Intel Science Award (formerly known as the Westinghouse Award) is considered to be the Nobel Prize for students. The award is a fierce competition among all high school students because it is the most honorable and significant.
The state of New York usually has the most number of students that advance to the finals, especially students from the famous Stuyvesant High School, (www.stuy.edu) because they have many geographical advantages that other states do not have. For example, the Rockefeller Medical Research center (www.rockefeller.edu) and New York University medical center provide students with ideal facilities and a superior learning environment. Furthermore, there are many professionals guiding the students during their experiments. In Southern California, Troy High School is famous for its high education standards and active encouragement for students to participate in various science competitions. In addition, many of these students were guided by professor Hu-Ming Tao from Cal State Fullerton and thus received many awards.
This competition was first sponsored by Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1942 until the Intel Corporation took over in 1998. This science award is the oldest and has come to be widely known as the Nobel Prize for students. In the preliminary round judges had to narrow the competition down from the thousands to only 300 contestants. Then the professional judges narrow it down again to 40 in February for the final round. The contestants then headed over to Washington DC for the final round in March. In the final round, each student takes turns to present their projects and thesis to Nobel Prize Winners; the first place winner will receive $100,000, the second place will be awarded $50,000 the third place will be awarded $40,000 and the regional finalists will be awarded $1000 each. So far, many Asian American students have received the awards.
Tips
Due to the limit of time and space, I could not list every competition. Besides the ones mentioned above, there are some other famous competitions such as National Geographic Bee (www.nationalgeographic.com), Scripps National Spelling Bee (www.spellingbee.com), and American Regions (www.arml.com/index.php)