<p>Do you have to be nominated to apply to TASP?</p>
<p>1) what is the living situation at TASP?
2) is there ever an opportunity to go home on weekends if you live close by?
3) is the workload enlightening or deadening? </p>
<p>thx....</p>
<p>Nope. As long as you think you've got the stuff you can just apply through the website. Generally, the Telluride Association mails people who are in the top 1% of PSAT scores, but you can just go ahead and apply online without being mailed.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The living situation. You're living with 15 other super awesome and super smart kids for 6 weeks. If you're at Cornell, you're living with 31 other amazing people. Plus, you have your factotum, and sometimes housemembers that act as assistants if you're at Cornell or UMich (the TASPs are held at the branch houses in those two universities). The ones at WashU and UT are held in sorority houses. You have to share bathrooms, whee! At Cornell, there was one bathroom for every two rooms ( = 4 students). There were also other bathrooms on other floors, if you needed them. There are varying facilities, but all are great; just depends where you go.</p></li>
<li><p>Ummmmm. I don't think so. </p></li>
<li><p>It's enlightening! Deadening if you go to a TASP whose topic you totally despise, but I doubt that would happen. People always make things fun and interesting, anyway.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I hear there are hundreds of pages to be read each night. How fast do you guys read anyways? lol</p>
<p>Well, you decide if you do the readings or not. ;P That's one of the issues with self-governance and that's exactly how college works. No mommy to tell you READ, HONEY. haha, at my TASP, after the first week, it all went downhill (Cornell II, not Cornell I). A bunch of us stopped reading everything, lmao. However, reading stimulates class discussion and we only got away with that because our factota were lenient and the seminar was about medieval lit.</p>
<p>Try to strike a balance between studying and socializing, but when it comes down to the wire, you should always sacrifice studying 'cause the memories are the ones that will stay with you. The times you hung out and stayed up talking til' 4 AM weigh more than the question you made during seminar. Generally, anyway. ^^ </p>
<p>But yes, there's lots of reading. It varies from seminar to seminar, though. About 100 pages? Sounds more or less right. Remember that you have a ton of time to read, though. Seminar's over at around 12 and then it's lunch. Free time til' dinner which is at 6. Then free time til' housemeetings/pubspeaks which are at 8 or so (you guys set the time).</p>
<p>TASP is "the most glorious sleep deprivation of your life" so forget about sleeping. :P</p>
<p>Oh! P.S. I found this online. Very accurate, though the number of applicants has gone up from 600 to around 1,000, lol.</p>
<p>[start quote]
TASP stands for Telluride Association Summer Program. If you are an intellectual high-school junior, it is heaven on earth.</p>
<p>First of all, the Telluride Association was founded by L. L. Nunn, a filthy rich white man. Therefore, Telluride is also filthy rich. Out of the goodness of its heart, it puts a bunch of smart and smart-ass teenagers together for six weeks in the summer before their senior year.</p>
<p>How do I apply?</p>
<p>You must be sent an application. This happens in one of two ways: Either you score really, really high on the PSAT/NMSQT, or a friendly teacher, counselor, or TASP alumnus recommends you.</p>
<p>After you receive an application, you must submit a transcript, a letter of recommendation, and you must also write three essays. About 600 people apply each year.</p>
<p>If the admissions board likes your essays, you will get an interview, where you basically talk to some TASP alumni. And if they like your interview enough, you'll go to TASP.</p>
<p>So what the hell is TASP?</p>
<p>There are usually three seminars. When I went in 2002, there were two at Cornell University and one at Ann Arbor. Each seminar consists of sixteen people who take an upper-college level course, taught by college professors. The two Cornell seminars this year were "The Literature of Chivalry" and "Racism, Power, and Privilege". (At my Cornell TASP, both seminars lived in the same house and did everything together except going to class.)</p>
<p>You will be expected to work; there's reading to do and papers to write, but there are no grades and you receive no college credit. Instead, you get a gold star for your resume and great paper-writing experience. Oh, but did I mention, this is entirely free? Yup. Room, board, tuition, books and all. Bless you, L. L. Nunn. Bless your little heart.</p>
<p>While the seminars are interesting, the best thing about TASP is the people. Every single TASPer is wonderfully cool and you will make lifelong friends. You also do more--much more--than just studying. In fact, you will spend the majority of your time just talking to the people around you (TASP: Talking About Sex and Politics) about every possible and impossible topic.</p>
<p>Is this like camp?</p>
<p>No no no! This is TASP, and there is nothing like it. You will be "supervised" by two factota, i.e. "Those Who Do Everything". Factota are usually college juniors or seniors, one for each seminar. They will help you revise your papers, you can talk to them if you have problems, and they will also walk through the house at 4 a.m. and remind you that you should probably go to bed. They are not "counselors" and most TASPers are mature enough not to need a lot of supervision.</p>
<p>So if you should ever receive a TASP brochure in the mail after your PSAT, and you think you would be even remotely interested in it, for god's sake apply. If you get in, it will change your life.</p>
<p>[/endquote]
<a href="http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=942543%5B/url%5D">http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=942543</a>
Link:</p>
<p>do you think TASP could accomodate for a Jewish religious lifestyle? say, fo example, one needs kosher meals. or one needs to go away on the weekends for sabbath. can this work? if not than my summer decision probelms are solved. if yes, then i have to decide between two equally amazing programs. (that is IF i get into TASP)</p>
<p>where would you have to go away on the sabbath?</p>
<p>Oh sure. We had a Jewish girl this past summer. She was an... Orthodox Jew, though? Something like that. Anyway, kosher meals can be arranged; just say it beforehand (after you're picked, though) and you can work something out with TA and the cooks. We had vegetarians & Muslims this year and other TASPs had VEGANS, so it can all be worked out.</p>
<p>Going AWAY on the sabbath? Go where? :S (I'm not too familiar with Jewish religion, so could you elaborate a little?)</p>
<p>In any case, for all you religious people out there who might end up at a Cornell TASP, there are services on the weekends and whatnot. They have ones in general and ones for specific religious, such as Islam and Judaism. I can't really speak for the other TASP locations, though. Anyone know? <em>pokepoke</em></p>
<p>yeah, that seems to fit well musechick, as far as Jews go. As for going away for sabbath, I'm not sure where you would go. :-/</p>
<p>i wish they would post the application!! i want to apply and get it over with!!</p>
<p>well i live in michigan so if i went to the u of m one home is like an hour away.</p>
<p>You'd miss out on too much. :(</p>
<p>The TASP people are incredibly accomodating about food (I'm vegan, as the screenname may or may not indicate, lol). So that's no issue.</p>
<p>As for religiousness, there were some kids at my TASP who went to church every sunday and it was no problem. I'm sure no one would mind if you spent a few blocks of time on a Saturday at temple. However, I'm not totally familiar with all the Sabbath restrictions. Could you go on outings with the group? Work on papers/readings? If not, you might have kind of a difficult time. All that said, I'd still apply, because TASP is amazing, and they'll accomodate in any way they can. :)</p>
<p>i guess i'll apply. those essays sound fun to write anyways. the lit analysis kinda intimidates me tho. o and btw, i could not go on group outings if they involved anything that violated sabbath (e.g. going on a bus, writing, using money). in addition to that, writing papers is also prohibited (well writing in general) but anyways, if they relaly are that accomadating i might consider it. and campuses have hillels, but im def leaning more in the direction of this summer program where i go the concentration camp sin europe for a week, then work with kids at a camp in ukraine for three weeks, and finally spend two weeks in israel. thanks for all the responses!</p>
<p>i hope the apps come out soon...the suspense is killing me :)</p>
<p>This may be out of scope, but as far as your high school curriculum goes, how much do they emphasize writing? Are your AP English Lang/Lit classes intense (like write in class essay every other day) or relaxed? It is generally harder to tell which schools have stronger humanities/writing programs than with math/science schools which enter so many competitions.</p>
<p>Boo! This makes me sad that I can't apply to TASP again.</p>
<p>how religious would u say the kids who go on tasp are?</p>
<p>Probably not that religious. It's not a Jewish program. But honestly, you probably get enough of that during the school year. This is going to have people similar to the people you'll go to college with. Some people will be atheists, some will be jewish, some agnostic, buddhist, catholic, protestant, etc. </p>
<p>That's part of what makes programs like TASP so special. You get to meet all kinds of people. It's fun! </p>
<p>About going saturdays- I'm sure that they can arrange it for you to go to shul in the morning, but you might have a couple of issues if you're shomer shabbat. You'd have to contact them about that.</p>