I’m sorry to hear that you weren’t able to take advantage of the program. As I said before, it is a very fast-paced program that provides all opportunities to you, as long as you’re willing to act on them.
A few bits of misinformation from your post that I would like to clear up:
- I own this thread. I am in no way endorsed by SSI or its founders, but just an alumnus that would like to clear up the misconceptions of SSI from last year.
- The programming courses were custom-made and mainly taught by a University of Washington student (not a Harvard student), which you may know as a top 10 university for Computer Science, so they are well qualified to teach beginner/intermediate data science and programming.
- SSI is in no way just a “backup” program. It in itself holds the same opportunities as other reputable programs from USA __ Olympiads to RSI (which much of the staff had attended). The skills and experience I gained from SSI was unlike any other and has prepared me to currently work at my tech internship, using reinforcement learning (subfield of machine learning) technologies to solve the most pressing energy engineering issues.
However, thank you for the links you’ve provided as they are all valid approaches for high schoolers to gain more science experience. To be completely transparent, while SSI is a rigorous program, it is an enriching experience that I hope many more students can learn through. I wish the best for you in your future endeavors.
Nano1337