<p>Does winning (two times) semifinalist at the Siemens Competition equal in prestige as USAPhO, USABO, IMO, ISEF, etc. for MIT?</p>
<p>Thanks so much.</p>
<p>Uh, IMO is way more prestigious than any of the other awards you listed. Do you mean USAMO?</p>
<p>The MIT offer of admission. Look for it in December or March.</p>
<p>Hi stupidkid with an unsure gender and all others!</p>
<p>Yep, I meant USAMO. What is more prestegous to win--semifinalist at the Siemens Competition or the other awards listed?</p>
<p>Semifinalist for siemens is not super prestigious. Regional finalist is where the real stuff starts kicking in (no offense to your work at all).</p>
<p>The problem with semifinalist is that it's easy to get if you write a decent paper and worked in a good lab. Of course it helps in admissions, but it's not like IMO or such. You'd have to win at the national level, or some other crazy stuff to match that.</p>
<p>Also the prestige of the awards means nothing. People with many awards often get in because they have a strong combination of competence, dedication, creativity and intelligence. Getting an award does not mean you have these traits, it just means that a panel of judges thought it was good work you submitted. So MIT looks at your other stuff. The vast majority of hook applicants probably would get in without the award.</p>
<p>Besides most of these research competitions are filled with dull work. If you want to find the real badasses, find those quiet kids who work on their own hobby projects for their own private pleasure.</p>
<p>Yeah, Siemens semi is... it looks good. But it's not like, OMGAHAMZING.</p>
<p>Not to make you disappointed... your semifinalist status is still VERY good.</p>
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Also the prestige of the awards means nothing. People with many awards often get in because they have a strong combination of competence, dedication, creativity and intelligence. Getting an award does not mean you have these traits, it just means that a panel of judges thought it was good work you submitted. So MIT looks at your other stuff. The vast majority of hook applicants probably would get in without the award.</p>
<p>Besides most of these research competitions are filled with dull work. If you want to find the real badasses, find those quiet kids who work on their own hobby projects for their own private pleasure.
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<p>Yes. Yes. Yes! Listen to this. It's really good advice. I bolded the parts which I think are especially true.</p>
<p>yay!!! Chris commented!!!. WOOT for MIT BLOGGERS!!!</p>
<p>This is what I hate seeing on this site. Resume padding. Do NOT go for an award for the sake of MIT. If you want an award, you should be doing it for yourself, not for a college. There's more to life than MIT, mate!</p>
<p>(sorry if I sounded a bit harsh, but I am very strongly against doing stuff for the sake of a college)</p>
<p>I don't think he/she is doing it FOR the college... I think he/she is just wondering whether or not it would look good. There's a difference. You can win awards for yourself but still USE it for the college; he/she wants to know whether something he/she has already done (for him/herself) is going to make a big difference in admissions.</p>
<p>You all seem to think thing that I did the projects just for MIT. That's not true. I was just wondering how prestegous an award is. I do a lot of other stuff, I was just wondering how much this would help me.</p>
<p>IMHO USAMO/USAPhO/USNCO/USABO/USACO/ISEF/STS/SWC are all fair game. Something better than doing well in some of those is, well, doing well in all of those. Generally they show that you already excel at something; for example, if you are a Siemens (semi)finalist, then that means you've already did some scientifically relevant and rigorous research and thus have been commended for it.</p>
<p>The weak way to approach it is, "I want to get into MIT, therefore I should do X, Y, and Z." Unfortunately this is a common mentality, and while not altogether "wrong," it won't produce results of the same caliber as someone who has dedicated time into something they truly love and enjoy.</p>
<p>(If you don't know what some of those letters mean, Google CC.)</p>
<p>I think Ben Jones has already given the definitive answer to this question in a blog post that was originally a post here on CC. </p>