<p>didn't see a thread for 2012, would like to collect the stats for this summer program:</p>
<p>Secondary Student Training Program (SSTP) / Belin-Blank Center Summer Programs -
The</a> Connie Belin & Jacqueline N. Blank Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development</p>
<p>I just got notified that I was accepted–but it seems like not enough people applied, since they extended the deadline…
On another note, what should I do if I’m waiting to see if a different program accepted me? Is there a deadline to say if you’re attending or not?</p>
<p>I guess I’m stupid for asking, but what are stats?</p>
<p>If you don’t mind me asking, could you guys please post when you submitted your applications? </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Somewhere around February 20</p>
<p>re: stats - sorry for not being clear, there is no stupid question.
can everyone please post your status here in terms of:
in/out state (of Iowa) -
current grade sophomore/junior -
GPA -
others -</p>
<p>BTW, I am a mother, and I post for my son who is too busy (with his sports game) to post on the board (and he would like to know who will be going). His stats:
-out state
-sophomore
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Sophomore
out of state
gpa 4.0 unweighted and my school doesn’t weight 
other: A bunch of random, insignificant extracurriculars… </p>
<p>just wondering, how do you get a 4.35 gpa unweighted?</p>
<p>Accepted! Some good news after the longest chain of rejection emails >.></p>
<p>Sophomore, out of state
UW GPA 4.0
PSAT 217, PLAN 30
Did some research at hospital
Good recommendation letters from research head and bio teacher
Science fair stuff
Other nonessential ECs</p>
<p>Does anyone know how much credit costs? And also, if you’re accepted, that means you DO get to go, right? Because they said “We will be confirming all research lab placements by April 6th. Once you have been matched, we will email you with your lab placement.” But it’s not like you’ll end up NOT being matched with a lab, right?</p>
<p>typo above, and repost:
-out of state
-sophomore
<p>Just got acceptance letter too… GPA 4.05, California Sophomore
How is this program compared to Stanford SIMR and UCD YSP ??
How would you rank them ?? Thanks</p>
<p>Credit is $1000 for 3 units. So I guess we just sit and wait for lab placements. What about payment Due ??</p>
<p>
Credit costs about $1000, according to the website.</p>
<p>
I’m wondering the same thing…</p>
<p>Copypasta from the thread just below this one, since I think it’s a better idea to put it here. I went to SSTP last year, and this was my experience:</p>
<p>“Student Life” - Most people will be in a double, though there were one or two triples. Pretty standard rooms. The WiFi is a little iffy but it’s sufficient. Bring your laptop if you want. (My year, a lot of the guys played Warcraft, League of Legends, etc.) Food is OK, not particularly interesting. You can wander around in the general area, so you can buy stuff or eat at a restaurant at the local shopping center, and you can also make use of athletic facilities. (I’m not an active guy, so I’m not the one to ask about this. :P) Our RAs (counselors) occasionally take us all out to eat ice cream/froyo, go shopping, or other sorts of entertainment.</p>
<p>Research - There’s a list of research areas on the website somewhere. An email will come asking you to fill out your top three research areas at some point. I don’t think a lot of us knew much about our research topics beforehand, so don’t be afraid to choose a field you’re interested in, regardless of your background. (I made the mistake of choosing Physics/Astronomy as my first choice when I actually wanted to do Computer Science, because I had a lot more experience in physics than in CS.)</p>
<p>The professor already has a project in mind for you. The professor and assistants (usually grad students, though one of my main advisers was an undergrad) who work with you will guide you as necessary so that you can complete the project. You work on an abstract and poster which summarize the motivation for the project, your procedure, and your analysis of the results. On the last day, you and the other students participate in a poster session where you stand in front of your poster and explain/present your project to whoever asks. Faculty and TAs/grad students (as well as the students’ parents, of course) are invited to come, and they’re usually fairly interested in the projects.</p>
<p>My lab partner and I didn’t write a research paper; I’m not sure about other people. My project ended up showing that our method for the problem we were attacking didn’t work, so it wasn’t really something I could submit to Intel/Siemens.</p>
<p>If you have any more questions, ask away (though I can’t guarantee I’ll remember to check this thread :P).</p>
<p>@ energize: Thanks, that was really helpful!
I have quite a few questions, but I’ll just ask the ones I can think of right now.</p>
<p>Regarding the research projects: Did most people get their first choice for field of research? What were their topics in general? Did most people work in groups with other students, or were most of the projects individual? How sophisticated/complex were these projects, and do you feel like you went into a lot of depth about your topic? (Do you feel like you learned a lot of useful information?) Did anyone submit their project to any science competitions?</p>
<p>Do you think SSTP was worth the cost and time; do you have any regrets about it, such as do you wish you’d done another summer program instead? Did the quality of research, things learned, and the overall program meet your expectations?</p>
<p>I have some of the same questions as archaic does above me.</p>
<p>I guess my main concern with Iowa SSTP is the research quality and experience. How challenging was SSTP’s research portion, and was it conducted in student groups/pairs or individually? Do you (energize) know if anyone submitted their projects and fared well at Intel/Siemens? (Of course, that’s not my main concern, but I thought I’d ask anyway :P.)</p>
<p>Also, is it possible to decline your acceptance AFTER you’ve been placed into a lab? I’m pretty intent on doing physical/inorganic chemistry or physics, and I think I’d rather go to another professor for independent research if I don’t get placed into one of those labs xP.</p>
<p>Oh, and does anyone know how this program compares to the RISE Internship program at Boston University? </p>
<p>Thanks :D!</p>
<p>Some more questions hehehe…</p>
<p>How beneficial was SSTP for you? In terms of experience, skills learned, a boost in college apps and internship/job/program apps, etc?</p>
<p>How flexible was your schedule every day? Did you have to arrive at your lab and stay x hours each day, or did it vary from day to day?</p>
<p>If you could, would you attend SSTP again?</p>
<p>How many people went to SSTP last year? (~20?) Do you know how selective SSTP was last year? Were last year’s SSTP participants pretty similar, in terms of academic performance, extracurriculars, locations (from certain states?), personalities, etc…</p>
<p>A lot to answer!</p>
<p>
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<p>I feel that most people got their first choice field. Most projects were related to biology or medicine, but we did have two people in biophysics and two in astronomy - my project was the astronomy one. The projects were split about evenly between one person and pairs. I don’t think anyone worked in a group of three. These were pretty complex topics, and we definitely went into depth; the research papers we read were the same ones that our professors wrote or referred to. The work was challenging, but not impossibly difficult. I’m not sure if anyone submitted to science fairs.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think you should be able to. Last year, our lab placements and decisions came at just about the same time, so I’m not sure. You should be able to at least be placed in a physics lab, since us physics/astro people were a small proportion of the students.</p>
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<p>I’m not entirely sure that SSTP was worth the cost, but it was definitely worth my time! The program met and exceeded my expectations, but I’m not sure it’s worth paying $4000 (or more?) for. I would probably apply to more math programs like Mathcamp or PROMYS, because they were closer to my interests than physics, or I would have picked computer science as my first choice at SSTP. But I’m pretty satisfied with having done astronomy research.</p>
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<p>I haven’t gotten most of my college decisions back yet except for my safeties, and I haven’t applied to internships etc. yet, so I can’t help you there. I was pretty happy with the program because I was able to be directly involved in advancing science using high-quality equipment and I learned a lot about how research works. I wrote a bit about this in my college applications:</p>
<p>
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<p>Not my best writing, but you get the gist, right? :)</p>
<p>
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<p>It was pretty flexible, considering that we were supposed to get to our lab at 9, but our assistant guy usually didn’t come around until 10. 
(We were supposed to get keys to the lab, but we never ended up getting them…) Usually, people work 9 to 3 (with a lunch break, of course), but they’re not really strict about it, as long as you’re in the general area near your research mentor’s building or the dorms. After 3, it’s usually pretty much free time for the rest of the day - there are some instances of mandatory fun, however, as is customary for summer programs.</p>
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<p>Ignoring the cost and switching to computer science, definitely. (Though my astro project was pretty interesting too!) Now that we’re going to start paying college tuition, my parents would probably be unwilling to pay >$4k for this, though.</p>
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<p>28, if I counted correctly. I don’t know how selective it was, and I’m not sure if they told us anything about that. Our academic performance was pretty similar, as you might expect at a math/science program, but our ECs were all over the place. Our personalities were pretty varied as well. We had a lot of people from Iowa (expected) and 3 people from my CA school, but otherwise, we were mostly from the coasts, with a few non-Iowa midwesterners mixed in.</p>
<p>energize, thank you <em>very</em> much for sharing your SSTP experience that certainly helps a lot! Best!</p>
<p>Energize, thanks for the very useful info! I got accepted. My stats: out of state
Uw 3.9
Weighted: 4.2
PSAT: 237
3 AP so far, doing 3 more at the moment</p>
<p>Hi there,</p>
<p>More stats here…</p>
<p>How many of you are boy and how many gals ?? Where’re you coming from ??
And what field did you pick ??
Any one a HS sophmore ??</p>
<p>Thanks !!</p>
<p>Just found some webpages about SSTP
here is one that went to SSTP years ago and now she is working on her PhD.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.geron.org/Membership/member-spotlight/1106[/url]”>http://www.geron.org/Membership/member-spotlight/1106</a></p>
<p>And this program is recommended on MIT’s website, <a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/juniors_mit_and_other_summer_p[/url]”>http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/juniors_mit_and_other_summer_p</a></p>