@afatperson Based on your math experience, I would recommend you apply to the UC Davis Mathematics cluster as your first choice. Your awards and experience will definitely help your application and it is obvious you have a genuine interest in mathematics.
Do the emails for recommendations get sent to teachers as soon as you give their emails in the application?
I was wondering which is more competitive:
UCSC Machine Learning or UCSC Video Games?
I have a passion in computer science and puzzles but Iâm also an active gamer and both seem equally amazing to me.
Anyone applying in UCSC Cluster 3: Blubber, Feathers, and Fur: Exploring Animals in the Ocean and on Land?
Any suggestions?
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Just want to remind everyone not to worry so much about competitiveness. Just pick whichever youâre interested in, and your passion will show.
@vidushimittal42 @afatper and for anyone else thatâs interested in applying for UCD C3 (Introduction to Engineering Mechanics), be aware that I am fairly sure that everyone in that cluster last year was a rising senior, and all but one had taken calculus. Donât let that deter you, but if you donât fit either of those criteria (especially calculusâvery important for that cluster), and you donât get in as a freshman/sophomore, reapply the next year!
@Spectralnight they will see that youâre in accelerated math by looking at your transcript; no need to note it elsewhere.
@holdmypencil123 Thanks for the input! Anyone else have any suggestions?
Whatâs the difference of UCI Cluster 2 (Computation and Machine Learning) and UCSC Cluster 9 (Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing)? Content, competitiveness?
Anyone been to UCI Cluster 5: Sound for virtual reality: An exploration of 3D sound and movement using mobile devices and wearable sensors? Is it more computer related or music related cluster?
@awesomeprick Hello, I attended UCI Cluster 5 this past summer. It is more computer and ios app related than music. You will be using recording equipment and learning about sound, but the large part of the cluster is creating an ios app and putting those sounds into it. And to answer your previous question, UCI Cluster 2 is new this year so people donât know yet. It used to be about probability.
@6565656 I believe that UCI cluster 7 is new this year, so I canât say how competitive it is but I would expect it to be seeing as how bio is generally a hard subject to get into. However, your ECâs look very solid so make sure to show your interest in your essays and try to get letters of rec from teachers who know you and I think youâll have a fairly good chance. Good luck!
Teacher reference is no longer needed! Is that a Pro or Con?
@Spectralnight Yeah! Thatâs crazy! I feel like recommendations are a huge part of the application!
IMO itâs a con because if youâre letters were good, u wouldâve gotten that extra boost that you couldnât get from the essays
@phaseshift Do not worry, I have taken AP Calc BC and AP Physics already.
Does anyone know about how much freedom you have on each campus? One of my friends who previously attended told me that campuses differed in the amount of freedom offered.
Also, we donât need teacher recs now?
I sent my teacher recommendations right before the notification came out that they werenât needed(like 30 mins before?) Does anyone know if the teacher is notified of this? Should I talk to my teachers about thr cancellation?
At the end of the camp, will students complete a project then make presentation? Do they have a chance to publish a paper? @GoBears2023
@afatperson awesome! Then you are well prepared for any of the clusters you listed before.
I believe that you are offered the most freedom at Davis. We followed the buddy system, so as long as we had another COSMOS student or staff member with us, we could go anywhere on campus and into downtown Davis. There was a limit as to how far into Davis we could go, but my friends and I never even thought about it, as everything we needed (farmerâs market, ice cream, boba, thai food, coffee, pizza, etc) was well within the boundaries. The only time you didnât need a buddy was if you were in the general vicinity of the dorms.
I know that at UCSD you cannot leave the campus, and itâs probably the same for UCI and UCSC. Davis is unique because it really is a safe, beautiful, small town, so we were given a LOT of freedom.
@clayrber you should definitely talk to your teachers. Thank them for agreeing to write you a letter of recommendation, even though it is no longer needed.
@awesomeprick it really depends on the cluster, but as far as I know, itâs highly unlikely youâll write a paper at all, let alone one prepared for publication. There was one cluster at Davis that wrote a paper last year, but that cluster has since been replaced. Most clusters have group projects, a few are individual. Some clusters arenât necessarily doing research so much as showing what they learned. In my cluster, we completed research projects in pairs or small groups, but the individual data varied, so everyone was able to have their own project and poster.
@phaseshift Thanks. If this is not a research camp, what can be highlighted in the resume about the experience from the camp?
Is it possible that the professors from two different clusters read both essays? I might use some similar verbiage in my two essays.
@awesomeprick
You will be given some type of project to complete at the culmination of the program. As for publishing a paper, highly unlikely because papers that are published take months for preparation (i know from experience). However, you might be able to publish a paper if you continue researching with the professor that taught you. IDK but i donât know of anyone from previous years of COSMOS who was able to continue their research since the professors COSMOS has a really top-tier and donât have time to mentor / teach people that are not even in college.