<p>how does TASP function is the admission process? Is it another EC, summer camp, hook, or does it no really matter? I'm currently at TASP right now, so I was wondering how much hope/emphasis I should put on TASP when I fill out the applications (ie should i write an essay on TASP?)?
Thanks</p>
<p>I don't know much about TASP, but for what I've heard, it's a pretty impressive EC.</p>
<p>it's very impressive. but don't expect to be able to get into yale with a low GPA or low involvement in ECs just b/c you're at TASP.</p>
<p>no don't write an essay on TASP just because it's TASP! If you're at TASP, hopefully that means you can write interesting essays to begin with!!</p>
<p>what is TASP? i've seen it on other applications ...</p>
<p>I went to TASP, and although it was awesome and lifechanging, I wouldn't write an essay about it. I put it down as a summer activity/award. It won't necessarily get you in, but TASPers often end up at similar-caliber schools. It's probably because the kind of kids who get in to and go to TASP are doing pretty well academically, anyway, though.</p>
<p>TASP = Telluride Association Summer Program
<a href="http://www.tellurideassociation.org/tasp1.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.tellurideassociation.org/tasp1.html</a></p>
<p>A TASP is a six-week educational experience for high school juniors that offers challenges and rewards rarely encountered in secondary school or even college. Each program is designed to bring together young people from around the world who share a passion for learning. Telluride students, or TASPers, attend a seminar led by college and university faculty members and participate in many other educational and social activities outside the classroom. </p>
<p>Students attend TASPs because they want to challenge and change themselves. Telluride Association seeks students from all kinds of educational backgrounds who demonstrate intellectual curiosity and motivation, rather than prior knowledge of the seminar's subject matter. TASPers participate solely for the pleasure and rewards of learning with other intelligent, highly motivated students. The TASP offers no grades or college credit. </p>
<p>Life at TASP extends well beyond academic exploration. The participants are given considerable freedom to build their own dynamic social community.</p>
<p>TASPs are free. Telluride Association is committed to providing this unique educational opportunity to students from all social and financial backgrounds. Every student awarded a place in a TASP attends the program on a full housing, dining, and tuition scholarship. Students pay only the costs of transportation and incidental expenses. Participants with demonstrated need may request financial aid to cover reasonable travel costs. It is the policy of Telluride that no student be barred from attending a TASP for financial reasons.</p>
<p>TASP is the humanities equivalent of RSI. The jury is still out on whether participation in TASP causes acceptance to top universities, or whether it merely is correlated well.</p>
<p>"humanities equivalent of RSI" may be a little much. </p>
<p>TASP attracts the type of applicant that is looking for a prestigious sounding summer experience and who will be successful applying anywhere ... hs juniors who can engage in intellectual dialogue and are a real live human being behind all of the GPA, SAT and EC stats.</p>
<p>TASP sounds like the type of intellectually intimate experience that would be more appropriate at a LAC than a big, sometimes impersonal school like Cornell, Michigan, WUSTL and UTAustin. </p>
<p>Maybe my perception of Cornell and WUSTL are wrong.</p>
<p>I disagree. Although there are some bigger schools, like Michigan and UTAustin, the experience isn't at all impersonal. You live very intensely with 17 other people in the same house, go to class together, hang out together, I don't think that being at an LAC would really change the feel of it. Depending on the school, perhaps fewer places to explore...</p>
<p>sounds wonderful for ivy candidates</p>
<p>TASPers do extremely well with college acceptances--a function of both the program's prestige and the applicants' strengths in general. But it is definitely not a sure thing. DD simply listed TASP as an honor/award (because it is a scholarship, after all) and then talked about it in many of her early interviews, since they followed shortly after she came home from TASP. She was accepted to all of her schools, and her fellow TASPers were pretty much spread out between HYPSM, AWS and a few others. I wouldn't write an essay on TASP unless you had a very unusual angle--I mean don't write "TASP--the academic experience that changed my life..blah, blah blah...". Admissions people are very well aware of TASP and what it means for you to have been selected--you probably would be better served by writing an essay on some aspect of your personality/experience that isn't well explained by the rest of your application. Actually, I think DD's common app. essay was derived from one of her TASP application essays. Don't sweat it so much--it will become clear what you should write about. For now you should be enjoying the experience and not worrying about how it will affect your resume!</p>
<p>ok, a few things...</p>
<p>i disagree that you shouldn't write an essay about the experience. i personally didn't, but i have a few friends that did. if tasp is something you feel strongly about, something that you believe changed your life, then it makes a good topic to write about. </p>
<p>i also disagree that tasp attracts those looking for prestige, etc. while these types probably ARE attracted to it, the kids who actually end up in tasp are more interested in intellectual stimulation.</p>
<p>the university has little to do with tasp. it's during the summer. you may be thinking of the telluride houses at cornell and umich.</p>
<p>I did not mean that TASP attracts those looking for prestige--quite the opposite, usually. TASPers are truly looking to share an intellectual experience with like-minded peers--the rigorous selection process seems to weed out students looking solely for a resume boost. But you cannot deny that having been selected for the program is prestigious--maybe there's a better word to use--it's an honor! </p>
<p>By all means go ahead and write about TASP in your essays if it's something you feel strongly about and it helps to round out your application. It just seems as if the original poster is trying to weigh the benefits of doing so and how it will all look on her college apps. Which strikes me as something un-TASP like--especially while you're still at TASP!</p>
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<p>I've heard that once you get past the first challenge, writing something like 6 essays. You are drilled on the meaning and morals of your essays by a review board.</p>
<p>do they call, or do they have those from alumni networks that you go out for coffee with?</p>
<p>They'll email you to set up an interview. If you don't live somewhere where they have an alum., they set up a phone interview. Otherwise, it's a coffee shop with an alum.</p>