<p>ah, so you're doing the picture of dorian gray? awesome!</p>
<p>Hey, so can any previous TASP-ers comment on the amount of fun outside of the seminars at TASP?</p>
<p>What activities do you do, do you have down time?
How were the dorms? How about the food?
Was the setting as nice as somewhere where you might have to pay a lot of money to attend?</p>
<p>Yeah, I only read it recently and I think it's one of my favourite books now. I finished it at 3am and I was honestly a little creeped out that night hahaha</p>
<p>@Tyler09: Yeah lol. Even though our chances of getting in are next to none, I still want to find out more. Setting myself up for rejection, much?</p>
<p>Oh, I know. I'm dying to know if there are kitchens available... If I get in, I'll be there for my birthday and I'll have to bake myself a birthday cake. ...Maybe some birthday puff pastry too.</p>
<p>i had a couple of friends edit my essays and one of them was like...</p>
<p>"it sounds like you're at this stage where you're ALMOST smart...developing that eloquent-ness... it's like. pubesique."</p>
<p>at first we just stared at each other 'cause i was like.. what the helllll? and then i seriously started cracking up & she was like WAIT AHAHAHHA THAT'S NOT THE RIGHT WORD.. I THINK?</p>
<p>oh man, TASP makes me insane. ONE MORE ESSAY...(STILL.)</p>
<p>good luck to everyone who submitted today!</p>
<p>for the critnal, when submitting online, there's no underlining or italicizing, so do i put the book title in quotes?</p>
<p>I just capitalized and assumed they knew what i was talking about lol. </p>
<p>watch me get rejected for basic writing skills</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone who submitted the paper app! You're all brilliant. ;)</p>
<p>Hehe, let me give a recap of my TASP experience. I evaluated it, actually, let me find a few prime excerpts ;)</p>
<p>
[quote]
I, for one, was absolutely awed at the level of thought of my peers I remember, the second day _______ turned to me and asked, So what does your utopia look like? My utopia? Im sorry, ______, but I dont think about utopias in my free time
Now, of course, Im doomed to dream about my utopia for the rest of my life. Ive always been one of those middle-ground people for whom it is hard to come to a conclusion; now its even harder because I have more to contemplate! Corporeal punishment, legalizing crack and prostitution, relativism versus ethnocentrism, standardized testing, illegal immigration, offering incentives for volunteerism, categorization versus individualism, racial profiling, social Darwinism, our miserable education system, religion, freedom of belief, the meaning of life; I could go on for hours. Not a day goes by that I dont ponder about at least one of those, and often I still get into intense discussions with fellow TASPers, only this time over the phone, instant messaging, or email. In ways, its frustrating now because I look at the world and I have to think about it before TASP I just went along my jolly way accepting the world as it was, but now I cant I want to yell at my classmates to integrate among their ridiculously segregated groups, I want to slap my peers when they talk about switching teachers for the easy A, Im constantly conflicted on whether or not I should simply let somebody who believes homosexuality is a sin continue on thinking that, and its just well, TASP has made me tear myself apart from the inside out and yet I love it. Ive learned so much more about myself, and who I am, and what niche I occupy in the world, and everything.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>
[quote]
Of course, the superficial conversations that I craved the first few days also came along (mostly from <strong><em>). Which US President would you have sex with? (I said Jackson, hes got, you know, the whole rough rider thing going for him). Who would win the Smurfs or the Keebler Elves? (We concluded that the Keebler Elves would destroy the Smurfs with little to no effort). How many six-year olds could you fight off at once? (Okay, that one was from _</em></strong><strong><em>. And Id say five: one for every limb and the last to headbutt). We certainly got the social aspect down we built forts, got bubble tea, ice cream, and large doses of caffeine, played Ultimate Frisbee, painted rocks, finger fenced, arm-wrestled, had scavenger hunts, played Sardines, and slowly but steadily I gained 19 of the best friends whom I know Ill love forever and who will forever love me. We volunteered at a hands-on childrens museum, and looking around at my fellow TASPers, I saw that every single one of them loved making other people happy just as much as I did (okay, except maybe _</em></strong>. But hes an exception). The fact that each of us were so different and came from different backgrounds only brought us closer as a group, because we learned so much from each other.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Hehe yay for discussions! Let's see.</p>
<p>
[quote]
What activities do you do, do you have down time?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Haha "down time" - well, let's just say that seminar lasted from 9-12 in the mornings. In other words: You have all the free time in the world. We didn't have too much homework at our TASP - the first few days we had like, one poem a night. Factota had a little talk with the professors, and they ramped it up a bit. However, it still wasn't too much - maybe an hour or two everyday + journal entries (curse those darn things, hehe). Essay nights were torture, of course, since most of us didn't start until the night before (there were exceptions, naturally). Your TASP may be different. It depends on the professors.</p>
<p>So! Lots of down time. What did we do with it? Here's a typical day:</p>
<p>8: Wake up, breakfast, walk to seminar
9-12: Seminar
12-1: Lunch
1-6: Reading, napping, going to the gym, going shopping, walking around town, bubble tea, ice cream, ultimate frisbee/football/running/tag/hide+seek, cooking, painting huge boulders, playing piano, water balloon fights
6:30: Dinner
7-whenever: Walking around town, watching movies, pubspeaks (<3's!), hanging out in the law quad, talking (and lots of it!), poker, Scrabble, ping pong, Mafia, sneaking onto the roof, dance parties, getting Noodles/Subway/Korean food, finger fencing, arm wrestling, playing frisbee bowling with the water storage things, playing pranks, spades, draping parties</p>
<p>In other words: you can basically do whatever you want. One of our factotum told us that we were "much more active" than her TASP, so I guess we liked physical activity :) We were also probably the little kiddy/cute/immature TASP, so we liked to play and laugh and have fun. And talk - talking's big. Probably what we spent the most time doing. But basically you as a TASP define your own activities.</p>
<p>Oh, and evidently we were one of the "freer" TASPs. Our factota (<3) basically let us do whatever we want, rarely (if ever!) did we have mandated group activities. It might not be the case at your TASP.</p>
<p>
[quote]
How were the dorms? How about the food?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>We stayed in a sorority house, so the rooms were "meh." My bed broke the very first day. Luckily my roommate (roamorse <3) wasn't underneath, so I didn't crush her (curse those bunk beds). However, I ended up just sleeping on couches downstairs for the last few weeks, occasionally in mass sleepovers, so I didn't really go into my room other than to change and occasionally look for stuff. Food was great, since we had our own chef :D</p>
<p>
[quote]
Was the setting as nice as somewhere where you might have to pay a lot of money to attend?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes, totally yes. Ann Arbor's a gorgeous town. We loved it. </p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm dying to know if there are kitchens available... If I get in, I'll be there for my birthday and I'll have to bake myself a birthday cake. ...Maybe some birthday puff pastry too.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>At UMich, yup. I cooked cookies alot, and Sunday dinners were up to us TASPers. Some of the things we cooked: pasta, garlic bread, latkas, pies, etc. Kitchens made our life, basically, especially being able to raid it for cereal and leftovers.</p>
<p>Wheeee! I'm so excited for y'all. Any more questions? I'm totally in a question-answering mood right now.</p>
<p>Thanks, that was a fun read! Now I'm going to feel even worse if I get rejected though lol.</p>
<p>^Ditto. I was at peace with the idea of my inevitable rejection, and now I'm in "Must. Go. To. TASP." mode again.</p>
<p>good luck everyone!!!</p>
<p>oh ps tako or other veterans..what was the interview process like?</p>
<p>god that sounds amazing..</p>
<p>Wheee! Interviews, let's see.</p>
<p>So your interviewer will contact you at some point in some way, once you've been notified. It might be email, it might be a phone call, it might be a drive to your house (just kidding. But who knows what Telluride might cook up?)</p>
<p>As for the actual atmosphere itself, it varies GREATLY!</p>
<p>My interview was on the more chill side (I'm so glad, I am not a unchill kind of person). I had it at a Jamba Juice on the Stanford campus, so I got to wear jeans and a laid-back long sleeve shirt. So comfy. Anyhow, I had two interviewers (the third one slept in...at 1 pm on a Sunday afternoon...lol) who were college sophomores. So they were basically part of my generation and could relate to the many things I said because I am a social freak. </p>
<p>Your interview might be a bit more hardcore. A couple of my TASPers down in socal were actually interviewed by the same bunch, a few lawyers who basically massacred them. Panel-style. Hehe I felt so lucky sitting at our little picnic table having a nice conversation sipping smoothies. I would have died if I was interrogated by a panel. But they managed to make it through (thank goodness!) :) </p>
<p>The interview itself is basically the most thinking you'll do in your lifetime. Until TASP, that is. Haha. You may think your essays cover their topics pretty well, then you go to your interview where you get massacred. You get forced to contradict yourself. Multiple times. You feel stupid, but you'll have many epiphanies and revelations about things you thought you knew really well. You will think in ways you've never thought before, or even thought to think in before (if that makes any sense :P)</p>
<p>You may also not be limited to topics found in your essays - my interview ranged from Korean dramas to the blurred line between literature and "great" literature to the role of Asian-American culture in American culture today to the war in Iraq to the extremities of standardized testing and its impact upon our children. Oh yes, it's fun :)</p>
<p>Hehe. It's not just the generic, "Oh, so you like cars? Tell me about them!" It's "Oh, so you like cars? Tell me what you think about the role of alternative energy in future vehicles" and random stuff like that. (Yeah, some of the questions they come up with, you're just like - wait, WHAT? HOW DID YOU THINK OF THAT!?!?) But don't worry if you don't know the answer - Telluride doesn't need you to be a know-it-all (although I'm sure that'd be a bonus). What they want to see is that you can think logically and rationally on your feet in a conversation.</p>
<p>Just think of it as a conversation. An extraordinarily controversial and contradictory conversation :) Be yourself - it makes things so much easier. That's why you don't lie in your application because it's awful hard to fake! (Silly people). </p>
<p>Oh, and having finished multiple college interviews, I can now say that yes, your TASP interview will probably be the hardest interview you'll have for a while. But also the most fun :)</p>
<p>I REALLY HOPE i get to meet all of you there. I just mailed my transcript and rec (1 week after the 1/15 date, but o well). Tako, you're gonna make me feel much worse when i get rejected. <em>sigh</em></p>
<p>Oh, goodness. Reading through this forum definitely made me more nervous than I already was about my application (which is already on its way to Ithica) :</p>
<p>awww tako. reading that made me so bad. i want TASP back again :(</p>
<p>It's like ridiculous how much i want to go right now. But the last two essays are totally giving me a hard time. Trying to write the conflict one about how today's youth is ignorant... any opinions?</p>
<p>No offense, but I think it sounds condescending. The type that applies to TASP may be intellectually inclined, but I don't think that any of us are in a position to denounce our peers as ignorant.</p>