<p>Hi! I'm a Socorro SSP-er '07, woohoo!</p>
<p>Sophomores are definitely not unheard of - my year, I think there were four of us, although I have heard that maybe they're limiting the number a little more.</p>
<p>I can also answer questions about RSI/SSP comparisons; feel free to PM me!</p>
<p>^ welcome to the thread :)</p>
<p>I'm having a mental block on the notable achievement part of the essay. I have a lot of achievements - I just don't feel like writing on any of them.</p>
<p>Anyone else with writer's block?</p>
<p>I have a question for many of the SSPers here: How come SSP is more widely known than more selective programs (like Simons Summer Research Program or YESS at Caltech)? It always seems to be that whenever I talk about top science programs, everyone always say two-- RSI and SSP, even though SSP has roughly a 30%acceptance rate while others like Simons has a 15% admit rate.</p>
<p>soo.. who has yet to start his/her essays?</p>
<p>Me. I have yet to start a single essay. They are due in the office earliest by February 20th right?</p>
<p>Thanks for answering questions; this thread is really helpful. I have a few more if anyone is willing to reply (Sorry these aren't of extreme importance, I'm just curious):</p>
<ol>
<li>How is the food?</li>
<li>How are the dorms?</li>
<li>How is the weather?</li>
<li>Will everyone definitely be sleep-deprived?</li>
</ol>
<p>For Ojai:
1. AMAZINGS:DLFKDJFDSF. When you go home, you'll miss the food there.
2. Not bad, just don't bring unsealed food into your rooms.. Ants.
3. It's really dry, which means hot days and cold nights. You won't realize the temperature during most of the day, because the lecture room, auditorium, computer lab, library- everything's air conditioned. But, the school bus and field trips sometimes aren't. At night, when you go observing (or hiking, though we kind of did that without permission), wear a sweatshirt and sweatpants, or something to that effect. If it rains more than once when you're there, I'll be surprised. And by rain, I mean drizzle for 2 minutes.
4. It's really your choice. The work definitely can be done without becoming sleep-deprived. However, I recommend that you be sleep-deprived, it makes the entire experience that much better.</p>
<p>I know it's more important to show passion for your ECs than have a laundry list, but I do have rather a lot, and I really do enjoy them all. But if I even mention all of them (clubs, interning, track, community service, computer graphics, piano, blah blah blah) I won't have time to really expand on any of them. Should I just cut some out and talk about the ones most important to me?</p>
<p>out of curiosity, how many ssp alums get into MIT/Stanford? are most students the typical "best student in grade" type who get there?
and the thing i'm wondering is, i really want to do a research project over summer, but with ssp, you don't get your own research project, just group, right?</p>
<p>@ kiriante- I talked about a variety of activities I participated in, but mostly focused on science & math activities, and a couple of other activities in which I had notable accomplishments. </p>
<p>@ dashboard- It's a group project, but a lot of students take ideas they get at SSP and continue research along the same lines. </p>
<p>I pm-ed you, dashboard.</p>
<p>For Socorro:</p>
<ol>
<li>Not bad. Not amazing, but you're also kind of too busy to really care. :)</li>
<li>Fine. Cockroaches, but they usually stay outside. Boys were lucky my year because they lived on the second floor, so it wasn't quite such a problem. Same as Ojai - you'll be fine as long as you don't have open food containers. Remember that you are staying in the middle of the desert....</li>
<li>Really really hot during the day, but dry and you're not outside that much during the middle of the day anyway. Lots of freak monsoons, but they're actually really cool, and you kind of get two science camps in one since you end up learning about meteorology too, lol. And they're usually over pretty quickly, so they don't always screw up your observing schedule. Nights are cool, but the observatory retains a lot of heat from the day. ALL of the buildings are air-conditioned.<br></li>
<li>Same as Ojai. If you REALLY wanted to, you could sleep 8 hours a night (just be sure to pick an asteroid that doesn't need to be observed between 1am and 3am). But seriously, you'll be missing out on all the fun. And it builds over time, so it's not like you'll be subsisting on 3 hours of sleep the entire time. For me, the first averaged 6-7 hours, and the last week averaged 2-3 hours a night. With a few all-nighters thrown in for fun. :)</li>
</ol>
<p>Kiriante: I talked about non-math/science activities (I don't have many math/science ECs) throughout the application, not just on the resume questions. I think that gave me the space to explain why they were important to me.
Two random notes:
1. For those worrying about sleep deprivation, you will learn VERY quickly how to nap efficiently, so that'll help a little.
2. Ojai plants have far too many thorns, so you'll want sweatpants/jeans and closed-toed shoes at night even if you're not cold.</p>
<p>@ carboholic:
1. Yeah. You'll figure that you get too much time for lunch and end up napping in the common room (which is right upstairs from the lecture room, so people will wake you up on their way in). :)
2. Well that's if you go hiking, the dome isn't that out of the way. Do go hiking though. If anyone ends up at Ojai, PM me. :D</p>
<p>I can only attend the Ojai one. Would that bring my chances down by a lot or just a little?</p>
<p>^ I'm not sure. I'd say a little - if you're a really strong canidate they won't deny you just for that, but if you're on the edge, it's a little chancier...</p>
<p>For submitting lastest grades, are 1st semester final ones okay? Midterms don't get mailed until like March 10, and I want to apply earlier than that...</p>
<p>hmm, im still trying to figure out how hard it is to get in lol. i mean, of course the admissions stats arent deterring, but considerations of how self-selecting the pool will be is -__-. </p>
<p>i wonder how what the most amazing people who dont get in are like.</p>
<p>2nd page! No, this can't happen, I have to stalk this thread!</p>
<p>One more month until we apply (and, by chance, Sims 3 comes out on the same day). I don't know, I'm kind of nervous but really excited at the same time. I think my scores are as good as they can get for me, my recs will be decent/good, etc., so I just have to worry about showing my passion... and then I'll have to wait. </p>
<p>Another question... for a girl who's used to having friends who are most all also girls, might the camp be awkward?</p>
<p>^agreed with coin's nerves about essays! and also fitting everything I want to say into 250 words each is most definitely a challenge!</p>
<p>I also have a question:
are chances of getting in better for a girl than a boy because the boy-girl ratio is something like 2-1 or less? or does that not affect decisions at all?</p>
<p>I be also curious about possible girl advantage. :)</p>
<p>My science teacher finished my rec today! So just need my math teacher rec, transcript, finish essays and I'm golden.</p>
<p>So what are the minimum PSAT scores to get into SSP as a sophomore (If you have amazing recs, olympiad qualifications, great essays, significant awards, and amazing ECs, but miscopied answers to your PSAT resulting in a low score)?</p>