<p>From the UC's. Your opinions on it? Have any of you done it?</p>
<p>My daughter did Cosmos at Davis last year. She loved it.</p>
<p>i've done it. I would highly recommend the Physics cluster at UCSC. Overall I found that it wasn't very rigorous and if you didn't want to do much work you could sit back and not really get as much out of the experience. but at the same time, the professors are there for you and really enjoy what they're doing and you can learn a great deal about stuff that you would NEVER cover in a normal high school setting. Also, if possible I would really look into the clusters you are interested in before decided to apply to that one. It seemed to me that some clusters might have seemed interesting, but in actuality were very boring (i.e. the robotics cluster just used prebuilt kits to do their projects, and the astronomy cluster just did the same project that their cluster has been doing for years). i would highly recommend cosmos though, especially for someone who is doing a residential camp for the first time. and younger people should really apply too.</p>
<p>I hate asking this question, but out of curiosity is it "prestigious" at all?</p>
<p>well overall i wouldn't say COSMOS is very prestigious... i mean it's at 4 different campuses with around 9 clusters of 20 people each, so there are a lot of open slots. on the other hand, there are certain clusters that are somewhat difficult to get into and many people don't get to go to their first choice, for example my professor told us that there were about 70 "qualified" candidates that they choose the eventual 19 from. you will also get to work with people who are quite well known as well (heads of department at the college, one of the professors helped found SLAC, etc).</p>
<p>is it good for Biology?</p>
<p>My D did COSMOS last year and LOVED it. She's going to try to go again but they give preference to 1st timers. She was in the Marine Biology cluster at Davis. Good Luck.</p>