<p>This may be a little too early to talk about summer 2013, but it's never too early (right?)
I'm a current freshman who's been going to CTY for the past 2 years now but I don't want to continue because: a) I want to go somewhere new and that's selective and b) the cost.<br>
I've been looking at COSMOS, a science program held on UC campuses, and it sounds interesting. Has anyone been there and how was it? What did it take to get in?
I should probably apply to a few other programs too, so I hopefully will get accepted into at least one... Does anyone have anything to say regarding experience, academics, and admissions for: Can/USA Mathcamps, HCSSiM, AwsomeMath, and/or Ross Program??? (these are math camps as most of the science/research programs are closed to rising sophomores.)
And finally, for those in SoCal, are there any good regional programs? I heard JPL has an internship program called spaceship but you have to be 16.</p>
<p>Sorry that was a lot of questions. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>I would suggest applying to HCSSiM. I attended the program after my freshman and sophomore years of high school. While I was one of the youngest students during the first year, it wasn’t a large issue. Here are a couple details about the program:
-about 8 hours a day of math (including lectures and P-set)
-there isn’t any sort of “homework”; all the work is done during structured times
-ultimate frisbee is a big deal
-quiet time is at 11:17 and breakfast is at 8:00 the next morning. My first year there, that was a problem; I needed more time to sleep.
-you get to dabble in many different areas of theoretical mathematics for the first 3 weeks and then pick something to learn more about for the second half.
-there are a bunch of fun outside of class “quasis” you can take. I learned about modular origami during one of my summers there.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience. Even though I attended the program twice, almost everyone there is new each year. (There weren’t any repeats last summer.) </p>
<p>If you have any other questions, feel free to ask me. </p>
<p>Also the application is fun, so why not apply? (Though the application test won’t be ready for a while.)</p>