I’ve been admitted to both the Telluride Association Summer Program and Carnegie Mellon’s Summer Academy of Math and Science. For some background, I participated in TASS last year and am wanting to go into medicine. Which program do you think I should go to and why?
Congratulations. Which one do you want to go to? I’m sure you are going to get many responses telling you that it is a no brainer, that TASP is “prestigious,” and is a pipeline to top schools. TASP isn’t the pipeline-the skill set that got you into TASP is. Congratulations. Honestly since you say you want to go into medicine I would have picked an option C for you this summer-I’m curious why you didn’t apply to science/medical summer programs?
I’d say TASP because it’s more free. I was accepted into SAMS as well and have a bunch a friends who are headed there, but I rejected SAMS because it doesn’t offer as much. If you want to have an experience with students who are predominantly low-income, minorities or both, SAMS is the option for you. TASP offers more, tho.
I don’t know if you’ve chosen yet, but if you haven’t, I’d recommend SAMS. TASP seems more liberal arts and doesn’t really give any college credit, whereas SAMS is more science-based, gives some credit, but is considered not as prestigious (even though it has a accepted rate of around 10%).