Clark Scholars Program @ Texas Tech vs Summer Science Program (SSP)

@books4life2021 I got my Clark results around April 19th of last year (2021).

I ended up going with Clark because I wanted to do my own independent research project instead of working with other students on SSP’s pre-planned ones. I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with SSP either, and I think the social aspect is emphasized a lot more in SSP than Clark because there was basically no social interaction between me and the other campers during the virtual Clark campers, while I heard from my friends that they were able to meet a lot of people through SSP. Clark was the first time that I really felt challenged, but it was the kind of challenge that would keep you up every night for a month trying to complete the project (a good thing). I’m sure that the in-person Clark programs would be a lot more fun though, and if both program are in-person this summer, I’d definitely still choose Clark.

I do know that SSP is sometimes seen as a Caltech / MIT feeder though, and I’m not sure if going to SSP would’ve affected my Caltech results (I got rejected from Caltech, accepted into MIT). Choosing between SSP and Clark, I definitely thought a lot about whether I’d choose the “safety” of SSP’s name over Clark’s intellectual development potential, but now I’m overall happy with my choice and my results. Hope that helps!

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