RSI or stick with local research for junior summer
so i qualified for AIME this year and got an honors mention at USAMO, which is cool but honestly everyone at my school does that stuff. thinking about summer plans now and RSI keeps coming up. the issue is i already have a solid research thing lined up locally (computational geometry, professor i know, unpaid but legit). it's 8 weeks starting mid-June.
RSI is obviously the name on paper. but the timing overlaps and i'd have to bail on the local thing. also i'm not sure if RSI actually moves the needle for schools that already see a ton of math competition kids from the Bay. plus it costs money and the local research is free.
is it worth the switch or should i just go deep on one thing and do something different sophomore summer. tbh i feel like i'm overthinking this but also don't want to waste a summer on the wrong call.
#summer#research#11th-grade#extracurriculars
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honestly the local research is the move here. you already have a PI who knows you, 8 weeks of continuity, and something publishable-adjacent in a field that's actually harder to demonstrate depth in than math comps. RSI is prestigious but every T20 sees it from your area and it doesn't beat "second author on a geometry paper" which is what you're actually building toward.