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<p>How on earth does one find research to do as a high-schooler without having a mom who is Professor at X university who hooks you up? It’s not sarcasm - a real, honest question, since I know people younger than I am who could benefit from advice on where to find such opportunity. Well, other than qualifying for this RSI thing I keep hearing about on CC. If it’s not too off topic (and I don’t think it is, considering it’s relevant to advice for the OP), what is RSI, aside from a prestigious research opportunity?</p>
<p>@WhizKid - you sound rather like how I was as a high-schooler, except I know even today a lot less physics than you do. And that’s a bit of a bad thing for admissions - it is important to have something to show for all the interest you have. Reading stuff is great, and realistically, it may help you in college more than anything else you did, since a large part of MIT or any terrific school is actually being an intelligent student. However…</p>
<p>You should start thinking in terms of conveying an idea as to how you’d like to actually help people, using your inclinations. How you might work well in a team. How you are interested in things beyond just being a competitive person. A lot of the posters on this forum are MIT alumni, interviewers, etc, and have said something to this effect. </p>
<p>It is not a crime not to be thinking like that. Sure, you may just want to study physics because you want to study physics. How you help the world? You may just be a good person in general - a lot of good people aren’t MIT people, and are just as important.</p>
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<p>I want to add that I don’t recall seeing mention of mastery in the OP’s first post. Perhaps this is another thing to work on - going beyond familiarity.</p>