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I am a junior and was recently awarded the Rensselaer Medal which gurantees a $60,000 scholarship if I choose to attend Rennesalear. But I have no intentions of going there, and now my question is: will my receiving this award be of any significant help when I apply to schools like Columbia, Cornell, and NYU? and if yes, how much does it help?

Also, considering my stats, what do you think of my shots at the three schools I mentioned above?

GPA: 4.72 weighted
Rank: 9 out of 416

AP classes taken:
World History
Psychology
American History

Senior courses:
AP Spanish
AP English
AP Government and Politics
PreCalculus Honors
Physics Honors
Economics Honors
AP Biology

-Likely to be National Merit Commended Scholar

SAT II's: World History - 740

But the killer: 1320 on SAT *YAH I'M STUPID* (680 V, 640M) will defintely retake it in October.

So, what do you guys think?

By Bohr (Bohr) on Tuesday, June 03, 2003 - 10:23 pm: Edit

First of all, why did you rule out RPI so soon. The award is the most prestigious science prize in high school and RPI is one of the best math/science/engineering colleges in the nation and the world in select subjects. I was accepted to Cornell, Columbia, Darthmouth, RPI, UIUC, UCB, and a bunch of other schools and for all of the schools you listed (RPI, Cornell, Columbia, and NYU), your SAT score is low, your II's are ordinary, classes are ordinary, and your rank is good. Your school must not be great. Most people that get the Rensselaer Medal can easily, very easily get a math score of above 750 on the SAT. The only thing thats going for you is the Rensselaer Medal. Besides that, you're nothing special and plain average for all of the schools aforementioned.

By Jumbo (Jumbo) on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 - 12:42 am: Edit

I'd say take the RPI scholarship

By Chrisd (Chrisd) on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 - 08:27 am: Edit

Do you plan to go into engineering? If not, then probably RPI is not for you. Have you taken the ACT? Some students seem to do better on either the ACT or the SAT, and many schools will look at both scores.

By Luda (Luda) on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 - 03:35 pm: Edit

Pfff, no decision here, take RPI definitely. Great school, amazing academics, faculty, and people. I chose it over Cornell and Brown.

By Soulofheaven8 (Soulofheaven8) on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 - 06:05 pm: Edit

I don't want to seem as if I'm aggrandizing myself, but I am in fact a pretty good student, and my teachers were shocked at the low SAT score.

The frustrating aspect of all this is obviously that my knowledge doesn't translate into my SAT test-taking ability. It dejects further that people who knows about half as much vocabulary as I do score significantly better.

My high school, White Plains High School in Westchester County, NY, is not a bad school. This year we had a couple accepted to Harvard and many more going to various Ivies. The Medal was by no means a fluke and I think I seriously deserved it. Again, with my subpar SAT score it is easy to see why people might think I do not merit such an award.

By Soulofheaven8 (Soulofheaven8) on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 - 06:07 pm: Edit

And also, I plan to pursue a career in law, so that pretty much eliminates RPI from my list of schools.

By Starbyrst (Starbyrst) on Thursday, June 05, 2003 - 04:04 pm: Edit

Don't worry about your subpar SAT score, it seems like you are probably are smart enough to do much better. Here is what I recomend: Get 10 REAL SAT's and practice practice practice. Make vocab lists and test yourself, its brute memorization. Also try to read anything you can get your hands on this summer while you have time. SAT simply measures how well you take the SAT. By practicing tons before I even took the PSAT I am sure I brought up my score at least 100 points. I too got the RPI medal but I'd tell you to look at other options. Don't let anyone tell you don't have a shot at what you want

By Varr_Rdz00 (Varr_Rdz00) on Thursday, June 05, 2003 - 04:50 pm: Edit

Hey does anyone know about the new SAT do u think id help me ??? since the year it changes its the year ill be applying to college, or should i take the ACT??

chek out my post pls! give me some advice

but hey tell me what u think about my post pls its called

Hey anyone here that could help a girl out? wont take long :

By Varr_Rdz00 (Varr_Rdz00) on Thursday, June 05, 2003 - 04:50 pm: Edit

Hey does anyone know about the new SAT do u think id help me ??? since the year it changes its the year ill be applying to college, or should i take the ACT??

chek out my post pls! give me some advice

but hey tell me what u think about my post pls its called

Hey anyone here that could help a girl out? wont take long :

By Ziggysux4 (Ziggysux4) on Thursday, June 05, 2003 - 06:20 pm: Edit

Hey Soulofheaven8.. I had originally clicked on this thread because I happened to also win the Rensselaer Medal at my school this year. I wasn't going to respond, but then I noticed that you are from White Plains- I go to Harrison HS, pretty cool. Anyway, I am not really sure what kind of significance the award has, but considering that RPI is a great engineering school and you are the only person in your school to have gotten the award, I would say it is definitely pretty impressive.

By Unhappiness (Unhappiness) on Thursday, June 05, 2003 - 06:21 pm: Edit

varr rdz00: one word of advice: TAKE THE SATS NOW! in 2005, they are going to have more maths but i hear they are taking analogies off the exam.

By Gangsta (Gangsta) on Thursday, June 05, 2003 - 06:31 pm: Edit

The medal is the most prestigious science award in high school, no question about it. It's very tough to get (only the best get it). RPI has a combined BS/JD program w/ Columbia Law School. It's the best combined bachelors/law program in the nation. Check it out. Extremely tough to gain admission like any combined program, but def. worth it. And also, RPI is gaining more and more rep. It's very well known in europe/asia for math, science, engineering. Don't underestimate the significance of the RPI medal and the school!

By Soulofheaven8 (Soulofheaven8) on Thursday, June 05, 2003 - 06:40 pm: Edit

Hey Ziggysux4! Nice to see that there's at least one person here who lives around my vicinity, and it's quite a coincidence that you also won the RPI medal. Harrison is a great town and its school carries a great reputation to us in White Plains. Thanks for your reply and best of luck to you.

By B18c1cx (B18c1cx) on Thursday, June 05, 2003 - 07:15 pm: Edit

You are crazy. At the undergraduate level, why not take the money at RPI. It is comparable to NYU for undergrad education. Save your money!!!

By Dschnapps (Dschnapps) on Friday, June 06, 2003 - 12:18 am: Edit

I understand that you're smart and not a good test-taker, but usually excellent math students (good enough to win that award) are bored to tears by the SAT math. 640?!? Unless there's some real reason, I'm confused.

Anyway, study that and retake, because otherwise RPI scholarship is by FARRRRRRRRRRRRRR your best choice.

Besides, why are you snubbing them? they're a DAMN good school and they're offering you cash.

By Luda (Luda) on Friday, June 06, 2003 - 10:15 pm: Edit

Agreed w/ Dschnapps. RPI is one of the top math, science schools out there and rising in ranks. It IS the oldest technological university in america. They have a combined law program w/ Columbia Law School. DEFININETLY take RPI.

By Aznbrouhaha (Aznbrouhaha) on Saturday, June 07, 2003 - 02:40 pm: Edit

is the Rensselaer Medal given only to juniors ?

By Starbyrst (Starbyrst) on Saturday, June 07, 2003 - 04:39 pm: Edit

yes

By Ldlord13 (Ldlord13) on Sunday, August 17, 2003 - 12:58 pm: Edit

I'm a senior student at St-Andrew's College in Ontario. I received the Rensselaer Medal in June. I consider applying to RPI, Syracuse (Aerospace Eng.) and Stanford. Will the Rensselaer Medal REALLY improve my chances? What do you think of my shots at the 3 schools mentioned above according to my stats:
**even though St-Andrew's is an english school, my first language is french.

rank: 13/115
SAT: 690M, 570V (2nd year studying in english)
Senior Year: AP Stats, AP Calc, Discrete Mathematics, AP French, Chemistry, Physics, English.
Varsity Sports: Football (6 yrs), Tennis (5 yrs)

Thanks for your time,
LD

By Larchmont (Larchmont) on Friday, April 23, 2004 - 07:58 pm: Edit

Hi! Don't know if y'all are still looking at this page, it's been a while since the last post. Found this by accident -- I'm an old-timer, graduated h.s. in 1967! I got the Rensselaer medal back then and never thought much about it either because I pretty much already knew what my top schools were. But recently the Rensselaer thing popped back into my mind, so I googled it to see if anybody still talks about it -- and I see that it even STILL EXISTS! And I see this great page.

I feel a little bad that I never even acknoweldged getting the medal. I should have at least written a thank-you letter.

In those days, college costs were much less, even correcting for inflation. So the financial award wasn't as much of a factor as it is now. Costs have gotten so ridiculous that the $15,000/year has to be very seriously considered. I'm just grateful that I didn't have to take this into account. (Went to Cornell, Arts & Science, chem major, then med school. RPI would have been great too, but not what I wanted.)

BTW coincidentally I'm in Westchester too -- Larchmont. Good luck to you all, especially Soulofheaven8. If you're still looking here, I'd be curious about how it all went and what you decided.