<li>grades</li>
<li>test scores</li>
<li><em>some</em> ask for activities</li>
<li>essay</li>
<li>recs</li>
</ol>
<p>One or two essays isn’t going to say much, plus they totally deemphasize stats. So if stats don’t matter and very few ask for extracurricular activities, the essay and the recs are the deciding factors? I personally don’t think that essays say much–for example, despite what you all say, I can churn out a very convincing, inspirational, personal essay about gecko racing in antarctica if i just do some research.</p>
<p>i'm rather partial to the personal statement, that seems to be the essay that i feel confident about when sending out. my acceptances to summer programs so far have basically relied on the personal statement, imo.</p>
<p>Well, for a certain program, although they say they accept a handful of sophomores, I have yet to see proof of such a statement. So certainly age/grade is a factor in summer program admissions. Especially for TASP and RSI which are specifically juniors only.</p>
<p>narcissa, ur everywhere--all the threads and posts, I always see ur name.lol. did u take ur name from Narcissa in Harry Potter book? I used to live in Florham Park, NJ. ( i live in Connecticut now) where do u live?</p>
<p>Idk about admission thing. but some summer programs might emphasize one thing over another, like Carnegie Mellon Diversity Program might look more at essays and recs than MIT would look at stats, etc.</p>