Ben Golub

You may be right. Honestly, the only "really amazing" summer program on the radar of most adcoms is RSI. I gave SHARP and SSP about the same weight when I read and voted on applications -- both good for showing interest in science and noticeably impressive if and only if accompanying supporting materials (papers, etc.) showed that something serious was actually done.

Perhaps another reason I think SSP is nontrivial is that their recs were fairly honest. They sometimes note less-than-stellar things about some aspects of their students, but that actually helped those students a lot more than standard sugary recs, because you knew the positive remarks were genuine.

simfish

I know people with stellar stats who were rejected from NASA SHARP (and YESS) and actually got in RSI (AltairAqua by both, zogoto by SHARP) and I also know of some pretty mediocre non-black, non-Hispanic people admitted by SHARP. I have a feeling that exceptional applicants may be rejected from NASA SHARP or YESS if they're not minorities because they may discourage the minorities in those same programs. If my hypothesis is true, then you can't merely evaluate programs based on their admission rates. But of course, what matters is what one got out of the program, not how selective it is.

DMRenrel

SSP- is that through caltech? if not, who's it through?

mathwiz

How would you look at a candidate who didn't do any summer programs?

me?

I didn't do any, and got in off the waitlist. I'm sure it's not 'that' big of a deal.

zafara17

I searched it (YESS) on the internet and couldn't find it....

Is the YESS program still going or is it replaced by SSP or RSI?

EDIT: Yes, its back for the 2007 year!

mathwiz

Consider an applicant who didn't do anything terribly academically productive (say, a family vacation for the entire summer). How would that affect his application?

Arwen1

why was it discontinued this year? =(

xwang90

My dad works at Caltech, and he said that they are kinda of short on fundings

halfthelaw

Seems like that's a theme of sorts at Caltech.

Craig Montuori

Once you're on campus, you can read the details (Oct-Dec 2005) on the Officers of the Faculty website (oof.caltech.edu, it's restricted to Caltech IPs or a Caltech VPN). Their minutes are quite interesting in looking at what's going on at Caltech from a faculty perspective.

vampiro

umm on this minority issue...I feel (I am an Indian btw so i dont come into the equation) but i feel that it was once ok to ya know start like programs for the minorities and all but now when i check many good research programs, scholarships etc...i really dont see that much for the white kids infact...i mean there will be programs like totally for minorities and then there'd be few which are for everyone and in those also in an unofficial way they like keep 10-15% minority too...i dont get whats the deal with that...I mean i think every white kid mustn't be eating gold in the US..

SteelPangolin

I did the FSI program, the Freshman Summer Institute for "may contain traces of minority" incoming frosh at Caltech. None of the FSI kids that year were disadvantaged, and it seemed like the program resources could have been better used by allocating slots to students with no research experience, or students whose preparation for Caltech was marginal, rather than on the basis of ethnicity. I know people who could have benefitted at least as much as I did from FSI but never got the chance.

YESS

The YESS program is now accepting applications for the summer of 2007. Go to http://yess.caltech.edu for more information.

arwen15

Could you comment on how many applicants you are
expecting this year and how many Caltech is
likely to host?