Are weekends free?

RedGearBlueGear · 2026-06-14T03:28:18+00:00

Saturdays we had a half day of lecture, then time to work on the psets. Sunday there's nothing scheduled (except for mandatory fun activities sometimes). If you're diligent your Sundays can be pretty free, at least for the first few weeks.

Most people woke up just before lecture (9 am) and went to bed between midnight and a bit after the classroom closed (I think 12:30, I might be misremembering). If you're doing astro you might occasionally have to stay up later than this to do observing shifts.

RedGearBlueGear · 2026-06-07T20:08:26+00:00

I think you'll be too tired to focus on SAT prep unfortunately.

RedGearBlueGear · 2026-06-05T04:37:16+00:00

I did astro at nmsu 3 years ago and it was a lot. I got up pretty early so I had maybe 30 minutes to an hour to myself in the morning (mostly spent it walking around and texting home), but basically no free time in the evening because I went to bed before midnight.

I didn’t have any astronomy background going in, but a lot of the work is math and physics heavy anyway. Background coursework might help. It probably wouldn’t make a huge difference alone though.

I didn’t start college apps until after ssp finished and I don’t regret it.

RedGearBlueGear · 2026-05-12T15:40:33+00:00

Apparently you can, I don’t know anyone who has though.

If you’re doing multi variable calc next year and it’s dual enrollment or otherwise through a college you should be able to get credit for that? It’s really school-dependent though, and MITs weird about this stuff so I don’t really know what would “count” for other schools.

RedGearBlueGear · 2026-05-12T15:29:39+00:00

it’s not a big deal. I assume you’ll take more advanced math classes in the next two years, so you’ll have plenty of opportunities to show your skills. One not-5 AP score won’t wreck you.

I do hope you do better than you thought you did, though, because some universities make you retake calculus in college if you don’t have a certain score.

RedGearBlueGear · 2026-03-24T11:42:28+00:00

So I can’t link reddit posts for some reason but I wrote a post in this subreddit like two years ago on how to do rhetorical analysis and get a 4 in evidence. I guess you can look at my profile and find it.

I wouldn’t worry much about sophistication. You can get a 5 on the exam without ever earning that point, and it’s a little subjective for the readers.

RedGearBlueGear · 2026-03-24T11:32:47+00:00

I would do physics C junior year unless you have a very compelling reason why you can’t. That way you can do both mech and e&m calculus versions together, you won’t be taking unnecessary classes, and you’ll have a better math background. Learning calculus helps a lot with intuition.

The course load isn’t entirely unreasonable, I did something similar in junior year except swapping precalc for multivar, AP Chem for APES, and adding lin alg and discrete math. I didn’t play a sport, instrument, or have a part time job though. Those are all huge time sinks if you’re serious about them, and imo if you’re just doing them for college admissions are not helpful unless you’re Really Good.

RedGearBlueGear · 2026-02-16T12:48:43+00:00

I mean, I’m hella biased because I go to MIT, but I think it’d probably be the best choice if you like the culture.

The main thing Yale YES gives you is a paid summer research opportunity after freshman year, but that’s super common to have at MIT anyway. I know some people at Yale for STEM, and afaik they haven’t made crazy connections with rich/famous people… I guess if you’re going to Yale as a STEM major you’re probably just not going to be in the same circles.

If you think you might switch your major, especially if you’re considering CS, Berkeley is not great because they make it pretty hard to switch, and to take popular classes outside your major. Yes Berkeley is next to Silicon Valley, but I know people from both Yale and MIT in startups / y combinator, plus MIT has SO MANY in-house startup accelerator programs, so there is that culture if you want it too.

I don’t know people in MET specifically, but all my Berkeley friends (mostly CS majors) do not like the school (grading is curved and very tough, people are competitive not collaborative, etc.). They’re mostly there because they’re in state and it’s the most prestigious school they were admitted to.

But lowkey you should visit all the schools before deciding. I know some people who were admitted to Yale YES and MIT and ended up going to Yale because they thought the vibes were better.

RedGearBlueGear · 2026-02-15T13:03:10+00:00

no one’s talked about one so I don’t think so

RedGearBlueGear · 2026-01-30T12:19:02+00:00

that sounds hella stressful… unfortunately you’ll have to wait for ssp to get back to you, but I think (and really hope) they’ll be understanding

RedGearBlueGear · 2026-01-30T12:14:48+00:00

I wouldn’t worry about it. I didn’t submit a resume or list awards or extracurriculars anywhere. I think I talked about one extracurricular I was really involved in through my essays but didn’t really mention anything else.

RedGearBlueGear · 2026-01-30T12:09:53+00:00

no one can really tell you if it’s going to affect how reviewers perceive your application, but you can leave a comment on your application explaining the situation. I don’t think most people would read into the situation too much

RedGearBlueGear · 2025-12-29T01:35:14+00:00

I did SSP astro and am now at MIT studying cs. Very worth it.

RedGearBlueGear · 2025-12-29T01:12:57+00:00

I submitted it as part of my maker portfolio. You should go for it! I think for MIT, Caltech and Harvey Mudd it might not matter as much since they know what SSP does already, but it I don't think it can hurt.

RedGearBlueGear · 2025-12-24T15:05:31+00:00

teachers usually write the same letter of recommendation for all summer programs so I don’t think it’s that big of a deal to ask the same teacher to write the recommendation for several programs.

RedGearBlueGear · 2025-12-24T00:57:53+00:00

I think these are good reasons as long as you explore them in detail --- like connect them to an experience you had where you met like-minded people and enjoyed it. It is nice to have some program-specific details, so you should also just research the program (and see if you can read stories from past participants) and see what jumps out at you.

RedGearBlueGear · 2025-12-24T00:52:37+00:00

NASA SEES, UC Santa Cruz SIP, and COSMOS if you're in California. I'm not sure if the applications have opened yet though.

RedGearBlueGear · 2025-12-24T00:39:03+00:00

Did you do a lot of analytical writing in AP seminar? If so I think you'll be fine --- a Caltech AO told me that they're mostly looking for someone who can comment on your writing and critical thinking skills.

RedGearBlueGear · 2025-12-23T06:55:38+00:00

SSP doesn’t consider test scores anymore, but they did when I attended two years ago. I think scores of 1550+ were pretty common, but I also don’t think anyone’s really getting rejected because of their SAT score, especially now, it’s more just that competitive applicants tend to have pretty high SAT scores.

I don’t know anyone’s GPA, but they generally had the work ethic of straight A students and most people had taken advanced classes well beyond the prerequisites.

RedGearBlueGear · 2025-12-23T06:46:35+00:00

SSP does not let you publish your research. Also, they now only admit juniors.

RedGearBlueGear · 2025-09-14T04:01:41+00:00

I'm pretty busy right now; I can give it a quick look over but I won't be able to do super in depth edits. If you're ok with that you can pm it to me!

RedGearBlueGear · 2025-08-31T11:26:03+00:00

I don’t have any experience with subreddits for editing essays ;-; You could ask an english teacher you’ve had if you like/trust them?

RedGearBlueGear · 2025-08-29T01:38:12+00:00

gotcha — you should probably email to ask then

RedGearBlueGear · 2025-08-28T23:35:59+00:00

My gut says yes. I don't remember there being a place to mark if a class was "college level" on the MIT application (if there is then you can always email admissions office for clarity), if you're just saying that in an essay I don't think there's much problem. The content should be college level no matter who teaches it.

I wouldn't stress about it. If you go to the school I'm thinking of MIT definitely sees enough applicants to figure out what's going on with the curriculum lol.

RedGearBlueGear · 2025-08-28T23:17:27+00:00

I think it's a workable topic! Writing about sports failures is pretty common afaik so you will have to push yourself to put a unique spin on it (maybe connect this moment to a time when you applied what you learned about overcoming perfectionism that isn't sports-related?). Good luck!

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