Sush Krishnamoorthy, a student from New Delhi, is part of “The Choice†class that includes student-bloggers from Nairobi, Kenya; Topeka, Kan.; Seattle; Rogers, Ark.; Las Vegas; New York City; and Hunting Valley, Ohio. Her sixth post is below. â€" Tanya Abrams
With the college application process now complete on my end, I have all the time in the world to focus on my class 12 board examinations.
But the anxiety about admission decisions is endless. Couldn’t tomorrow be April 1
The only way to avoid this futile anxiety is to be occupied with something else. So I am making plans for the summer. I have more than four months of summer vacation this year and I want to make the most of it.
Last year, in January, I stumbled upon the Summer Science Program. At S.S.P., students work in teams of three to determine the orbit of an asteroid. It requires more than six weeks of observations and attending college-level lectures in astonomy, physics, math and programming.
Although I love science, programming and mathematics in particular, I have no experience in astronomy or research. I wondered if I would be able to cope with such an exacting program. Still, I applied.
Last March, I received an e-mail that said I had been accepted to S.S.P. and I was overjoyed!
To prepare for the program, I listened to the University of California, Berkeley’s online lectures on astronomy and checked out Visual Python. Yet, I was still underprepared for S.S.P.’s “drinking from a fire hose†experience. Students often collaborated on problem sets, which is how we managed to solve the tricky questions.
The orbit determination itself seemed like a huge project at the beginning. However, everyone managed to track their asteroids, write their Python codes, and compute the orbit of their asteroid. When ! my team sent an e-mail to the Minor Planet Center containing our results and submitted our research paper to our research mentor, I was proud to have made my first, infinitesimal contribution to science.
At the end of the program, I had made friends for life â€" many of whom I hope to meet in college and at various crossroads in life. I had also overcome my hesitation of venturing into new subjects. S.S.P. broadened my perspective.
S.S.P. is also the most college-like social experience I have come across. Despite the cultural differences, we fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Or perhaps the differences bound us together.
For students in a science program, we were also a surprisingly athletic group. I enjoyed the many soccer and Frisbee games we played. Being an athlete, I look forward to more sports opportunities in college.
At S.S.P., there was a balance and I felt like I truly belonged. After that, there was no looking ack. I certainly wanted to come back to the United States for college.
Now it is inevitable that the words “science,†“project†and “research†capture my attention. I am also hunting for programs for this summer. Be it chemistry, business or computer science, I would love to apply. Isn’t this the best time to explore all my academic options
The downside is that there seem to be very few programs open to graduating seniors that also offer financial aid to international applicants.
Apart from summer programs, I have been considering short courses in Spanish and application development at institutes in Delhi. Cooking lessons from Mom also figure high on my list of summer activities. There is also a long list of books waiting to be read! These plans are certainly making the wait for admission decisions easier.