Summer is a time to explore your passions, and we have a whole guide to summer programs to help you find one which best matches your interests. In this article, we’ll explore one such program, the Research Science Institute (RSI), often considered the most prestigious summer program in the country. Students who are accepted into RSI have a 90% acceptance rate to MIT, and most go on to attend an Ivy League or Ivy+ college.
This is because RSI is incredibly competitive for admissions, with fewer than 5% of applicants being accepted; a similar rate to the Ivy League. In this article we’ll explore what the program offers, and what it takes to get accepted, including going through the application in detail. Let’s jump in!
What RSI Is
Hosted on MIT’s campus, RSI brings together 80 students from across the country and around the world each summer to explore research topics in a number of STEM fields. This begins with a week of coursework with professors, after which students spend five weeks participating in research internships, working closely with academic mentors. During the final week, students present on what they have accomplished through their research to each other.
This is a remarkable opportunity for high school juniors, who are the only students eligible to apply. It allows for them to gain hands-on research experience in fields they are passionate about, learning both techniques and methods of inquiry.
On top of all of this, RSI is completely free to participants. This includes meals and housing on campus, meaning that your finances are not a barrier to participation in the program. Indeed, they encourage students from disadvantaged backgrounds to apply.
RSI accepts students internationally as well, though the bulk of their students come from within the US. Indeed, RSI has quotas for countries besides the US; a maximum number of students they will admit from each (though they may admit fewer). These are not publicized, so it is difficult to say for certain what the quota is for any particular country. Given the small overall size of the program however, it can be assumed to be relatively low for most countries outside the US.
RSI’s Application
RSI’s application is available online, and may be completed entirely on the program’s website. They make sure to specify that the application is protected by copyright, so we will not reproduce it here (either fully or in part). Instead, we will discuss generally what they ask for, and how you should approach answering it. First, we will cover the general information questions in this section. In the next, we’ll go over the essay questions, which make more students nervous.
It is important to note requirements first. Only high school juniors are eligible to apply, as the program is intended for students entering their senior year of high school. They recommend the following for standardized testing scores:
- PSAT Math 740 and Verbal 700
- ACT math 33 and verbal 34
They do note that low test scores can be offset by other indicators of performance in math and science. These are guidelines to indicate the academic caliber of students they are looking for.
There are separate applications for international and domestic students. These applications are identical in content, but are separated into different pools for admissions. If you have US citizenship, we recommend you use the US application.
Basic Information
Most of the information they ask for is straightforward, and parallels what the Common App looks for. They want to understand who you are generally, how to contact you, and who your parents are. Your parent or guardian’s info is also necessary for emergencies, as the program is responsible for your wellbeing while you are staying on campus.
Information about your high school is necessary to provide context for you and your accomplishments. Only add additional notes if you have attended multiple high schools, or have been homeschooled. There is another location to discuss academic setbacks or challenges you may have faced, so do not include any of that information here.
Research Preferences
This is the first very important section, as this indicates which fields you want to explore at RSI. You will need to explain your choices in great detail later, so make your selections carefully. We recommend only choosing fields which you have prior experience in, where you can concretely explain your interests with evidence. There is no strategy to picking these fields beyond authenticity, as the fields offered and their relative popularity varies widely from year to year.
Coursework
This is meant to explore your past experiences with STEM in a classroom setting (and outside of it). Context matters here; you will be evaluated in light of your circumstances. If your highschool has limited class options to take advanced math or science classes, you will not be harshly judged for your lack of participation; conversely, if your high school offers a plethora of STEM options, they want to see that you have taken advantage of the opportunities available to you.
Computer and programming experience is not a prerequisite when applying, but it will help your application. Be honest with your coding experience, and give as many details as necessary. This is not an essay, but you should explain yourself and what the limits of your abilities are.
STEM courses outside of high school are a way to demonstrate your passion and intellectual vitality. They are also an important way for students with limited STEM options in high school to gain the needed academic experience for the program. Websites like KhanAcademy, edX, and Coursera have numerous course offerings which allow you to explore higher level concepts in fields you otherwise could not access through your high school.
The additional information section here should only be used if you had exceptional high school circumstances. You should not attempt to explain away every bad grade, instead focus on aspects of your school which impacted your education, such as extra programs you took advantage of or resources your school lacked. This section is labeled as optional, and you should not fill it out unless there are truly important circumstances you need to discuss.
Test Scores
RSI does not show preference between the SAT and ACT for scores; you can include multiple if you want, but we recommend only sending your best performance. Note that you are only allowed a single pdf for your score reports; if you are sending in multiple, make sure to merge them into a single pdf before you submit.
Awards and Accomplishments
RSI does not want you to send in a separate resume or CV; all of your relevant experiences should be listed and explained in the application. They separate out STEM and non-STEM activities, and give you space to explain each. These are not essays, instead these are brief descriptions to cover what exactly you did with the activity. There is a separate essay question if you want to go into more depth on one of your extracurriculars.
RSI asks for any publications you have completed. While they do not expect high school students to have scientific publications, it will boost your application if you do. Do not worry if you don’t have anything here, most students don’t. If you are interested in publishing work in high school, we have an article on the subject.
Letters of Recommendation
RSI wants two letters of recommendation from teachers who know you well, ideally one from a teacher in a STEM field and one from a teacher in a non-STEM field. If you have completed a major research project, you should also submit a letter of recommendation from your mentor for that project. No more than three letters of recommendation will be accepted.
The Essay Questions
RSI asks for five essay responses. Due to copyright, we will not recreate their prompts in their entirety, but we will discuss each topic in turn, and how you should go about answering them.
As a note: these prompts have very long word counts. This worries many students, who don’t know how they will fill so much space. Our advice is to write authentically; the space is provided to make sure you have enough room to say everything that needs to be said; you are not obligated to fill all of it. Do not write unnecessary details or repeat yourself just to fill space; this will not win you any points. Say all that is necessary, and end if you are done.
That said, we do recommend all of your essays be at least 250 words in length; shorter than this risks not answering the questions fully. That said, let’s look at what the prompts want.
Your Research Areas of Interest
The first question asks you to elaborate on the subjects you selected as your research areas of interest. They want to see what draws you to these fields, what prior experience you have, and what questions you may be interested in exploring the answers to.
This question in many ways parallels one many colleges ask, about why you are interested in the subject you want to major in. In both cases, you want to begin by discussing what draws you to this subject, and then covering any particularly impactful prior experiences you’ve had with them.
You will need to cover both your potential areas of interest in this response. We recommend handling them separately; answering for one and then the other. Make sure to include relevant details without overwhelming; you will have room in later responses to describe what you did in various activities in more depth, the idea here is to explore why these activities sparked passion within you for the subject at hand.
Your Future Plans
The purpose of this question is to understand your motivations and passions. There is no one right way to answer this question; but whatever answer you give should tie into the research areas of interest you identified. This may be done in several ways, we’ll go through them now.
The first is to write a narrative about the future you, who and what and where and why. Explore your job and circumstances, and how you came to inhabit them. This should closely parallel your stated areas of interest: how will these blossom into a career, and what will that career look like in an ideal world? This can be a fanciful narrative, but should demonstrate your passions for the field.
In place of a narrative, you can concretely lay out any and all plans you have for the future; college majors, research areas, career paths. These can (and likely will) change going forward; the point here is to show that you have thought about your options for the future, and how your passions will play out.
The point of this question overall is to understand your grander motivations, and to give admissions officers a sense of how RSI may contribute to your future plans. We recommend focusing on aspects of the future which relate directly to your research areas of interest, and which work towards the betterment of humanity generally. Going into engineering for the money is a legitimate choice, but that should not be the subject of this essay.
Leadership
This is not a unique subject for an essay; many colleges ask for the same thing. Programs like RSI are looking for students who will go on to be leaders in their field, and more proximately who will actively and eagerly contribute to group work. There is no shame in following the plans another laid, but showing initiative is key for going on to change the world.
This essay is also a chance for you to show off one of your extracurricular activities related to your field of interest. While you can write about any of your activities, we find that writing about STEM engagements is most useful, as it is this experience that RSI is explicitly looking for in applicants.
Remember that leadership does not have to be an official position, such as a club president or team captain. It can also come from assuming responsibility and demonstrating initiative, even outside the confines of traditional authority. Even if you have not demonstrated leadership conventionally, you may still have impressive experience as a leader to write about.
Extracurricular Essay
This essay is incredibly straightforward, and is a chance to elaborate on one of your extracurriculars. Ideally you want to demonstrate both what you have done which is relevant to the program, and who you are as a person.
RSI isn’t simply looking for the smartest students, but students who will contribute to their community, both currently and in the future. There is no one set of character traits they want to see; but they are looking for applicants of strong character. You should display whichever traits best define you in this essay, even as you are primarily using it to describe an extracurricular.
Whatever activity you write about should be one you have not already covered in another of the essays. You want to give the program the broadest possible view of what you’ve done, which means you want to share as many different details as possible. This means you should not repeat activities if possible. If you have a limited number of activities to discuss, make sure to cover a different facet of the same activity.
Why RSI?
This is again similar to colleges, who want to know how you will benefit from the program. How you learned about RSI should be answered briefly; the bulk of your response should be focused on why you want to attend.
This answer should be about you as much as it is about the program. RSI knows that it’s a great program; effusive praise is not what they’re looking for here. Instead, you should demonstrate why what the program is offering is right for you, and how the program is the best opportunity for you to explore your interests.
Your response should be highly personal to you; the more detail you can add about what you want to gain from the program, the better. Authenticity is key here as well; do not say things because you think the program wants to hear them. Instead, be genuine in your responses, and let your passion flow through your answers.
Final Thoughts
Summer is a chance to relax, but it’s also an opportunity to explore your interests in greater depth and breadth. The Research Science Institute is one of the best opportunities for this exploration, and the competitiveness of its applicant pool affirms this belief.
We hope that this article has introduced you to the program and its particulars, and has given you all the information you need to apply. If you are looking for additional summer programs which may interest you, check out our guide to summer programs. If you want our help in exploring your interests outside of a set program, schedule a free consultation to learn if our candidacy building program is right for you. We have helped hundreds of students find their passions, and are always happy to hear from you.
