brownboy79

I googled the journalism thing, and its apparently for students of color, and it is sponsored by the asian american journalist association. Fine for some of us, but not so fine for others. I just wanted to let you guys know.

Later in the article it says that its open to all students, kind of different from what I saw earlier. This is weird, can anyone explain it?

SourApplezz

^There is no race preference. The organization began in order to promote journalists of color--hence its name. However, their recent aims have shifted toward students and journalists of all races.

The camp will accept all students of all color. The 40 they choose often end up becoming a very diverse group.

anisha08

Yeah, I applied to that camp (AAJA J camp) and I got rejected..little did I know how hard it is to get in. Do they base their applications off of GPA, or do they look for applicants who are ideally going to be juniors or seniors in the following school year?

oasis

Adding to the math list:

Canada/USA Mathcamp -- (personally I think it's more competitive, engaging, and fun than PROMYS) www.mathcamp.org

SUMaC -- math.stanford.edu/sumac/

mrmogul321

Does anyone know any good Business summer programs?

chillaxin

There's a good program at UPenn's Wharton School of Business (it's supposedly the top summer program for business), LEAD. Here's the link:

http://undergrad.wharton.upenn.edu/p.../lead/lead.cfm


It's part of a greater program (still called LEAD) that's available at a variety of colleges. Here's the link to that:
http://www.leadnational.org/

PurpoisePal

what about the summer program at Columbia?

I'm taking advanced creative writing there and I heard it's supposed to be amazing.

The science and math classes are also supposed to be really good.

And even though it's a college program, it really is selective, because I know smart people that didn't get in...

sparticus800

CTY is pretty hot: check the list of where my friends are from there, bar none, in post 13 here: C T Y

ebonytear

Questbridge, although I dunno if they're still doing it - for low-income/minority students. At least they aren't doing it this year. The Leadership program is amazing; about 20 people (from over 1000 apps) get accepted per year, and you basically get $20000 (at Stanford and Harvard) of stuff but you pay nothing b/c it's funded by grants and donations. They help you write college essays, you take classes w/ Stanford/Harvard professors, help you score better on SAT, help set you up with community service programs, give you a mentor to help you throughout college, hook you up with colleges like Amherst, Williams, etc....Princeton also had a program this year, I believe, for ppl who were in this program to basically tempt them to go there...Almost everyone from that program has gone to an elite college, with the "least prestigious" being UC Berkeley. Stanford loves to take people from this program. I was a semifinalist, btw, although eventually rejected. Very intense application though - 3 essays and 2 recs.

I dunno where these figure in terms of rank/prestige in relation to the other programs, but I would add Boys/Girls State & Governor's Schools in your State.

sparticus800

yeah princeton has something like that too. low income/minority/at risk kids...

PurpoisePal

do you know what the princeton program is called by any chance?

xjayz

Just to note...

Questbridge is NOT offered at Harvard anymore. It did away with the program a few years ago.

sparticus800

the princeton program i'm talking about is for locals

XxAzurewrathxX

The most prestigious is definitely RSI, hands down. TASP is awesome too, but maybe not quite as prestigious and it doesn't have quite as many applicants. However, it all depends on what you're interested in. A program like TASP doesn't do much research and is not so indepth into science, so it's not quite as prestigious as RSI, but it's definitely the best in it's own category.

As for RSI, it offers the best environment for student researchers and many of it's participants do great at Intel and Siemens with their RSI projects (or the converse, they did great at RSI with their Intel/Siemens projects).

MOSP is the best camp for math students. It's not that hard to make the USAMO (I've made it twice, freshman and sophomore years - I'm a rising junior right now so I'll aim for another 2 years), however the USAMO itself is rigorous and to make the actual MOSP (not the freshman one) requires both a lot of skill and a lot of luck. A new math camp began this year by the same people who did MOSP for those who are not able to get into MOSP but want to experience olympiad-level math anyway. It's called AwesomeMath.

Other math summer camps: Math Camp for high school, Math Path for middle school, Ross, PROMY, etc.

I've also heard great things about the Young Scholars Program. It's a lot of fun and they give you good classes (perhaps boring at times) as well as a chance to work with undergraduates and their projects. Many participants of the Florida YSP went to MIT, Duke, Stanford, Cal Tech, etc.

Other fun and semi-prestigious camps include EPGY and Sumac at Stanford, CTY at JHU, etc.


Alternatives to summer camps:
1. Dual-enrolling at a local university
2. Enrolling in online credit-earning programs (i.e. - FLVS in florida)
3. Volunteer work
4. Competitions: ARML, Mu Alpha Theta, etc.
5. Working on your science projects
6. Lab Work
7. Work on your free throws
8. etc.

chillaxin

I just feel like I have to add on to XxAzurewrathxX's post. TASP is second only to RSI, and is in itself a free six-week program with an 8% acceptance rate (they accepted about 80 from 1000 applicants this year). While it isn't doing world-class science research, every TASPer I know has said that it's changed their lives. Essentially, TASP is an experience in communal self-government where participants essentially make their own rules and choose how they want to spend their free time. Part of their time, however, is spent in extensive analysis of the subject of their TASP via rigorous reading that is supplemented by documentaries and field studies (last year, the subject of the WashU TASP was urban decay, and the TASPers went into St. Louis to observe).

Correction: TASP isn't a science program, nor was it ever intended to be one. Obviously, in that case, it's not going to go into science, though it will to the extent that it correlates with the TASP topic. TASP is the RSI of the humanities world, and its application process is about six times as rigorous as the application for RSI. Consider this: RSI only requires that you write really one essay (two if you take the "questions/topics you're interested in" and make it into an essay). TASP requires SIX (count 'em, six) essays, though admittedly, one is only a book list. Still, that's SIX TWO-PAGED SINGLE-SPACED essays, which is nothing to scoff at. In addition, after making it to the interview stage (and only 20% of applicants make it this far), applicants are grilled by two to six interviewers at the same time. Forget "tell me about yourself"; the interviewers tear apart your essay analyses and ask you to defend your views. The subjects are far from limited to a single essay topic as they then talk about anything that relates to it. For my interview, we moved from talking about my want to start a hospital in China to the subject of majority vs. minority rules to Communism and the current status of the Chinese government. These interviews have been described as being more difficult than those for Harvard, Princeton, and similar top tier schools

At TASP, test scores and GPA get you virtually nowhere as long as you meet the minimum cut-off. Everything is about your thought process. Also, since you mentioned that "[TASP] doesn't have quite as many applicants", remember that RSI targets a lot more people than TASP does. Only people who scored in the 98 (or 99, I forget) percentile on their PSATs are invited to apply.

You won't get to work with world-class researchers, but you'll have the chance to learn from world-class professors that hail from the country's best universities to teach a group of SEVENTEEN OR LESS. That's an opportunity you'll never get elsewhere. If the thought of being surrounded by the brightest and most motivated minds analyzing current events, history, literature, politics, etc. interests you, I highly recommend that you apply. Don't be afraid to apply if you're a science type person either; I am (though I absolutely love all of the above also) and I did. :]