Saw that there was not a thread for this yet.
Is there anyone applying to this program? If so, what year are you and what other programs are you looking to apply to? What discipline of research are you choosing for this?
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Do you need extensive research exp to apply to this program?
@Anonymousia no idea, I plan on applying but have little info
Hi everyone! Iām a prior SSP ā18 alum (along with @jeffrandell and @runnin3bio ) and am happy to answer any questions you guys have! Honestly SSP was the best experience Iāve ever had, and it was a real privilege to meet so many amazing people and do such fascinating science, so I would 100% recommend applying even though the application is extensive.
@Anonymousia Most people I met in the program (high schoolers included) had prior research experience, but that really varies mentor to mentor; the PIs have the final say and some are more willing to take people without it than others. I personally did, but thereās no formula, and it doesnāt have to be related to the discipline youāre applying to do research in.
@sciencegal123 Do you happen to know which PIās are more likely to accept students without prior research experience?
@4729562 It honestly will vary depending on each mentorās applicant pool that year. I canāt think of any mentors off the top of my head, but I would recommend applying to labs whose research you are interested in, not the labs you think are more likely to accept people without experience. Remember, not all labs are able to host a summer student every year for various reasons, even if they have in the past (PI is on vacation for a month in the middle of the summer, etc). Itās painfully obvious to the people reading the application when someone is just doing it for the prestige or perceived āstatusā of the lab, and I know I got in because I was truly passionate about the research of the labs I applied to! Just go with what seems interesting!
@sciencegal123, @jeffrandell @runnin3bio - thanks for answering the questions. Do you know if there are any mentors that are doing computational/mathematical aspects of biology research. Did you come across any kids at JL who are more into math but used their math/programming skills to do some biology oriented research.
The list of mentors has some listed with computational biology - but looking into their publications, got the impression that they are more into biology side of it rather than math/computational side of the problems. I am more interested in applied math/CS - and thought of JL SSP assuming there must be some mentors interested in math/computational kids with enough background in biology to apply math/cs skills - your thoughts/tips on this. I am just wondering if itās even worth applying - I have some research experience in using math/algorithmic approach to solving some generic non/biology problems + AP Biology in high school. TIA.
@hs2020kid We definitely had some students that were more CS oriented than biology oriented that did bioinformatics (I know one person who hadnāt taken more biology than freshman bio, but was absolutely brilliant on the CS/AI side that was a part of the program). Jax is more applied bioinformatics in my experience, but the comp bio kids have a pretty good amount of leeway in tailoring their projects to fit their interests, so you could likely make it more theoretical if you wanted. @jeffrandell could speak to that better than I could - I donāt want to out him so Iāll let him talk about his experience, but his background sounds similar to yours. If you looked through the website/publications and didnāt find anything that sounded cool, this might not be the right program for you, but if it were me, I would apply and make the decision if accepted!
is it true that high schoolers can only apply to the bar harbor location? thanks!
hey is there any other programs like this I am current high school senior
@sciencegal123 Is it fine if my two letters of recommendation are from the same content areas like biology
Since IB biology hl course is taken over two years with two different teachers
@helllpppp Yes, high schoolers can only apply to a Bar Harbor this year, though this wasnāt the case in past years. Iām guessing itās supervision - there are simply more people that can keep track of the minors.
@anonymous522083 Having multiple letters of rec from bio should not be an issue. I know I did, and considering Jax is a bio-focused program (with bio PIs eventually reading your application), both letters will be quite relevant.
@sciencegal123 Thanks for answering so many questions on this thread! I wanted to know if, in your experience, itās acceptable to list three labs/mentors with fairly different research interests (for ex: bioinformatics, developmental disorders, eye research, etc), as Iām interested in applying my skills to a lot of different disciplines? Also, with only 1800 characters to explain research rankings, how would we express interest in conducting a specific project at each lab? I want to include a more detailed research proposal, but Iām finding it really difficult to fit my responses into the 1800/3000 character limits, and I donāt want to bother the mentors by emailing them pdfs hahaā¦so Iām guessing theyāre not looking for very in-depth project proposals until we are actually accepted?
@starryfire Thereās definitely people who get in who list very different fields (I know my roommate did), but I think that people who have a focus in one area may be preferred by certain mentors; my mentor told me that I was partially chosen due to my specific interest in the subject the lab studied. I didnāt have 100% relevant experience, but I did have a passion that came through in my application. Remember this is the experience of one person, and there are like 100+ mentors at Jax, so I canāt claim my experiences represent the whole program.
I also found the research ranking statement to be super-short. You donāt need to have a proposal for what youāre going to do, just a belief that what that particular lab does is interesting. I probably had 1-2 sentences for each lab, and a short paragraph describing why I was fascinated by the particular area all the labs did research in; an example for a āparticular areaā would be cancer biology, or bioinformatics, but Iām not mentioning mine because that would immediately identify me 
I didnāt even end up working on the research project I mentioned in my application, which I think is pretty common. Also, you donāt have to have a proposal until 1-2 weeks into the program, and that proposal is written with your mentor once you arrive in Maine or Connecticut. There are other programs (like the NIH one) that want this much sooner, but Jax is very relaxed, which is super nice.
Finally, to everyone reading this, please DO NOT email mentors before youāre accepted. They will likely ignore it, itās annoying since the program gets around 1000 applications, and Iām pretty sure it says not to on the website. I never emailed my mentor and still I got accepted.
which location is the best @sciencegal
Another math/CS oriented guy, who wants to apply these skills to bio problems, here. Submitted my app yesterday. Itāll definitely be interesting to see what happens!