Student applications for the Yale Summer Program in Astrophysics (YSPA) are open for the 2018 program.
The website is yspa.yale.edu
How much is the application fee? Thanks.
There’s no application fee.
previous attendees - how selective is this program? Also wondering if we need to know programming before going to the camp? (I know a bit of programming but cant say proficient - my interest in this program stems from Math/Physics aspect than programming but willing to learn during the camp). Just worried if I will be totally lost if I dont know programming from the Day-1.
@hs2020kid Students at YSPA do a two-week programming boot camp before they come to campus, so you don’t need to know programming.
@aloe_guvna thanks for the info. Do you know the selection criteria for admission? is it application essays or transcripts or recommendations - which one is given more weight. Or alternately, can you pls chance me…3.9/4.0 UW GPA (that’s all they asking; for weighted its 4.8/5.0 until middle of soph); classes took/taking include calculus ap, physics ap1, physics ap2, chem(h), bio(h) - these are among highest math/science classes. A few extracurricular with a state-level prize and a club leadership role. My recos may not be great - especially science - the teacher who could have given me best reco is not there anymore and the current teacher doesn’t know me well enough; math reco should be ok.
Do I stand a chance?
@hs2020kid you should definitely apply! I don’t do admissions, but they are looking for applicants who will get the most out of the program… so if you can show that you are genuinely interested in science (especially astrophysics) and are willing to put in the work, you have a good chance.
You should also look at the website and the student blog from previous years to make sure it’s the kind of summer research program you want to do.
does anyone know how many sophomores vs juniors they accept?
I have a slight problem… The countdown for the submission of the application was structured to hit zero at 12 a.m PST. Yet, my application was closed at 12 a.m EST, without giving me a chance to actually submit it. Further, when I sent them a message via “Contact Us”, I couldn’t even view my submission of my question as a page saying “Access Denied” came up. Any tips on how to handle this? I now realize that it said at the top that the deadline is for 12 EST, but I am nevertheless not responsible for whoever put a faulty countdown. Why should I have to suffer for their bug
the countdown is on the YSPA website. Right now it shows that I still have 2 hours and 24 minutes left… yet I have been locked out of my application. Further my application is still marked as “incomplete”
That’s really weird, just email them. They should give you an extension
the contact us page on their website should work since it’s not related to the application website
The application deadline was at 12 a.m EST
So we still have a week or so to submit teacher recs, right?
yup until the 11th i think it said
Does anyone know if I had to include our SAT scores because I have my SAT score of 1570 but wasn’t able find a box to submit this score…Also the same with my AP Cal BC score
i don’t think so
Is there a way to check if my teacher submitted the rec? (I thought of reminding my teacher one last time today but he didnt come to school 
- he generally does not respond to emails, so am not sure if he already sent it or not). thanks.
@hs2020kid i don’t think so, i guess you could email yspa if you really want to know?
So there are no confirmation emails that the teachers have completed their rec, right?
I think so.