<p>Hey everyone!</p>
<p>There seems to be an annual TASP thread, so I guess I'll be starting next session's discussions.</p>
<p>It's only June 2011, but I'm already super excited to for the applications to come out and (hopefully) admittance to the program.</p>
<p>Anyone else as excited as I am? :)
WHOOT!</p>
<p>P.S. This is my first post on CC...'twas a bit daunting.</p>
<p>You are crazy.
I plan on starting a new thread on TASP 2012, in which I’ll sharing with you all about my experience on TASP- the application process and the actual summer program. But I guess you took it first.</p>
<p>Woah, this is super early. The 2011 program hasn’t even started yet!</p>
<p>Sorry- of course I didn’t know that you were planning on starting your thread…but I guess I went on my impulse. You can start your own and let this one dwindle out.</p>
<p>It is ok. Just do something fun in the summer, and let TASP settle for a while. Last year I did my application during winter break and several days after that. Things turned out fine nevertheless; so there’s no use freaking out.</p>
<p>
BEEP BEEP BEEP. IMPROPER SEMICOLON USAGE. FATAL ERROR.</p>
<p>;) Anyway, we should use the same thread for the same topic. No use cluttering up search results and making it harder for next-next-year’s applicants to find advice.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Oh, and if I make a FATAL ERROR like that and got into TASP, then you’ll be fine 
Chaseholl are you a TASPer?</p>
<p>Nope. I’m not really interested in the style of the program or the subject matter. Nor did I want to write several (was it five?) lengthy essays to try to get through an extremely difficult application process while juggling several AP classes and personal projects.</p>
<p>I’m a current TASPer. Here are my two cents.</p>
<p>TASPers are like rays of sunshine on a darkling plain. They are the beacons of humanity in a dark, desolate, empty world. As I prepare to leave this place, I feel the growing sense of a void in my soul. The blackness of the emptiness left by the joy of TASP is prepared to consume my life, like an eternal flame, consuming all semblances of hope and gladness in a cruel, cruel, crushing world. Life no longer has any purpose; I am a wandering husk with my soul torn out and ripped apart before my eyes, poured into a blender and mixed with the raspberries of hate and the grapes of wrath, then spilled into the scarlet goblet of misery and drunken before my horrified, waking eyes. With each self-satisfied slurp, I see all hope of redemption from this all-consuming despair disappear down the gullet of the deterministic machinations of a broken universe. The 32 wisps of flame that provided the sole possibility, the sole inclinations of goodness, will soon be separated and quietly snuffed out, with nary a whimper of pain to signify the joy and greatness that each one represented. TASP was a once-in-a-lifetime, a once-in-a-universe level experience, perhaps a singularity that represents the culmination of all evolution, of human achievement, of the striving and efforts of the struggle that is existence in a world that is forever tending towards entropy - a ridiculously rare confluence of those 32 flames, meeting in a central location, creating a flame brighter and greater than any that has been seen before, or will be seen again.</p>
<p>So, yes, apply to TASP. If you get in, you will be part of this amazing experience, an experience several strata above the greatest depths of pain, or the highest sensations of pleasure, or any religious or extrasensory perception. But as soon as this ends, prepare to have your soul reduced to the primordial mush that forms the soil upon which lesser minds lay down their roots, and the cruel heels of a heartless humanity march down in endless rhythm, one after another, rank by rank, file by file, trampling this mush into an unrecognizable slush of despair. This is the price one must pay for participation in this last hurrah, this cry of defiance against the void that threatens to consume us all.</p>
<p>…what?</p>
<p>Did you even go to TASP? That’s not what it’s like at all.</p>
<p>Sometimes in your private life you have a mistress you love, love being with. You spend time to time in a grand hotel, with good room service, great champagne, and you separateand when you are really in love with her, you inevitably think, Could I wake up with her, near her every morning? And then you try it. This is exactly what I did in TASP. TASP was a great mistress. I had a great f— with TASP. It was like a weekend in the Hotel du Cap.</p>
<p>First of all, I highly resent the ludicrous statements about TASP made by captainsandwich and ArielleDombasle. I am actually at TASP, and I doubt that you two jokers even made it past the interview process. I apologize for those two. I will give a description of what TASP is really like from the perspective of a real TASPer.</p>
<p>TASP is like my sixth grade year in school. I remember what it was like back then. I wish we could all get along like we used to in middle school… I wish I could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone would eat and be happy.</p>
<p>I’m sorry. I didn’t actually go to TASP, but I wish that I did. I just have a lot of feelings…</p>
<p>Would anyone mind explaining what TASP is about? Target demographic? What you do? Selectivity?</p>
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<p>I just cracked up hard. After the most verbose, convoluted and pseudo-philosophical post ever, you just shut the kid down. </p>
<p>Anyways, this is just the thread I’m looking for. Any past TASPers willing to provide insight on the admissions process for the program? I know the program is extremely selective, but besides the obvious interests, what do they look for in an applicant?</p>
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<p>Well, I was actually a finalist who ultimately got rejected, but I’ll provide you with as much insight as I can.</p>
<p>The first and biggest part of the admissions process revolves around the essays, obviously. There are four regular, 1000-word essays, and how you go about them really depends on how you work. Some people will write them months in advance so they can spend several months having people read and reread them before doing a very thorough editing job. I did the opposite and wrote all of my essays the weekend before they were due and didn’t let anyone else read them. Just remember not to go too crazy over making them look perfectly polished - just focus on making them yours, whatever that entails.</p>
<p>Other suggestions on the essays? Don’t sweat the book list or the program choice essays too much. My book list was relatively short and all of the publications I listed were comic books and my program choice essay was maybe 400-500 words and very straightforward. Also, don’t write a generic essay…for example, don’t write your critical analysis on something that looks like it came from a 10th grade English class reading list. I wrote mine on a relatively obscure graphic novel, and I think that was probably the main reason why I got picked as a finalist.</p>
<p>The interview is a fairly mixed bag, and from this point it can really go either way. Some people get cozy, one-on-one coffee shop interviews; I got an Ivy-educated lawyer and two grad students who pretty much bombarded me with questions that I could easily write entire essays on. I wouldn’t call mine disastrous, but in retrospect I was trying WAY too hard to impress them (and often failing miserably, I might add), which I think was a big reason why I wasn’t ultimately chosen. So the biggest thing I can tell you is BE YOURSELF. If that doesn’t work, don’t take it personally - in most cases, it’s not you, it’s them. There are so few slots and so many incredible applicants, plus they seem to try really hard to get a lot of geographic, racial, and intellectual diversity in the group.</p>
<p>And just for the record, if you don’t get in, it’s far from the end of the world. I didn’t go to TASP, but my summer has hardly been unproductive - I volunteered at Columbia for a little while and got to meet some absolutely incredible people (in fact, I’m going up to NYC to have a barbecue with some of them this weekend), then I got a part-time job at home and started slowly working my way through the postmodern canon. Oh, and I started teaching myself Russian before I moved on to my next Interest of the Week…should probably get back to that at some point.</p>
<p><em>Sniff sniff</em></p>
<p>I think I might smell a ■■■■■ or two on this thread. That’s fine. Learning the art of ■■■■■■■■ (especially in a pseudo-serious atmosphere) is one of the many parts of being a TASPer.</p>
<p>Before I continue, I’d just like to put up the link to the TASP website (although I hope you’ve already been there if you’re serious about applying). </p>
<p>[Telluride</a> Association: Our Programs: For High School Students: Summer Program for Juniors (TASP): General Information](<a href=“http://www.tellurideassociation.org/programs/high_school_students/tasp/tasp_general_info.html]Telluride”>http://www.tellurideassociation.org/programs/high_school_students/tasp/tasp_general_info.html)</p>
<p>I participated in the TASP program at the University of Michigan this year - it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. The program has only been over for a few days, so it might seem like I’m still riding the exciting high of being there, but I’ve no doubt that in the long term I’ll be able to look back at TASP as one of the major formative events in my teenage years. </p>
<p>I met, lived with, and developed intense relationships with 31 other people for 6 weeks. These weren’t your standard people, of course: TASPers conspicuously lack the superficiality so prevalent in our society. They are not only willing to think deeply but happy to; they are not only ready to form strong and nuanced opinions but ready to defend them passionately and rationally; and, despite what may sound like haughty intellectual pretension, they manage to be approachable, amicable people.</p>
<p>The seminar, populated as it was by such minds, was excellent. The workload was intense without being unmanageable, and the lack of grades facilitated teacher feedback on essays and writing assignments while removing any meaningless competitive aspect from the intellectual atmosphere. My perspective on the philosophy of freedom was radically changed (note that the seminar topics change every year and can vary quite a bit).</p>
<p>If you are one of the many who resents our society’s slide into anti-intellectualism and the glorification of stupidity; If you love thinking and value discourse highly; If you feel ready to have your ideas challenged and feel capable of defending them or re-evaluating them in light of new worldviews; apply to TASP. You have nothing to lose (I consider the essay writing process beneficial, not wasteful) and so much to gain.</p>
<p>As jrm927 pointed out, it’s not the end of the world if you don’t get in; there are other wonderful, unique experiences out there. Many intelligent, worthy people get rejected from TASP. I urge you, however, to at least try your chances. In retrospect, not applying because of the daunting essays (as I considered more than once) would have been a terrible decision.</p>
<p>What’s more important, high school grades, the PSAT or essays? I’m guessing it’s essays>grades>PSAT, but thats just an inkling of mine. TASP seems perfect for me and is definitely what I want to do next summer. If you don’t mind, Zelaznog, could you inbox me your essays? If they’re too personal or revealing, then I understand, but if it’s not too much of a hassle, I’d love to see what an accepted student’s essay looks like.</p>
<p>Your high school grades and your PSAT are not even considered in the admissions process. Your essays are everything. The only time I know either grades or your PSAT enter the process is at the very start - I believe the Telluride Association sends out invitations for TASP to top PSAT scorers throughout the country. But that’s it; you don’t even need an invitation to apply. I didn’t even receive one, and I still applied and got in.</p>
<p>So please don’t worry about your PSAT scores or your grades when applying to TASP. Your essays are all that matter.</p>
<p>Supersizeme - Two of my essays are kind of personal, but I’d be happy to send you my opinionated essay and my critical analysis. Good luck with the application process! I suggest not waiting until the last day to do 2 of the essays like I did…</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, the application doesn’t come out until December or early January, leaving only about a month to complete several lengthy essays. Are the essay questions same every year?
And zelazong, could you message me your essays as well?
Thanks:)</p>
<p>I’m kind of new to college confidential (I think I have about 4 posts) and I did not think my previous post through. At all. Publicly saying I was going to send someone 2 of my essays was, in retrospect, a bad idea (now 3 other people want them as well). I will send the aforementioned essays to theaudone (pm me) and the other people who have privately messaged me, but beyond that I don’t want to share. Please understand: I’m not trying to be mean or exclusive, I just feel uncomfortable sending my work to a lot of anonymous people (and I’ve kind of given the impression that I’m willing to just send my essays to anyone). I’m happy to answer any other questions you may have about the program or the application, however.</p>