let's say there was a online research program, year-long, that was offered to help kids specifically get into high level competitions like isef, jshs, sts, etc. they're taught by actual teachers who have experience working with kids doing research, they'll teach you everything about cold emailing, writing a paper, preparing a presentation, etc. basically rishabs videos except maybe more specific/applicable/critical...but it costs around $1,000. is it worth it? knowing that majority of the students will make jshs, isef, etc.?

Sophomore here debating on self studying for AP CSA or AP Stats. I have some previous experience with Python and AI/ML, but have zero knowledge in Java and am generally bad at math. I plan on taking Calc BC next year, so don't know if I wanna do Stats next year on top of that, and I definitely don't wanna take Stats senior year. In terms of difficulty/time, which is harder to self study, CSA or Stats? Is it feasible to study both at the same time?

Sophomore here wanting to self-study CSA or CSP. Know the basics of programming, familiar with Python, JS, and C, did a few ML projects in the past, but nothing too crazy. I know absolutely nothing about Java though, and looking at the CSA syllabus, some of the content seems a bit daunting. Time commitment isn't an issue for me, I just want to see which one is potentially easier/better to self study, or if I should self study at all, and instead just take the class in school next year (for some reason I didn't take it this year 💀)

Incoming sophomore here with ~2 years of experience in VEX Robotics at my local school. I also do research and stem fairs as sort of my "main" ec and have attended fairs like NJSHS and a few others. I've been thinking about continuing robotics for the upcoming years by creating my own VEX team (transition from school to private team), and possibly also join a friend's FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) team, so essentially I'll compete in 2 robotics teams and essentially have 2x the amount of work as opposed to just competing in one team, under one organization. But now I'm not sure whether or not robotics is even worth it on a college resume when I plan on continuing research. I'm hoping to make fairs like ISEF and publish peer-reviewed papers, and I'm just not sure that doing FTC or VEX (even if I make worlds) will stack up to that in terms of prestige. Will colleges hold making worlds for robotics and making a fair like ISEF in the same regard? Considering I'll probably spend the same amount of time and possibly more on robotics, I want to make sure it's as prestigious enough as creating a science project and presenting it at high-level symposia.

So I chose some really bad classes next year and I don’t know what to do (for context I go to a public HS with ~650 class size that offers some APs). There are 3 classes I REALLY wanna take: AP Stats, AP CSA, and PLTW: Principles of Engineering (my school offers some PLTW courses, and it’s an honors weighted grade). The problem now is next year I’m scheduled to take AP Environmental Science, which now I really regret haven chosen. I emailed my counselor a week ago to switch me to stats, but he hasn’t responded and it’s probably too late now given its summer. I’m looking to also do some research projects this year involving ML and robotics, which is why I want to take stats and POE (although since POE isn’t an AP class I don’t rlly wanna prioritize it over stats) I really want to just take stats next year. CSA would also be great since I have some programming knowledge already but I don’t have any spots left, so I’d have to take that junior or senior year. I could also drop my language class that I’m taking next year too since I’m self studying for the AP test for that anyways. Although that would mean throughout high school, I only took one year of language (last year). Idk if that’s a good choice. But if I do drop it, I could take POE or CSA. For now I just really want stats to replace APES but I don’t know how else to go about this. When should I take which class?