SSP Essays Guide 2026

SSP is a competitive and intensive summer research program that accepts high school juniors or exceptional sophomores who have either demonstrable aptitude for research or have shown they can push themselves academically as far as their available resources enable them to. This year, they offer research opportunities in astrophysics, bacterial genomics, and biochemistry. It is a well known feeder program for MIT, so it is a must to apply to for MIT hopefuls. This article will tell you how to approach the numerous essays that they ask you to write as part of your application.

1. What scholarly topic(s) do you currently find most interesting and why? When and how did you become aware of it? How have you explored it? Feel free to discuss a topic in STEM, out of STEM, or both. (180 words)

To stand out, you want to start with a strong personal anecdote that shows the reader a deep-seated personal reason for why you want to study this particular field. It should be one that will make the reader instantly be on your side. Then, describe the moment when you became aware of this topic, and briefly discuss the classes, competitions, research opportunities, and examples of using your passion for this topic to make a tangible difference that you have pursued. To conclude, talk about how falling in love with this topic has changed you for the better, or discuss what you hope to accomplish by pursuing your studies in this topic.

2. We know you lead a busy life, full of activities, many of which are required of you. Tell us about something you choose to do for enjoyment or relaxation (180 words)

Don't let this prompt mislead you. Avoid including anything frivolous or spontaneous here. The objective is to demonstrate how deeply you engage with the scientific method or quantitative reasoning in your everyday life. Highlight activities that not only bring you joy but also benefit from your application of scientific or mathematical thinking. For instance, if you enjoy reading science fiction, you could delve into how it inspires you to use your knowledge of physics to analyze and explain the plausibility of the feats described in the story. Alternatively, if you're passionate about playing card games like Yu-Gi-Oh, you might discuss how you use statistics to optimize your deck, ensuring the best possible chance of drawing a balanced hand.

3.  There are many ways to spend your summer. Why specifically are you applying to SSP, and how might you hope to have changed at the conclusion of your summer with us? (180 words)

Begin by opening with a vivid moment in which you are actively solving a STEM problem, such as during a competition, formal research, or recreationally. Choose a scene that highlights a technically challenging task and reflects a moment where, in hindsight, you recognize that the problem could have been approached more effectively or efficiently.

From there, explain why the work you were doing is personally meaningful to you. After clearly identifying the technical challenges you encountered, describe one or two specific technical skills relevant to that work that you hope to acquire or strengthen at SSP. Examples of such skills include learning how to navigate and synthesize peer-reviewed literature; understanding how statistical methods can be used to extract insights from data and assess the reliability of those insights; learning to communicate scientific findings effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences; identifying complex problems that capture your imagination due to their depth and open-ended nature; and developing the drive to push your intellectual limits by engaging with problems that have not yet been solved. Ensure that these skills are directly aligned with the specific research areas you intend to pursue at SSP.

Finally, conclude the essay by coming full circle, returning to the opening scenario and demonstrating how the skills you would gain at SSP would enable you to approach a similar STEM challenge with greater insight, efficiency, and confidence.

4. Communities can be large or small, well defined or informal. Tell us about a community you belong to, how and why you contribute, and what you have learned from it. (180 words)

This is a classic community essay. Ideally, you should pick a STEM community and provide clear snapshots of yourself interacting positively with fellow community members. These snapshots can range from casual banter to discussions about STEM topics or participation in traditions. The key is to demonstrate that this community resembles SSP in its vibrant, intellectually driven peers, and to show how such an environment brings out the best in you and how you contribute to it. To conclude the essay, connect this community to SSP and explain how you look forward to the SSP community bringing out the best in you. Alternatively, you can conclude with a tangible lesson learned from this community that you will bring to SSP, and explain how it will enable you to contribute to the program. Remember to show rather than tell; they need to be able to visualize you in your chosen community. Focus on only one community throughout the essay.

5. Tell us about a non-academic challenge that you have faced, something in your family, your community, or your personal life that you are proud to have overcome and how you grew from the experience. (180 words)

Even though it asks for a non-academic challenge, it is key that you view this challenge through the lens of STEM. What you want to indicate in these types of essays is that scientific thinking isn't just reserved for the lab or science classroom, but constitutes a way of life that you never abandon. You should approach solving this challenge through the lens of STEM. That means breaking it down into mini-problems, trying to cut through the noise, paying attention to evidence, and even using Bayesian reasoning. With this in mind, you want to show the reader the challenge and construct a metaphorical dragon to slay, using a combination of tools needed to tackle this particular problem and an overall mindset that resonates with the type of thinking needed to succeed in STEM. For the conclusion, talk about the central lesson you learned, and how bringing it to SSP will help you be a better participant.

6. Reflect on a time you learned something from someone or a group of people who are unlike yourself and how that challenged your preconceptions or biases. (180 words)

The best response to this prompt will revolve around a disagreement you had about a topic toward which you have strong emotional feelings, and how you were able to put those feelings aside to engage with it intellectually, letting the merit of the argument and evidence determine how much your view changed rather than allowing your emotional commitment to your original position to dominate.

There are two ways to start this essay. The first is a strong personal anecdote in the first person that establishes an emotional connection to whatever topic you will reveal later in the essay that you strongly disagreed about. The second is to describe how you felt when this person disagreed with you. Ideally, the person you are disagreeing with in this essay should be a fellow peer, because in SSP, that will be primarily who you'll be having disagreements with.

The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate to SSP that you are someone who will benefit from being part of an intellectually vibrant and diverse community where disagreements are bound to happen, and that when disagreements emerge, both parties, even if their minds don't change, end up becoming more educated as a result.

After your hook, either explain the nature of the disagreement, making it clear what you were disagreeing about, or provide a personal reason why this disagreement was something you couldn't just let slide. For the remainder of the essay, you want to show the disagreement in detail and explain to the reader how both parties learned something from it, especially what you learned. You want to give them a specific, tangible lesson that you gained from the experience.

To conclude, reflect on either how this disagreement has impacted your goals and aspirations or how it makes you recontextualize the events in your life that made you emotionally invested in the outcome of this disagreement.

If you want help applying to SSP or any other summer research program, or would just like someone to help you strengthen your overall extracurriculars, schedule a free consultation with an admissions expert today.