnce so it is hard to get to state from my region. I mean like in my district alone there are two of the top ten schools in the ENTIRE state of texas, then with DeBakey, and stuff it is hard.</p>