<p>I'm thinking about applying. I'll consider it more once I'm done with finals. Right now my brain is pretty much fried. If I do apply, the St. Louis session will definitely be my first choice. I'd give my first child to go to that seminar. it looks awesome.</p>
<p>I'll be applying as well, once Christmas break starts that is LOL.</p>
<p>1<3 St. Louis and Cornell 1 baby.</p>
<p>I'm applying to TASP. Trying to think of a conflict I solved.</p>
<p>That one was the hardest to write, but the topic is quite broad. I ended up writing about bringing my girlfriend home late and almost getting jumped by her father. Oof!</p>
<p>I'm applying to Cornell I (foreign policy) as my first choice and UMich (Islam) as my second choice. I think that a personal conflict would be easiest to write about; I've had so many of those. Arguing with myself: it's quite fun. However, I might write about this campaign at my school for interfaith understanding, although that never started with an obvious conflict.</p>
<p>All TASP applicants: state your first and second choice seminars!</p>
<ol>
<li>Cornell I Foreign Policy....seems to be popular, doesn't it?</li>
</ol>
<p>I'm not sure about the rest.</p>
<p>Hey guys, I have a quick question: why do we need to be nominated if the application is online? I learned about the TASP program 3 days before the nomination deadline, and got a nomination from my counselor (who had never heard of the program), but now I see that the application is online....why is that?</p>
<p>Billybobbyk:
Probably as a way to get more applicants. I think some applicants may not learn about TASP until after they've been nominated, and others (like you and me) have counselors who had never heard of TASP before but still wanted to apply.</p>
<p>Or maybe they're all crazy.</p>
<p>I like the Cornell I seminar too, and the Washington seminar, but they all seem great. The only one I don't think I would want to get is Cornell II, but maybe my mind will change.</p>
<p>you dont have to be nominated- you can just download it off the website and apply</p>
<p>Is preference given to those who are nominated?</p>
<p>1st Choice - Cornell II. I love medieval stories - King Arthur...Celtic legends...Wow...I would love to study this stuff...</p>
<p>
[quote]
Is preference given to those who are nominated?
[/quote]
No, no, a million times no!</p>
<p>Haha, alright, thank you.</p>
<p>Some random questions for the past TASPers-
1. How long did you spend working on your TASP application? Was it very polished?
2. Do you think the admissions people care more about how strong of a writer you are or the ideas you convey in your essays?
3. When you were at TASP, how much time per day did you spend on work for your classes?
4. What's the gender ratio like? Do many (or any) people within the group date?
5. Did anyone at your seminar have a negative experience- not like the classes, not click with the people, etc?</p>
<p>I'm liking the looks of St. Louis, Michigan, and Texas...and I'm also trying to figure out a conflict I've solved, lol. Maybe something about cultures/the generation gap, but I'm thinking that's kind of cliche, or maybe I'm over thinking this? Who knows.</p>
<ol>
<li>i wrote mine the night before it was due in about 2-3 hours. i don't recommend this, as going back to it, i found some grammatical mistakes and awkward phrases. </li>
<li>i would say its a mixture of the two.</li>
<li>it varies per tasp. at ours, we received tons of dry reading, but from what i hear, austin didn't get much work at all.</li>
<li>at all tasps but st louis, the gender ratio is 1:1. at ours, it was 10:8, with the 10 being boys. exclusive relationships are forbidden, though they definitely did happen.</li>
<li>we all had a problem with the classes, but our factota intervened and everything went smoothly afterwards. ultimately, there wasn't a thing about the experience i'd change. </li>
</ol>
<p>hey_la, that's actually sort of what i wrote about in my conflict essay- even if a topic seems cliche to you, if it's something that you care about and can write about well, go for it.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Less than a week, writing intermittently. I cut it very very close to the deadline though, so it could have been less rushed, but all in all not too bad.</p></li>
<li><p>Both.</p></li>
<li><p>Heeeh... it really depends on how much interest you have in the seminar. According to our factota, UMich had the most work BY FAR... stacks of reading and a fair bit of essay-writing, along with a final project. But if you work efficiently (and are skilled at procrastinating :D), it can be kept between zero and two hours a day. Note that this work wasn't nearly as taxing as schoolwork because there's no pressure (lack of grades) and, for example, we'd do the reading in groups on the giant couch or lazing on lawns around campus. I think pianoking basically got by even with reading an insignificant amount of the assigned books/articles/papers. :p </p></li>
<li><p>We had the 10:8, guy:girl split as well. According to one of our factota, only two TASPs in the history of the Association have been completed without any exclusive relationships forming (ours was one of them, of this we are not particularly proud).</p></li>
<li><p>At one point we were a little swamped with work, but the factota managed to talk some sense into the profs, so that ended up OK. But apart from that, there weren't any major problems. We had some astoundingly harmonious group dynamics.</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>I spent a long time over a long period of time on mine if that makes sense. I started very early, and worked hard, then came back a week later and repeated the process.</p></li>
<li><p>I would say that they care about both your writing ability and your ideas. The interview is about ideas and speaking ability. Writing ability is important, but most people who can think can write. They want to see how you think, how deeply, and how well.</p></li>
<li><p>As Jsn said, we had a crazy amount of work. After about a week I just stopped doing it, (sorry guys.) I was really interested in what I wanted to do (linguistics) and had the entie Hatcher Graduate Library at my disposal. Needless to say I coasted through the course in which I admittedly had no interest. (Philosophy of music was okay, but social and political repercussions... ugh.)</p></li>
<li><p>As Jsn said, again, we had a 10 to 8 guy girl split. Dating.... PM about that... I don't really want to say much in front of other u mich taspers, but the answer to your question is: kind of.</p></li>
<li><p>Negative experience? Excellent question. Nearly every other tasper at mine loved it. I thought some of the people were awesome (including Jsn and Globber among others) but I didn't really click with many of the people... but that reflects on me more than the tasp experience, again, everyone seemed to love it.
Personally, tasp was not for me. I am naturally very independent, and while very social, need a lot of "alone-time" to recharge, thus my incessant trips to the library. It was also rather "cultish" in the sense that "Yay Telluride! I love L. L. Nunn! I want to live in a Telluride house next year!" This can be a lot of fun for people, but I'm not really one to offer myself to something larger and thus didn't like that at all. As I said above, I thought the class was thoroughly pointless, and if you'll excuse my saying so, a waste of my time. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>*Disclaimer: This is in the midst of some of the best conversations I've ever had, the most amazing and fascinating people I've ever met, and a satisfyingly intense academic experience.
Also, some people love fieldwork and sociological experiments. We were part of pioneering research of the relationship between music and the city of Ann Arbor. People could be citing our papers as I am typing this. I don't care about this sort of thing, but that is a personal and minority opinion.</p>
<p>I would recommend TASP to any and all who want to be with people who are as passionate about learning as they are and make friends that you'll have forever.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I wrote for about a week sporadically, but I definitely put my head down especially for 3 of my essays, and looking back, they may have made the difference.</p></li>
<li><p>I couldn't tell you for sure, but I have a feeling that ideas and displayed enthusiasm may override some, but not all, flaws in writing.</p></li>
<li><p>Lots, lots, lots. I think UMich last year was especially bad, but you do have to stay on top of your projects and readings to get them done well. That said, I found some of the material extremely interesting, and others not so much. High Fidelity, for example, was a really good book that we read.</p></li>
<li><h1>1 rule of TASP: no sex. Then again, we did get a sexual harassment talk at the beginning of the program, and a contraceptives hands-on demonstrated by yours truly. Make of that what you will. In our year, there was no blatantly obvious dating, but I think part of that was just due to time constraints (6 weeks to get a move on is not a lot). Maybe we were just goody-goodys, but to be honest I felt better getting to know a lot of people and being able to go out with whoever, whenever. I'm a bit curious about the juicy gossip at the other TASPs myself ;)</h1></li>
<li><p>(Repeat positive comments of above) The only thing I could think of was the food (cooked by our own private chef), which was astonishing at times, and just so-so rarely. Bring a healthy food budget, and some breakfast foods in particular if you don't like cereal. The best part of the program besides the people was the amazing facilities of the university. You could find something to do every moment of the day, and even poking around in the library was a real treat.</p></li>
</ol>