Clark Scholars Program vs SSP
I have been accepted to both the Clark Scholars Program at Texas Tech University and SSP. This is what I’m considering right now:
Clark Pros:
• 1-on-1 mentorship
• Independent research project that can be used for competitions like Regeneron
• Lower acceptance rate (12 / 700 = ~2%) vs SSP (~180/1800 = 10%)
SSP Pros:
• Established high rate of acceptance to HYPSM (~50%), MIT in particular
Cost is not an issue for me, and because both are virtual this year, location is not an issue either. Which one is more prestigious / better for colleges?
Purely for college admissions, SSP is in a tier of its own. RSI and TASP are the only 2 other such programs. I know Clark is free and in fact you get a stipend, but SSP has real connections with admissions at many of these universities. Clark is just so small that many AOs don’t even know what it is because they’ve never seen a Clark Scholar’s app before.
Also, may I ask when you got accepted to Clark and how (ie email, phone, mail, etc) and when you have to commit/decline your offer by?
Hey, I am in the same boat this year, with a similar pro/cons lists. What did you end up picking, and do you think it was the right choice?
1 Like
Wdym
Clark results have not come out
I was contacted personally, though I think the admissions might be rolling/not everybody’s has come out.
was it by email or phone call?
wait i meant *when were u contacted and how much time do u have to commit? (for clark)
I got a call, and they didn’t give a specific time to commit, just kind of an asap thing.
1 Like
ok thx! do u remember which day u got the call?
@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!
1 Like
@chocolateshrimpjuice Thank you so much, that’s definitely good to know! @SavedKarma I did end up committing to Clark:)
yay, I’ll see you there this summer!
I still have not received anything from them.
I already know what’s coming, but I’m just a little disappointed that they did not even respond.
Because I know other people who got rejected.
It’s probably just my app was so bad they did not even want to bother with sending an email.
Congrats though to anyone who got in!!
Hey! I didn’t get a follow up email either 
Do you know if it was bc our application was incomplete or for some reason wasn’t considered?
@SavedKarma yay exciting!! @David_D I doubt it. The most reasonable explanation to me is that they haven’t decided everyone yet, and you’re still in the running, but I don’t really know anything about it. I’m assuming they’ll send you some update eventually!
I was wondering the same, but I think bookbutterfly8 is probably right. Let’s see what happens!
2 Likes
Based on your stats I would think that the exact opposite is true… you are an extremely qualified applicant, so maybe they are still deciding on who to reject and accept.
2 Likes
also, are you saying that you know people who got rejection emails?
1 Like