Application Eligibility
Students who are selected to represent their county or multi-county
regional science fair, listed on the right, will have had their name and
contact information sent to CSEF by the affiliate. Immediately after each
affiliate's lists are received and approved, the following two things
will happen:
- All qualified students will be added to our list of students who are eligible to participate in CSEF.
This includes all members of team projects because every participant must submit
their own CSEF application.
- Each student named on the above list will be individually sent an
email from CSEF (with a Cc: to a parent identified by the affiliated fair)
containing a link which will permit them to submit their application.
Without that link, there is no way to submit an application.
Important: if you know that you have been qualified by your affiliate to
participate as one of their representatives to CSEF but your name is not included on our
list of qualified students more than 24
hours after your fair's Awards Ceremony, contact your fair. CSEF has no information
about any affiliate's qualified students except what their designated contact sends to us.
Deadlines
There are two separate deadlines for each student:
- The deadline by which you must submit your application, and
- The deadline by which you must submit your Project Presentation.
Application Submission Deadline
This is the date by which you must submit your application.
This deadline depends upon your affiliated fair and is given in the table
to the right. This deadline should be easy to satisfy because it takes only a
few minutes to complete the entire application once you have been authenticated
by the application site as being eligible to submit an application.
Project Presentation Deadline
This deadline is two (2) calendar days after your Application Submission
Deadline. This is the date by which you must upload your
Project Presentation
which will serve as your project display during the fair. This document must
be reviewed and approved by the Project Presentation Review (PPR) Committee
before you will be eligible to be interviewed during the Fair, so it is
in your interest to submit it as soon as you can. If your Project
Presentation is disapproved, you will need to revise and resubmit
it.
Important: Submitting a
revised Project Presentation will reset the clock on your
project’s approval because the new document must then also be
approved by the PPR Committee. Therefore, you should not submit an updated
Project Presentation unless it is absolutely necessary, such as by
having your original submission disapproved.
The procedures for qualified projects and for alternates are
different.
DEADLINES AND DECISIONS
The Submission Deadline is the
date by which you should complete the application located on the
Fair’s Web site.
Failure to meet this deadline may result in qualified applicants being
rejected in favor of alternates from the same affiliate.
The Final Submission Deadline
is the last date on which applications may be submitted absent explicit
instructions otherwise. For 2023 the Final Submission Deadline is
Tuesday, March 28.
Submission Deadline
Your Submission Deadline is the date on or before which your
Application should be submitted. Your application will be considered
submitted when you have completed the final page of the application and
pressed its “Submit” button. You will receive confirmation
of receipt of your application via e-mail immediately following its
submission. Within one working day submitted applications will be
acknowledged on the Fair’s Web site. Please note that although
your Application must be submitted through the Fair’s Web site,
all other forms found in this Application Packet (where required) must
be delivered by other means described on those forms.
Applications may continue to be submitted after an affiliate’s
Submission Deadline until the Final Submission Deadline, but will only be
accepted if the affiliate’s allocation has not already been filled
by qualified and alternate projects which were submitted earlier.
Team Projects: While all members of a team must submit their own
individual application (and submit their own ancillary materials below), for
purposes of determining whether the team’s application was submitted
on time or not we will use the earliest Submission Date of any member of the
team. Every other member of the team should still meet the Submission
Deadline but will not be penalized if his/her application is submitted later.
Ancillary Materials
Immediately after completing online applications, students with
qualified projects (N.B., qualified projects only, not
alternates) should send all other required materials to the Fair.
- Send via US Mail or private delivery service:
- Signature Card
- Application Fee
- Send via email to CSEF.SRC@gmail.com:
- Either the CSEF Certification Form or the complete set of ISEF forms. See the
Application Packet for the reasons to select which is appropriate for you.
These ancillary materials must be received in order for your
application to be considered complete. Students with incomplete
applications may be accepted, but will not be allowed to register at
the Fair, set-up their project display, or otherwise participate in the
Fair until all required materials have been received.
Qualified Projects vs. Alternates
It is likely that many, if not most, alternates will not be
accepted. Therefore, even though alternates must meet the same
Submission Deadline as qualified projects, alternates should not pay
the Application Fee after submitting their application. If accepted,
alternates will then be instructed to pay the Application Fee and
submit other ancillary materials which must be received before they will
be allowed to participate in the Fair.
Acceptance Decisions
Applicants from each affiliated fair whose Project Summaries have
passed the PARC (Project Abstract Review Committee) review will be
accepted in the following order:
- All qualified projects submitted on time will be accepted.
- Alternate projects submitted on time will be accepted in the priority
order specified by their affiliated fair until the affiliate’s
allocation has been filled.
- Any projects submitted after the affiliate’s Submission
Deadline will be accepted in order of submission without regard
to their status as qualified or alternate until the
affiliate’s allocation has been filled.