<p>You may be right. Honestly, the only "really amazing" summer program on the radar of most adcoms is RSI. I gave SHARP and SSP about the same weight when I read and voted on applications -- both good for showing interest in science and noticeably impressive if and only if accompanying supporting materials (papers, etc.) showed that something serious was actually done.</p>
<p>Perhaps another reason I think SSP is nontrivial is that their recs were fairly honest. They sometimes note less-than-stellar things about some aspects of their students, but that actually helped those students a lot more than standard sugary recs, because you knew the positive remarks were genuine.</p>
<p>I know people with stellar stats who were rejected from NASA SHARP (and YESS) and actually got in RSI (AltairAqua by both, zogoto by SHARP) and I also know of some pretty mediocre non-black, non-Hispanic people admitted by SHARP. I have a feeling that exceptional applicants may be rejected from NASA SHARP or YESS if they're not minorities because they may discourage the minorities in those same programs. If my hypothesis is true, then you can't merely evaluate programs based on their admission rates. But of course, what matters is what one got out of the program, not how selective it is.</p>
<p>Consider an applicant who didn't do anything terribly academically productive (say, a family vacation for the entire summer). How would that affect his application?</p>
<p>Once you're on campus, you can read the details (Oct-Dec 2005) on the Officers of the Faculty website (oof.caltech.edu, it's restricted to Caltech IPs or a Caltech VPN). Their minutes are quite interesting in looking at what's going on at Caltech from a faculty perspective.</p>
<p>umm on this minority issue...I feel (I am an Indian btw so i dont come into the equation) but i feel that it was once ok to ya know start like programs for the minorities and all but now when i check many good research programs, scholarships etc...i really dont see that much for the white kids infact...i mean there will be programs like totally for minorities and then there'd be few which are for everyone and in those also in an unofficial way they like keep 10-15% minority too...i dont get whats the deal with that...I mean i think every white kid mustn't be eating gold in the US..</p>
<p>I did the FSI program, the Freshman Summer Institute for "may contain traces of minority" incoming frosh at Caltech. None of the FSI kids that year were disadvantaged, and it seemed like the program resources could have been better used by allocating slots to students with no research experience, or students whose preparation for Caltech was marginal, rather than on the basis of ethnicity. I know people who could have benefitted at least as much as I did from FSI but never got the chance.</p>
<p>Although typical Caltech students has high SAT score. Caltech is not a SAT type of place. Admission is decided by Freshman Admission Committee, which currently include 17 faculty members and several student members plus Director of Undergraduate Admission who serve as ex officio member. They examine each student carefully and individually. It is an unique process.</p>
<p>"I did the FSI program, the Freshman Summer Institute for 'may contain traces of minority' incoming frosh at Caltech. None of the FSI kids that year were disadvantaged, and it seemed like the program resources could have been better used by allocating slots to students with no research experience, or students whose preparation for Caltech was marginal, rather than on the basis of ethnicity. I know people who could have benefitted at least as much as I did from FSI but never got the chance."</p>
<p>I know this is old, but here here! I was one of those students--a good old European-American, but no one from my high school had ever gone to Caltech before and I had no real research experience or college classes or anything. Caltech work kicked my butt even more than most, I think, at least for the first year or two. Some of the FSI kids had gone to TJ and places like that... this was really a notable departure from the color-blindness that in general impressed me about Caltech.</p>
<p>I was an instructor in an early incarnation of the FSI and I agree with these comments. This was a disturbing departure from Caltech's usual policy of indifference to race/minority status.</p>
<p>Having said that, I considered the original idea to be a better than normal compromise. Accept only students who were suited for Tech (without the usual AA standard lowering) but who were not necessarily well prepared because of their backgrounds, then give them extra tutoring before school begins. Several of the students whom I taught were at that level. However, this business with FSI kids from TJ! Ouch. From everything I hear there is plenty of pressure on Caltech to adjust its procedures (for the worse) in this and on other margins.</p>