/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.1782890]

Okay, underageb& NZfag who can't shake the delusion of getting into MIT is back again.

I'm volunteering with the City Mission this summer to help homeless people, and next year I'm going to be one of the scholars at my school. I've found a list of activities my school offers, and I've narrowed down my list of things I could do to:

Amnesty International
Forty Hour Famine
Social Awareness and Responsibility Committee
Mathematics Committee
Student Newspaper
Cross Country

I'm also taking the History trip to Europe.

I'm also considering starting a robotics group of some kind. We have enough Asians to pull it off. Thing is, I also want to excel at my studies, so I've decided to limit myself to 4 things. It doesn't have to be on the list, it can be made up. What would you suggest?

Also, I've started doing AS Physics in my spare time as part of my study for IGCSE, and figured I could probably complete that course by the May/June CIE exams. Reckon I should try to do that, and have A-Level physics done by the end of next year?

It might be easier if someone shook some sense into me. I'm fucking insane, I won't get in. But I still feel like I might. Far out.

In return, Astronomy.

[Anonymous No.1782894]

tl;dr best ECs for college applications?

[Anonymous No.1782896]

[Anonymous No.1782898]

[Anonymous No.1782901]

By the way, I haven't checked to see if these are in order.

[Anonymous No.1782903]

[Anonymous No.1782912]

Microbiology now.

[Anonymous No.1782918]

Too busy to help? Alright then, I'll just keep dumping this stuff you already have.

[Anonymous No.1782921]

[Anonymous No.1782928]

I'll accept any comments, even if they're just to tell my how wrong I am.

[Anonymous No.1782930]

Bio general.

[Anonymous No.1782933]

[Anonymous No.1782937]

You know why people troll? Because it's impossible to get any response otherwise.

[Anonymous No.1782938]

>Forty Hour Famine

Gaaaaaaaaaaay.

>Robotics Club

Pretty good. I remember back in high-school that we won for all 5 years that I was there. 5 times provincial wide winners. Tons of Asians.

>Still no tutoring

Do it, kid. And stop making these threads, lol. You HAVE to have tutoring.

[Anonymous No.1782941]

Cross Country sounds fun.
Could detail some of the activities more?

[Anonymous No.1782946]

>>1782938
Alright. Sorry, I just get excited about things and I can't talk about this stuff to people IRL because I won't get any advice from them. This will be my last, I promise.

[Anonymous No.1782951]

>>1782941
I was pretty good at running back when I wasn't a lazy shit. I went for two runs last week and I felt a significant improvement in the second one, so that's a good sign. Anyway, here are some more details for the others.

Amnesty International is basically the school club that raises money for the NGO, collects signatures, etc.

Forty Hour Famine is not eating for forty hours, getting sponsors for doing it, then giving the money to World Vision. This would be as an organizer as well, collecting money from other participants. Not one of my top choices.

SARC is community service and charity work more locally, from what I can gather.

Mathematics Committee is a mysterious group. I have no idea what they do.

The Student Newspaper is probably quite bad, as is to be expected.

I can start up any other clubs probably, and would get a better rep for that. What would you recommend?

[Anonymous No.1782958]

[Anonymous No.1782962]

[Anonymous No.1782967]

[Anonymous No.1782969]

[Anonymous No.1782975]

[Anonymous No.1782976]

Come on. Just a little advice. Please?

[Anonymous No.1782983]

Niggers are dumb because of genetics, Jesus is our savior, science is a lie, perpetual motion is possible within 5 years, fusion is suppressed by big oil, Hawking is just mad because of his disability, Sagan contributed nothing to science.

That should be enough to get some replies, OP.

[Anonymous No.1782990]

40 hr famine just because it'll only be 40 hours and looks good.
Robotics group because its got great nerd value.
Cross country because its good for you and helps discourage laziness.

Also your main focus should be on picking up as many of the NZQA scholarships as you can and apply for as many of the big international ones too. MIT for undergrad is a bit unnecessary and you could just transfer there for postgrad after being at some other respectable uni.

[Anonymous No.1782993]

>>1782990
I'm pretty sure MIT pays a lot of financial aid for international students.

[Anonymous No.1782997]

>>1782990
Thanks. I don't know whether you can do NZQA scholarships with CIE qualifications, though. Applying for international ones is worth a shot though. Anyway, everyone does 40 hour famine, so I'll get onto the organizing committee.

[Anonymous No.1782998]

NZQA is shit
Scholarships are great
Uni is shit
Learning is great
Learning to be a fucking John Doe is shit.
You from Auckland then?

[Anonymous No.1782999]

>>1782993
only once you've proven that you're smart enough to deserve them though

[Anonymous No.1783001]

>>1782998
Yeah. I lived in the UK for a bit when I was younger, but my parents didn't like the lifestyle. If I'd stayed at my fancy-pants school there I'd be doing much better academically, (i.e knowing German, French and Latin already) but my parents like the lifestyle here better, so we moved back.

[Anonymous No.1783003]

>>1782999
Eh, what do I have to lose working hard? If I get in it'll be pretty awesome, if not then I'll just go to Melbourne or something for undergrad.

[Anonymous No.1783006]

>>1783001
>better academically, (i.e knowing German, French and Latin
I isntantly lose all respect for you.

[Anonymous No.1783014]

>>1783006
Well, that was just an example. Obviously I personally would have focused on the sciences more, but those were pretty much mandatory for anyone attending this particular school. All my friends there lived in fucking mansions, with nanny's that looked after them instead of parents.

[Anonymous No.1783030]

>>1783006
So, did you lose respect because he doesn't know those or what?

[Anonymous No.1783038]

>>1783001
>German
>French
>Latin

Why would you even WANT to waste your time learning that

[Anonymous No.1783045]

>>1783038

I agree with this, but everyone seems to find it amazing that someone can speak multiple languages. If you guys would hurry up and work on a civilian version of the voice translators used in Iraq people would focus more time on learning something meaningful.

[Anonymous No.1783050]

>>1783038
This was a srs business school. Every student had millionaire parents apart from me, it felt. They wanted their kids to be politicians and businessmen. Anyway, learning those languages would have been a better use of my time than my education up until this year in NZ has been.

[Anonymous No.1783065]

Well, it's late. If this thread happens to be alive tomorrow I'll check up then. Ciao.

[Anonymous No.1783098]

>>1783006
>he thinks only mathematical intelligence is worthwhile


laughinggirls.jpg

[Anonymous No.1783114]

>>1783098
Incorrect, I just have no respect for subjects of learning that is about knowledge and memory and not about process, logic, and predictability.
Language is one of the best examples for this: Even though you can try to invent your own words (i.e. appending -ing to a word), you may still be incorrect unless you've actually been taught and know the word.
Math is an acceptable example of the opposite case. From taking axioms and simple rules you can predict patterns and go through logical processes to produce an answer without having actively studied that specific graph or pattern.

[Anonymous No.1783154]

Sup NZfag, postgrad ausfag here.

By all means apply to MIT but if you're not sporting a high IB and national/international awards for at least one of science, IT, english/similar (e.g., young writer essays etc) then you're going to have a hard time getting in.

NZ is a pretty small pond, even if you're a proportionally big fish. Similarly with Australia. Both are getting better - some of the oceanic universities are considered 'world class' - that is, mid/low tier 'world class'.

Note also that with the GFC, US universities are even more reticent to invite international students over.

My sincere advice would be to pursue these things without the singular goal of applying for MIT and MIT alone. Also take a serious look at the other exceptional US universities, INCLUDING the public ones. Some of the public universities are equal/better than private ones depending on the specific field of study you're interested in. Universities overall can be strong or weak, but there are many mid-tier universities with very strong schools in one discipline or another (e.g., Ohio State for social psychology), and vice versa.

If you don't get into the university you really want for your undergrad, you always have the opportunity to visit there on exchange, and/or pursue postgraduate study there after your undergrad in Melbourne (I assume UMelb is the best oceanic university for your chosen field?).

I assume by scholar you mean like 'prefect' or 'steward'. 99.9% of prefects do fuck all in their role. If you can develop and implement just ONE lasting change that is either permanent or is maintained as a regular responsibility of the scholar in your position after you, this is a massive plus.

[Anonymous No.1783163]

Finally, with regards to your extracurricular activities: I'd say that running around madly pursuing throwaway activities like the 40 hour famine is a waste of your time and doesn't mean shit on an application and/or CV.

What you really want is to serve on a meaningful committee. I don't know what the mathematics committee is but you can probably give it a miss and instead engage with SARC. Also start asking to be involved with committees at the school level. There may be a 'student representative' position on the academic committee of your school.

Student newspapers are really difficult to make work at any level. At the school level, they're mostly a waste of your time and an unnecessary stress (especially if you're conscientious, you'll end up doing all the work - this will happen anyway but for the production of a newspaper this is a fuckload of work).

You need to pace yourself - I think you'll find that when you do finally get to undergraduate, a lot of what you thought was important (and WAS important, in school) matters little. Things like grades are a barrier for entry, not a badge of honour or a guarantee for success. Similarly, your performance in undergrad is not at all indicative of how you'll do in postgrad.

The other thing is that, crazy as it sounds to you right now, you may find that after spending six months at university you'll discover that what you were so committed to, even obsessed with, studying has been replaced by an equally strong obsession with a different field (if you're lucky) or a massive hole (if you're normal). This is an extremely common experience for high achievers, and course advisers are no help "you can do whatever you want!". You can't plan for this situation but you can read widely and say yes to as many new experiences as possible.

[Anonymous No.1783192]

Don't even bother trying to get in there for undergrad. While it is a bit better than other schools, it's much more expensive, and MIT's idea of financial aid is to make you take out enough loans that you'll graduate with close to 100k in debt.

Get a bachelors from some other school and a masters/doctorate from MIT. You'll save money and won't have a 4 year period of constant stress and suicidal thoughts that way. If you're smart enough to get into MIT, you are smart enough to get into any other science/engineering school and get straight As while you're there.

[Anonymous No.1783231]

MORE SPARKCARDS PLEASE

[Anonymous No.1784952]

>>1783154
>>1783163
Thank you very, very much. This is exactly the advice I was looking for.

I've got a free period now, I'd dump some more stuff but I really need to study for Maths. I got just under 80% for my mock exams, which is definitely not good enough.

[Anonymous No.1784976]

http://www.cracked.com/article_18547_6-reasons-space-travel-will-always-suck.html

[Anonymous No.1786114]

No problem.