Hi guys! I’m currently a sophomore and just got admitted into COSMOS UCI for cluster 1 yesterday. I’m debating whether or not attending the camp is worthwhile enough to justify the tuition so feel free to provide some of your opinions on this matter. Also, this forum in general can be used as a discussion platform between COSMOS applicants, not just COSMOS UCI applicants.
I attended COSMOS at UCD last summer, and I highly recommend it. The academic aspect is amazing, as you’re seriously immersed in the subject you love for a month. You’re surrounded by other passionate high school students. The friends I made there are the most interesting people I’ve ever met, and I still talk to them now. You learn independence and what college life can be like. I looked up your cluster (Mimicking Natural Protein Protein Interactions to Target Cancer and Other Diseases), and it sounds very interesting.
If you’re interested in applying to a UC school in the future, going to COSMOS is a known boost for admission. The completion of a research project will also be a bonus on college apps, and if you live near UCI, you could try asking the professors if you could continue research in their lab during the school year.
This program changed my life, so if you can make it work, and you truly enjoy the cluster, I would definitely encourage you to do it. However, if the tuition is too much for your family, that’s 100% okay. There’s other ways to spend your summer. You could study for the SAT/ACT so you don’t have to worry about taking them later on, or get a job. You could try emailing professors for internships (if you’re not 16 yet, that could potentially pose a problem for bio research). You could take a community college or online course.
You have lots of options, but there’s nothing compared to spending summer doing what you love, surrounded by people like you! If you (or anyone else) has any more questions, I’d be happy to answer them 
@phaseshift Thanks for the input, my parents also suggested to me about emailing professors for internships so I’ll look into that.
@cchang402 Hey there! I just got into COSMOS UCI cluster 4, and from what I’ve heard from friends who’ve done it, it is a great experience that helped them realize how much they wanted to go into science! If the amount of financial aid you received is a problem, I’ve heard of people appealing the financial aid decisions, so you could try that to help with tuition.