Advice about SSP (Summer Science Program) in Astrophysics

Nemesis_Artemis
Sun, 10 Apr 2022 16:46:30 +0000

I think it is like highly selective colleges (but there are fewer of them)—they can probably create 3+ classes of equally qualified students so it comes down to how the people reading the applications decide to build this particular year’s cohort. I know it is hard not to take it personally but beyond being qualified (which most kids who apply are), it really is subjective from there.

She was rejected from RSI, BU RISE Internship, and YSPA. Waitlisted at Belin Blank SSTP. She hasn’t heard from HSHSP but I know acceptances have come out. She is young so did not apply to any that required 16+.

STATS:

From Long Island (NY), very average public school, female, not an URM, not low-income

SAT 1590 (800 M, 790 V, single and only HS sitting); PSAT/NMSQT - perfect score

UW 4.0, lots of APs (including AP CS -5, AP Bio - 5, AP Calc BC - 5, and AP Physics this year); Stanford ULO Linear Algebra; school doesn’t rank but likely in the top 3 in her class

Some awards but not top-tier (her high school doesn’t really participate in any of these)

ETA: Summer Research in bioinformatics (but no science fair entry or published paper)

ECs: FIRST Robotics (Dean’s List Semi-Finalist) President of Science Club (did Science Olympiad and medaled in two events); USACO (Silver); Music; Girl Scouts

Lots of volunteer hours (Presidential Service Gold) including her GS Gold Award project on encouraging girls in computer science and also has run Astronomy workshops for younger GS

Excellent writer

Not sure how the LOR were—her teachers love her and I am sure they intended to write good letters but we don’t really know how good they are at writing recs