<p>Okay- I have a couple basic questions, I have read the 2006 application forum and FAQs, but I still have a few questions for previous people who have attended TASP. I'm a little bit confused on the TASP schedule, I understand that first you meet for three hours in the morning on weekdays.. and then what? Like, what's the basic schedule- How's the homework? How's the readings? Etc... full breakdown of exactly what it is- before I call and sound like an idiot. Also, would you say it was worth it to attend the TASP? Were the people humble- or are they stuckup? Also, do you get free time? Any other basic answers to overal questions is greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>TASP gives you the opportunity to manage your own time, so each person's daily schedule is somewhat different. Mine looked something like this:</p>
<p>9:30-12:30 Seminar
12:30-1:00 Lunch
1:00-3:00 Hanging out in Collegetown, around the Telluride House, or in the Commons
3:00-6:00 Reading in the library, checking up on my e-mail, having a smoothie at the library cafe
6:00-6:30 Dinner
6:30-8:00 Hanging around at the Telluride House (watching movies, talking, being crazy, or reading)</p>
<p>After that, it varies. Every other night, we had about 2 hours of pubspeaks, and once a week, we had a house meeting. Sometimes, there were concerts on the quad or events around town. The Cornell Cinema also showed movies in the evening. Basically, the schedule for TASPers is rather flexible, but you are encouraged to spend the large majority of your time with your fellow housemates.</p>
<p>In terms of the workload, my seminar had an average of 100 pages to read a night, and some of it contained obscure language, so if you want to keep up with the seminar, expect to spend about 3-4 hours each day on the reading. After the first week, most TASPers start slacking off on their reading assignments, but a rare few do read everything assigned.</p>
<p>You will also receive assignments, such as short papers. Luckily, I was only assigned one of these, but I think most TASPs had about 2 or 3 papers throughout the seminar.</p>
<p>I'll post more later.</p>
<p>Thanks, how are the people?
And- how hard are the readings? Can you give me an example of a book you read?
Also, how difficult is TASP overall? How difficult are the seminars?, when do people usually do the readings?</p>
<p>The people are amazing.. it's a very diverse group of students, both ethnically and intellectually. The students had all sorts of academic and personal interests, from Shakespeare to physics, which created the perfect atmosphere for intellectual discussions. Despite the diversity, the political affiliation of TASPers leaned heavily toward the left. I think that Cornell TASP was about 90-95% liberal, but given our diverse backgrounds and passion for controversy, there was still plenty of debate during pubspeak discussions.</p>
<p>The difficulty of readings varied. At my seminar (Foreign Policy as Subversion), it ranged from mainstream memoirs (e.g. Confessions of an Economic Hitman) to obscure essays on Orientalism (Edward Said). We also read a good deal of primary sources (e.g. National Security Council reports, interviews, etc.), as well as books on political theory/history, including:</p>
<p><em>glances at bookshelf</em></p>
<ul>
<li>The Perils of Dominance<a href="on%20the%20causes%20of%20the%20Vietnam%20War">/u</a></li>
<li>Excerpts from Huntington's Clash of Civilizations</li>
<li>The Last Colonial Massacre<a href="about%20Latin%20America%20during%20the%20Cold%20War">/u</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Overall, we had about 7 books and numerous essays/excerpts. However, I'm sure that the nature of readings differs according to seminar. The seminar itself was interesting to me because it was entirely discussion-based. Again, the diversity of the students brought many different ideas to the forefront, and as a result, I had the opportunity to reflect upon viewpoints that I had never considered.</p>
<p>I wouldn't say that TASP is difficult, but the seminar is rather intense. The discussions are sophisticated, and you will have to not only read but also think proactively so that you can contribute in seminar. However, you aren't offered grades or credit, so I wouldn't say that there's a whole lot of pressure. There certainly isn't any academic competition. Overall, it's a great intellectual experience, but it's not worth sacrificing the social aspect of the program.</p>
<p>The more diligent students usually complete their readings in the afternoon, but some (aka, me) often waited until 2 AM. Such is the result of a bedtime-less TASP. :D</p>
<p>looks like chaotic basically answered your questions. my answers are similar, but I like talking about TASP and don't mind telling potential TASPers about it, so here it goes...</p>
<p>Basic weekday schedule
8:35- wake up
9-12- seminar
12-1:30 - lunch
1:30 - 6:30 - reading/papers, random board games in the lounge, random discussions in people's rooms, trips to the loop (a shopping area near the WashU campus), visiting the library/coffeeshop, office hours with professors, house meetings (once a week)
6:30 - 7:30 - dinner
7:30-10ish - pubspeaks, if we had them that night (pubspeaks are a 20-30 minute speech each TASPer is required to give at some point during the program on a subject of their choice. crazy discussion/questioning follows)
7:30 - whenever - more reading/class work, tons of general hanging out, watching movies, group excursions into the city, etc.</p>
<p>I basically didn't sleep more than four hours a night, except on weekends. even though there's not much "structured" activity, there were so many people to talk to and things to do. And I, like chaotic, was sometimes less than diligent about getting my seminar readings done before 3 am. lol.</p>
<p>The people at my TASP were FANTASTIC. smart, quirky, and fun to be around. mine was also almost entirely liberal, but we had a lot of good discussions anyway. our seminar was on the civil rights and anti-apartheid movements, and we had a lot of really eye opening (for me) discussions on race and its value in america and abroad. but you'll find that most of what you end up talking about outside seminar has nothing to do with the class itself. we argued and debated all kinds of stuff, from books to politics to where we were going to eat dinner. </p>
<p>I can talk more about my experience later, but now i must be off to school! adios for now...</p>
<p>does tasp run classes on saturdays?</p>
<p>No 10 char</p>
<p>Here was my schedule but take it with a grain of salt considering I probably consider myself one of the laziest people to ever attend TASP.</p>
<p>Basic weekday schedule
8:35- wake up
9-12- seminar
12-1:00 - lunch
1:30 - 6:30 - Taking Naps / Not really doing reading but kind of /Distracting others from doing reading/ Exploring /
6:00 - 6:30 - Dinner
6:30-8:00 - Ultimate Frisbee!
8:00 - 10:00 - Town Meetings once a week, Pubspeaks twice a week, sometimes had to watch movies from seminar
10:00 - 3:00 ish - Finishing up reading I didn't really do if I had to present in discussion tommorrow. Hanging out with people, our curfew to come back to the house was 11:30. So afterwards, we just did stuff in the house including play games/ watch movies / talk/ other craziness.</p>
<p>TASP exceeded my expectations about everything that I had expected it to be. Going into it, I was a little apprehensive. At the end of six weeks, it kinda feels you've known your fellow TASPers forever. The only downside is the TASP-withdrawl you go through when going back to high school. The people at my TASP were above all, some of the most genuine people I have ever met, and it was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The thing that's the best about TASP isn't really the seminars or the structured activies but just hanging out with these awesome, amazing people. You never wanted to go to sleep because you realized how awesome spending time with these people were. Be prepared for sleep dep but the most glorious sleep dep of your lives (may include making pita hot dogs at 4:30 AM / building cootie bugs / sleepovers).</p>
<p>"the most glorious sleep deprivation of your life" should really be the TASP motto. That about encapsulates my summer in a phrase.</p>
<p>argh, looking at this thread again makes me realize how much I MISS TASP!!</p>
<p>I am just wondering because I went to UChicagi fir a summer course and we had more freedom than i expected, curfew was a joke( lots of CRUNKness) and no bed checks and co-ed dorm complexed and they didnt care where you slept
how does TASP compare, not that its big factor but im just curious</p>
<p>Shakespeare, my dearest Mindy? I do believe you are talking about a certain man called COCO! :P</p>
<p>Wow. She explained it all, so I'll leave it to her. <em>grin</em> Yes, politically we were mostly liberal. On a more... social level, some of us were REALLY liberal, while others were more conservative. In the end, we managed to corrupt most TASPers, so we consider our mission accomplished. ;P</p>
<p>Nope, no class on Saturdays. We almost always planned activities during the housemeetings that we could do on the weekends, such as going to the Farmer's Market, out to see the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean, Treman Park, etc etc.</p>
<p>"Overall, it's a great intellectual experience, but it's not worth sacrificing the social aspect of the program." EXACTLY. Honestly, my advice is try to balance things out, but if you MUST sacrifice a little, try to get more social activities in. <em>grin</em> The people are what really make TASP so amazing. However, if you never ever do your readings, at least try to know what the heck is going on so you can at least tie in OTHER things that relate to the texts. People in my seminar could totally get away with doing that because it was Medieval Lit, but in seminars that talk about topics totally unknown to you or that discuss changing world politics and the like, you really should keep yourself constantly updated. </p>
<p>A girl made me fear TASP would be NERDY and just... eeeeek, but MAN, IT WAS SO NOT! lmao. We had so much freedom, it was disgusting. :D Actually, we weren't SUPPOSED to do a bunch of things we did, but it was because our factota were lenient. We never realized how many things they let us do until we read their factotum manual. <em>whew</em></p>
<p>OH GOD YES! TASP withdrawal can be EXTREME, so you have to be prepared for that. Honestly, I don't think I'll ever fully get over missing TASP, even if it's just a little. The people were BEYOND amazing and I love them dearly. It was just the second or third day and I felt I had known these people forever. I had NEVER felt that before and I thought it was silly and unreal, but it happened and I was shocked that I was feeling such a thing. </p>
<p>Sleep deprivation? Heck yes, man. Sometimes we went to bed at 6 AM and got up at 9, other times it was 4 AM... It really depended.... Seriously, the first week we were all good children, doing our readings, going to bed no later than 3 or so... but after the first weekend passed? All hell broke loose. <em>beams</em></p>
<p>"the most glorious sleep deprivation of your life" PERFECT. DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE. We should have an INTERTASP shirt for '06 with that on it!!! Seriously! Who's with me?! <em>spazzes</em> </p>
<p>lmao, lots of CRUNKness? :D There was certainly a lot of THAT at my TASP. Nope, no true bedchecks. The girls were supposed to be on one floor and the guys on the other (I stayed at the Cornell Telluride Branch House), but we said TO HELL WITH THAT, and we constantly had massive sleepovers EVERYWHERE. We slept in each other's bedrooms, in each other's beds, outside on the balcony with random futons and pillows... all that. It was killer. :D</p>
<p>Oh. P.S. - If you're going to sleep as little as you can, try to be nice to the profs and STAY AWAKE DURING SEMINAR. You'll need gum, lots of caffeine, food, or anything to stay awake. Some days are insane. XD</p>
<p>lol i love you musechick</p>
<p>Ahh, I love me too. :P lol</p>
<p>Seriously...if you guys want an insider's view, check out our TASP albums on Facebook. Look me up and look up my fellow TASPy friends. Personally, I have no TASP albums up because I wanted to have ALL the pics on me to THEN start making albums, but a friend has still not sent me the CDs of pics he'd promised, so dangit, I have none of those pics online. Thankfully, the other TASPers DO, so you can see for yourself. <em>grin</em> Thanks to a few other girls and yours truly, we wound up with 5 GB of pics (and a few videos, as well). :D INSANE. </p>
<p>Who are you, bravo?</p>
<p>FELLOW TASPERS! IDENTIFY YOURSELVES! :P</p>
<p>I miss TASP. and ditto to everything the other TASPers have said.</p>
<p>Ahhh all this makes me SO want to go >_< it sounds amazingggg.</p>
<p>I was wondering, only current high school juniors are allowed to apply to TASP? What about upcoming juniors (sophomore here :P)? Has anyone applied as an upcoming junior and got in?</p>
<p>It's only for current juniors. But this</a> program is put on by the same people, and it's for current sophomores.</p>
<p>I looked into TASS before, very excited that they had a program for us softies, until it said it gives preference to African Americans. Unfortunatly, that doesn't apply to me. Guess I'm going to have to wait until next year then. Thanks for the info. :)</p>
<p>EDIT: Oh question! Do the TASP seminars change every year? I've seen other past TASP seminars listed on the site.</p>
<p>The seminar topics change every year, but once every few years you'll see a repeat of the same topic.</p>
<p>It doesnt give preferance to African Americans, just naturally those are the type of people the program atracts. So If you want go for it and apply to TASS, even though the due date is in a week :-/</p>
<p>Trust me it is worth it. I have learned so much just from the application proccess already and just because you aren't African American doesnt hinder your chances at all. If anything it will give you a unique perspective on some situations. </p>
<p>:-D</p>