Ahhh hello, I’m super late to this thread because I discovered it just recently. I’ve been working on my essays for a while - I hope I’m going in the right direction. Good luck everyone!
@peaceprincess So my reply is a bit late, but mine is basically just how a personal experience changed my opinion on something. Really what they are looking for is your ability for maturity and personal development, so whatever topic you write about as long as it reflects that I think it should be fine.
3 Days left guys!!!
Time to write my essays now lol… wish me luck
haha i guess it’s time to stop procrastinating now… good luck everyone!
Hi all (if a former TASPer could answer this, it would be awesome) - for the first essay question, does anyone know if TASP is looking for a lengthy /justification/ of how you can enrich the program with your experience? Because I devoted most of the essay to detailing my actual experiences, and only concluded in a paragraph at the end how the sum total of these experiences shaped the worldview I have today.
@serendipitousli hey, not a former TASPer, but I figured I’d answer you anyway. obviously, dont take my answer as law/written in stone since I’m an applicant too (but I thought I’d try to help anyway, feel free to ignore my advice). I think with that question, they’re trying to understand what kind of perspective you’re going to bring to TASP. In my essay, I had a couple sentences at the end about how I thought my experiences had given me a unique perspective & attitude. I don’t think you need a lengthy justification, but I would definitely tie your explanation of experiences back to the prompt. They want to know what you can bring to the TASP community.
Again, that’s just my interpretation of the prompt. IDK how correct that is, but I hope it helps a little!! Good luck with your application 
@serendipitousli Also not a former TASPer, but yeah I think they are looking for your unique perspective. I had two paragraphs at the end tying everything together so it should be fine.
@steph_sky8278 @annagrace18 Thanks so much for your advice! Fingers crossed for all of us
Hi all – Do you guys think that which programs you select affect your chances of getting in?
Also, for the last question, should we be talking about a poor semester performance even though we don’t send it transcripts and such at this stage?
haha can someone confirm what time apps are due on the 24th?? 11:59 p.m.???
@exilion I don’t think so, because they’re just cutting down for the interview stage right now. I think they said on the app that they just want to make sure you’re not in the same program as someone in your school or something.
I think you’re supposed to write that in question number 4, if necessary?
By the way, do you all think that sort of transitioning badly into high school and getting a terrible freshman year GPA warrants explanation? Or would that just come off as making excuses?
@hope469 Hey, I’m a fellow applicant too (so take my advice with load of salt) - personally, I think that as long as there is a large spike in your grades, Telluride’ll know that some sort of bad transition happened but that you are still a star student. Besides, it is mentioned on their website that the real key determining factors for admissions are the essays, not your transcript, so I probably would just not put any extra info.
Unless it’s a really serious gap/screw-up (idk like missing an entire semester or quarter or something) I wouldn’t bother telling them. They’re considering you mainly based on your essays.
I had a really rough freshman year too @hope469 so I feel ya. I’m not writing anything there tho since it’s a pretty common thing and it wasn’t like I failed anything that year my grades just sucked. Up to you tho, obviously- that’s just what I’m doing.
@serendipitousli @annagrace18 Thanks guys! Probably won’t write it in then. (Also I don’t want to deal with another 250 words lol)
ITS RAINING AND IM INSPIRED LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
@hyperbola apps are due Jan 24 at 11:59 EASTERN TIME (make sure you check what that is in your time zone)
On a side note, should I list a book in my list of favorite books if I already went into detail about in question 2?
what advice do you guys have for essay #1? my mind’s going blank
Quick question: for essay number two, I wrote about a documentary that didn’t necessarily change my mind, but rather enlightened me into an issue making it something that I now care stronger about, so in a sense it just made me form an opinion about an issue I before had general apathy for. So although it didn’t change my mind from an opposing viewpoint I earlier had, do you think it’s still okay to write about that?
@candylover1005 I’m not sure if this will help, but I found my topic by brainstorming qualities / beliefs that I hold which are generally different from those of my peers. Then I went backwards and thought, “Well, what ‘educational’ experiences have lead me to believe these things?” Kind of like solving a maze in reverse 