<p>^It’s a neutral thing, I’d say it’s a good thing if those are sincerely your interests and the essays stand on their own and a bad thing if it is forced. And it is possible to critically analyze ANYTHING, really. One of our TASPers did his on a song; another on a children’s book. It’s about how you analyze, not what you analyze.</p>
<p>nil - I did my critical analysis on an obscure, dense fantasy novel. I loved writing it, but in hindsight it was probably my weakest essay, simply because of all the lengthy character names. And I was waitlisted at first; take that how you will (don’t think it was related to my critical analysis particularly, but it couldn’t have helped my case much).</p>
<p>Nonetheless, I think it’s very possible to be successful analyzing a fantasy novel, or indeed any piece that your readers will be unfamiliar with. It might be wise not to choose a book where every character has four names, though. XD</p>
<p>I believe I’m applying to this as well. We’ll see how it goes.</p>
<p>Thanks guys…
Yeah, I love the essay I’m writing first on my own subject but i think I’ll go have more “fun” with my critical analysis. And …weird to ask but what’s your opinion on humor in essays- do you think it has a place?</p>
<p>In my opinion you should take the essays seriously. This doesn’t mean you can’t do humor, by any means, but you shouldn’t make any of your essays “jokes,” if you know what I’m getting at. How much or how little humor you use in your essays depends on your personal style and what topics you choose to write about.</p>
<p>“essay” 6 about listing books is not really an essay right?</p>
<p>also, what are considered honors? I’ve been in varsity swimming, but haven’t done super good, and I’m in my school’s wind ensemble, but haven’t qualified in any state honor bands. </p>
<p>Does the fact that I’m an automatic NMS semi-finalist count as an honor? My grades and test scores are my high points… and I feel like I don’t have any honors to talk about yet since I haven’t done anything notable in swimming. I placed like 12th at league champs, ughh</p>
<p>Haha, oh TASP thread, how many hours of my life did you steal from me last year!? And since my dearest van_sant had to stick her face in here, I will too. I was rejected after interview phase; nevertheless I know very well what you children are staring at right now. </p>
<p>To answer kevlu93’s question: The 6th essay is not really an essay, it’s more a list of books. I didn’t put anything beyond the title of the book. It’s simply food for interview discussion as far as I know. Honors can be anything you are proud of; if you are unsure of how grand your achievements are, just put them down. I can honestly say that I had extremely weak EC’s at the beginning of my junior year, but I’m quite proud of my writing and that’s what I believe took me to the 14% cutoff. Your Test Scores mean nothing in this process, but don’t let that dissuade you. If you’ve been successful with CR and W, I’m willing to bet their is a correlation to quality of essays. Similarly, I’ve been told by other taspers that they’ve had fellow taspers struggle with school. Your GPA again is not as important as your essay. The essays are key to your success, focus your worries on those, and you’ll be great! (Keil, Obstinate, anyone, feel free to disagree with anything I have wrote here)</p>
<p>Oh and if it will add any validity to my argument, like van_sant, I’m a TASP reject whose just got into his first and second choice college (ED and EA respectively), so it’s not the end of the world! GL everyone</p>
<p>I just got a letter from TASP…I’m more so excited that it might mean I did well on the PSAT because my counselor is lazy and isn’t giving our PSAT scores until after Christmas. Anyone have any idea of who gets a letter PSAT-score-wise? </p>
<p>It looks pretty interesting so I think I’ll apply. =) I read about it on CC before–but I never gave it a second thought because I didn’t think I had a chance.</p>
<p>^I believe the score cutoff is different for different races/ethnicities, but that’s purely speculation.</p>
<p>I’m white…so yeah. Could I assume I probably made at least a 200? That’s all I wanted lol NMS cutoff for my state is a 211 if that helps.</p>
<p>If you receive a TASP application you can safely assume that you are a NMSF. Congratulations.</p>
<p>As much as I would like to, I don’t believe you. =/ I mean I couldn’t be an NMSF…I made an 1870 on my SAT last year…I was in a daze during the writing section…and I didn’t study. Are you sure? lol I hate my counselor for not giving us PSAT scores until after Christmas!</p>
<p>That’s good at least it (the scores) won’t ruin christmas :)</p>
<p>I think I’m going to call my counselor on Monday–this is really annoying me lol</p>
<p>I tried to keep my mouth shut but can’t.
Hi hollow, did you go to swarthmore thing? that’s where you heard about the struggling TASPer?
Then that’s got to be my kid. cough cough.
Anyone out there, wondering if they should even bother applying for all these fancy talks.
PLEASE, do it. write what you feel, forget about test scores, college acceptance benefit, GPA, NMS whatnot, even proper grammar and spelling.
Why telluride stop doing nominate only, now stop asking for recs and transcript up front?
I don’t know I can only guess.
Maybe they are tired of kids driven by numbers and pumping up resum</p>
<p>how long were each of yall’s essays? I know there is a 1500 word limit, but the essay on our future plans… do they really expect us to do 1500 words. Will 500 words do?</p>
<p>And for the cricital analysis and the essay on “what makes us tick,” if it were say 750ish words, would that be too short?</p>
<p>“Length must not be greater than: 462 characters (current length is 3093)”</p>
<p>=(</p>
<p>^ Same problem.</p>
<p>I had to condense my awards/volunteer list by about 90%.</p>
<p>I only listed the important stuff, so I didn’t have to do much editing there–I’m sure they’re not that interested. My problem was the intellectual interests and the summary. =/ I have a long story lol</p>
<p>Hey everyone,</p>
<p>I applied to TASP last year. I was absolutely in love with the program and spent hours upon hours preparing my essays. I’m sure that almost everyone on here is just as TASP-obsessed as I was last year around this time. Why, I was even youtubing TASP last year for a taste of what I hoped to experience in the summer. In the end, I did not even get an interview, flat. out. rejection. I was devastated because I honestly thought that I would at least get an interview. Someone else at my school got in, and I was freaking out that I wouldn’t get into college/he was superior to me in some sense/I was all around doomed. In short, it sucked.</p>
<p>The reason I am telling you this is not to freak you out more than you already are. I’m telling you this to show you that TASP is NOT the key to all of your dreams and that not getting into TASP does not mean that you won’t be successful in college admissions. </p>
<p>A few days ago, I got into Yale without TASP on my record. The aforementioned person from my school who went to TASP did not. In other words, whether or not you get into TASP doesn’t matter so don’t worry :D</p>
<ul>
<li>bubblegnome6</li>
</ul>