<p>@Philovitist, thanks for decreasing the tension here 
your motivations are pure!</p>
<p>@Philovitist the whole āprestige-obsessionā I inferred from inaweoflacs when they used the words āpersonal gainā</p>
<p>I finished my entire application in five days. At first, when I got the TASP brochure in the mail, I totally ignored it; I had already applied to MITES, and figured that TASP would have a binding acceptance, which it doesnāt. One day, while looking back through my MITES app, I realized I had spelled my hometown wrong, a typo I didnāt catch. So I yelled a lot and cursed my own carelessness, and ended up on CC, looking at not only the MITES thread, but this one as well. I checked the TASP website and realized I had five days to finish an application and four essays. I accepted the challenge, as did many CCers who finished it in less time. So I guess this may or may not explain my emotional attachment to TASP, but I must also explain the ābondingā I feel.</p>
<p>When you differentiate between TASPers and TASPlicants, I think you underestimate what it takes just to apply to TASP. In a class of about 400, Iām almost positive I was the only one to apply (which I donāt mean to say makes me better than my classmates, but we definitely have different priorities), and so everyone who applied to TASP has something that makes them interesting or somehow above average or out of the norm, which excites me! Iām also a fan of UChicago but everyone Iāve met at school whoās got a similar gpa or test scores, or takes the same AP classes, when we talk about college, they always (and I mean ALWAYS) mention an ivy league, without any hesitation or reasoning, and I just donāt get it. I think Iām getting kind of off-topic, forgive me I just woke up, but I think if youāre the type of person to make bold attempts like applying to TASP when thereās only a 5% chance of getting in, you might be a little bit crazy in the best possible way. Iām sure everyone here has written fantastically interesting essays, and has booklists filled with works Iāve never heard of; I apologize if I admire you all and would like to get to know each of you better should the opportunity arise. But I think most people, despite what inaweoflacs said, are just like you philovitist, that want intellectual stimulation, and havenāt been getting it. (I could keep going but I think my thoughts are getting less and less coherent)</p>
<p>And I know what you mean about rejection. These are slim chances, so no one should feel bad about not getting in, but it doesnāt mean it wonāt sting.</p>
<p>I SHOULD HAVE WRITTEN MY CRITICAL ANALYSIS ON SAMURAI JACK. great disappointment</p>
<p>Haha, you know, Iām probably not even going to get in, but writing those essays really made me learn a bit more about myselfā¦ Iām not gonna lie.</p>
<p>silencefell, you completely misinterpreted my statement. When I said āpersonal gainā you assumed that I was saying that you were all applying to TASP in order to beef up your app, get into an Ivy, and start a lucrative career as a Wall Street tycoon, but that was far from what I meant. It is undeniable that you are applying to TASP for personal gain in the form of intellectual reward, for you really do not need to attend those seminars to make a change in the world. </p>
<p>Furthermore, I do not at all doubt that a summer program could be life-changing. I just donāt think we need to get so emotional about applying on CC. Hell, I donāt doubt it would be interesting to meet some of the people on this thread, but given the fact that itās not going to happen, Iād rather not give the application process that much importance.</p>
<p>So what did you guys write about? So I can gauge the competitionā¦ =) Iāll start.</p>
<p>1) Critical analysis - The Brothers Karamazov</p>
<p>2) Specific topic - the morality of religion (which seems really unoriginal in retrospect)</p>
<p>3) Personal struggle - losing faith in religion (againā¦ <em>sighs</em>)</p>
<p>4) Plans - undecided, maybe philosophy or writing</p>
<p>5) Cornell I, Cornell II, Michigan I, Michigan II (yeah, I chose them in that order)</p>
<p>6) ~15 books, half from AP Lang</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Critical Analysis - Wired for War</p></li>
<li><p>Personal topic - The social and political effects of nuclear weapons</p></li>
<li><p>Conflict - mediating a conflict between friends, and realizing that mediation = bad</p></li>
<li><p>Future - Law/politics due to ECs, and pragmatic, not idealistic personal goals, due to family experiences</p></li>
<li><p>Seminar choice - same as chowling (though now Iām actually hoping for Cornell II)</p></li>
<li><p>Book list - ~30 books, about 4 from school and the rest ranging from fantasy to philosophy to science fiction (ie the entire Foundation series by Asimov - I HIGHLY recommend reading it if you havenāt already)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>1) Critical analysis - One Flew Over the Cuckooās Nest</p>
<p>2) Specific topic - Stem cell research and the Catholic church</p>
<p>3) Personal struggle - How cancer taught be to be inquisitive</p>
<p>4) Plans - Finishing IB diploma, going on to study biology and get a PhD in cancer epidemiology</p>
<p>5) Michigan II, Cornell II, C I, M I </p>
<p>6) ~15 books and 1 periodical</p>
<p>All Iāll say is that I had about 30 books on my book list. </p>
<p>I was going to share my topics but I just realized that actually all my essays were super-uniqueā¦ so no. </p>
<p>Based on the topics I have heard people write about during this and past years, I consider cliche to beā¦</p>
<ol>
<li>Obvious classic book one mightāve read in AP Lit/Lang.</li>
<li>Religion/ethics of science/foreign policy</li>
<li>Religious struggles/loss of dadās job</li>
<li>Get a Ph.D/go to Ivy/join Peace Core/volunteer/cure cancer</li>
<li>I guess thereās no cliche here, actuallyā¦</li>
<li>Nietzsche, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, etc. </li>
</ol>
<p>Yeahā¦ if you read mine, youād see that they are the very opposite of all these.</p>
<p>HOPE I GET IN.</p>
<p>And also, congrats to all you non cliche-ers for thinking for yourselves. <em>Applause</em> :)</p>
<p>@Leisha13: Gotta be honest, I highly doubt that one really couldāve been āclichedā with these essays. Anyone who was nuts enough to apply to this program is obviously incredibly driven, intelligence nonewithstanding, and from the essays Iāve read, everyone took very standard essay questions and made something awesome out of them.</p>
<p>As for mine,</p>
<p>1) Critical analysis - āThe Social Networkā, Mark Zuckerberg as a symbol for the <a href=āhttp://wwwā>www</a>. generation.</p>
<p>2) Specific topic - Viewed passivity of sexual assault in Western society</p>
<p>3) Personal struggle - Being assigned to a teacher who had dramatically different political and religious views than me and working through it to find that I actually really respect him as a person.</p>
<p>4) Plans - Practical- major in English, become a book editor. Big Dream- Start a human rights/world issues magazine.</p>
<p>5) Michigan II, Cornell I, Michigan I, Cornell II</p>
<p>6) 12 books, none from school. I know itās small, but they specifically asked you to not list every book you had read in the past year, so I made sure to only list books that were really significant to me.</p>
<p>@emmx15: I guess we agree to disagree.</p>
<p>Your essay topics are great, though. They seem like theyād offer a lot of insights about youā¦ and quite unique as well. :)</p>
<p>@Leisha13: I donāt think TASP will punish for being āclicheā or give brownie points for being āunique.ā I think they will most likely look at how effectively one analyzes each subject. Competency always comes before originality. That being said, if one manages to do the former, then the latter canāt hurt.</p>
<p>Too bad you couldnāt share your topicsā¦</p>
<p>i have to agree with Leisha13 that posting essay topics is a dead giveaway of your identity to any TASP readers who happen to be perusing this thread. iām not really comfortable sharing my topics, either, save that i doubt anybody else wrote their critical analysis or future plans on the same topics as i did</p>
<p>@YoSoyBean: True, but itās not like something bad will happen if TASP readers find out who you areā¦ unless youāve posted some really offensive / incriminating stuff on this site.</p>
<p>I picked Michigan I as my first choice, I donāt know why I wrote II here. </p>
<p>I am a member of Goodreads, so I had logged around 100 books I read last year. (They have a reading challenge andI decided to just go for it.). I only put about 12-15 books on my list because they were the ones that impacted me the most, or were the ones I enjoyed the most. </p>
<p>Also, the essays I read that other people wrote were so far from cliche. I enjoyed just reading the awesome pieces people wrote. (:</p>
<p>@chowling: hahahaha, i may not have yet, but i want to reserve the right to do so</p>
<p>@iluvbooks94</p>
<p>Iām the same way with books. I typically read about ~250 books a year, and have read around 750 so far in H.S. I put only the Best of the Best on my list, but wish I could somehow also communicate to Telluride the sheer breadth (subject-wise) and volume of what I read on an annual basis. </p>
<p>Oh well. Hope they can see the tasteful iconoclast in me through the book list. It would be great if I got book nerd reading my app. S/heād probably really connect with me. Fingers crossed!</p>
<p>iām not applying for TASP , but i honestly donāt understand how you can read so many books in a year
like ā¦ do you spend your extra time just reading books ā¦ ?</p>
<p>@Killzslayz Well, I just make time for it. I normally read on the weekends, weekday nights if I have time, and do the bulk of my reading in the summer. I donāt see how itās different from people who watch a lot of television, or play video games a lot, or are constantly on Facebook/Twitter. I enjoy reading, I read quickly, and I justā¦do it.</p>
<p>^pretty muchā¦</p>