There are many different summer programs that cater to different areas of interest, or to students in different circumstances. One such are programs meant for students from a particular state or region. Some of these are simply because the program doesn’t have any housing available, while others are intended specifically to benefit a local community, for a college or system to give back to the area they are part of. is a major example of the latter, a program by Texas colleges for Texan students, offering a truly remarkable opportunity for students to partake in research. In this article, we’re going to explore what this program is, how students can take part in it, and whether it’s a good option for you to partake in. Let’s get started!
Understanding the Welch Summer Scholars Program
Frequently abbreviated as WSSP, this is an in-person research opportunity for high school students, where they join an existing research laboratory at one of the participating universities, working directly under a faculty member. This takes place over the course of five weeks, during which time students live on-campus at the university they are working at, and eat in the dining halls.
This program is only open to students from Texas, and is hosted by six different universities in the state. Participating institutions are:
- UT Austin
- UT Arlington
- UT Dallas
- University of Houston
- Texas A&M
- Texas Tech
Note that you cannot choose which of the sites you attend if you are admitted; this choice is made for you when you are offered a place in the program. Students do comparable research and have comparable experiences at each, though of course the dorms and campuses differ at each university.Ìý
Welch is specifically interested in chemistry research, with all students taking part in research in the hard sciences, though many different subfields within chemistry are represented. There aren’t options for other fields, though students interested in pursuing scientific research generally frequently benefit from attending the Welch program.
Notably, the Welch program is completely free of charge for participating students. This includes tuition, housing, dining, and the activities students partake in during the program (though bringing spending money is recommended). In-town transportation costs during the program are also covered, though students are responsible for their transportation to and from the program.Ìý
Applying to the Welch Summer Scholars Program
Applications for this program are due at the beginning of April each year. They do not practice rolling admissions; all applications are reviewed at the same time after the deadline passes. We do still advise submitting your applications early, just to ensure technical malfunctions don’t cause problems at the last minute. As with most of these programs, late applications are not accepted.
The application must be submitted , and all pieces of the application must be included. The application requires the following elements:
- The online form
- An essay response (more on that below)
- Two letters of recommendation, from teachers, counselors, or other mentors. They do note that these should not come from family members.
- PSAT, SAT, or ACT scores are required; this is due to the funding grants Welch received
- Transcripts. These should be emailed by your school’s registrar to the program
For letters of recommendation, note that your recommenders will only be invited to submit letters after you complete your application. This is another reason why submitting your application early is a good idea; recommenders are allowed to upload letters after the deadline, but it will be harder for the program to judge your application if they are still waiting on components of it.Ìý
Answering The Welch Program Essay
The basic requirements for admission to the Welch program are academic. They do not have strict GPA or test score cutoffs, but they want to be confident you will be able to handle the work they assign, and understand the material you will be learning. We do recommend students only apply if they have a high GPA and solid test scores.
Once this bar is cleared, however, it is your essay that is used to decide whether you are the best qualified candidate for the program. This is much the same as it is in college admissions (indeed, summer program applications often parallel college admissions in a lot of ways). Writing a good essay is therefore the best way to maximize your chances of acceptance into the Welch program.
To that end, here is the prompt that the Welch program asks all applicants to answer:
- The essay should contain a minimum of 250 words and the document should be double-spaced and uploaded as a .pdf attachment. In your essay, please address one of the following items:
- Discuss your present academic focus. What interests you most about chemistry?
- Describe one or two or your significant accomplishments or life experiences, noting your age at the time, and what each meant to your self-development.
- Discuss an individual who has influenced you. What are the attributes of this person that you most admire? You may draw from fiction, biography, or your own experience.
You will quickly notice that this is in fact not a single question, but three different questions wearing a trenchcoat. Luckily, you only need to answer one of them for your application, and you are allowed to choose which one. You should, of course, choose the one which you are best suited to answer, and which best allows you to show off your commitment to and suitability for this program.Ìý
Which that is is going to depend a lot on you and your experiences. To help you determine that, we’re going to go through each prompt individually, to discuss what they’re looking for in a response.
Discuss your present academic focus. What interests you most about chemistry?
The Welch program is specifically designed to help students pursue research in chemistry, so it’s only natural for one of the options to reflect that. This essay is best to answer if you have significant prior experiences in chemistry, and you are interested in pursuing it in the future, especially as a college major.
Note that you do not need to have a desire to major in chemistry to participate in or benefit from the Welch program (though you should at least enjoy chemistry and be interested in the sciences). Many students who intend to become premeds or engineering majors partake in and benefit from this program.
When answering this essay, you should focus on what you’ve done in chemistry, rather than future aspirations. If your only experience is a class at your high school, this may not be the best essay to answer. You want to show how you have explored the subject on your own initiative, and what you have learned and gained by doing so. Chemistry Olympiad, clubs at your school, other summer programs, independent research; all are viable things to discuss in this essay.
Describe one or two or your significant accomplishments or life experiences, noting your age at the time, and what each meant to your self-development.
This is a far more open essay, and one many students choose to answer. There is no one right way to answer this essay, no single achievement that you have to write about. Whatever you choose though, it should showcase your values and explain how you are a good fit for this program.
Research is hard work, and requires commitment, focus, and the ability to work in a team. You should pick an accomplishment or experience that showcases your abilities here, either one where you succeeded because of it, or one where you learned how to better these skills within yourself.
While these can come from any point in your life, more recent experiences are generally better. You are maturing and developing quickly during high school, and so an example from last year is generally taken as a better sign of your character and readiness for the program than one from when you were in middle school.
Regardless of the story you tell, you should specifically highlight how it helped you grow as a person, and develop the skills you needed. These can be hard or soft skills, but essays like these usually work best with interpersonal ones. Things like leadership, teamwork, accountability, responsibility, and the like. Which specific skill and value matters less than how you demonstrate it.
Discuss an individual who has influenced you. What are the attributes of this person that you most admire? You may draw from fiction, biography, or your own experience.
This question is difficult to answer, not in picking someone who influenced you, but in ensuring that your response is about you, and not the person you are discussing. This is a common problem for essays of this type, and an understandable one. The temptation is to spend the whole essay discussing the strengths of the subject, highlighting how awesome they are. The point of this essay (and of all of these essays) is to show how well suited you are for this program, not whoever else you’re discussing.
You should begin by introducing this person and why you admire them, and then explain the impact this has had on your own life. Has a teacher inspired you to go into academia? Has the biography of a famous explorer enthralled you in some way? You want to tie their values to your own, and showcase how these make you a good fit for the program.
Who you talk about matters less than why they matter to you. There are wrong answers of course, but there aren’t any correct ones. You should be able to clearly articulate the values you learned from this person, and how that has impacted and bettered your own life and abilities.
Final Thoughts
Welch Summer Scholars is an excellent program. While it isn’t right for all students (and isn’t available to students outside of Texas at all), it is an amazing opportunity for students within Texas who want to explore academic scientific research. If you fall into this somewhat broad category, then we recommend at least considering this program. It is quite competitive for admissions; Texas is a large state, but not quite as competitive as some smaller programs, having the advantage of multiple colleges being involved.
If you are looking for help applying to this program, or finding a summer program which is more closely tailored to your exact interests, then ³Ô¹Ï¹ÙÍø can help. Our team of mentors is skilled at helping students find and apply to the programs that best match their talents and interests, and which best support their eventual collegiate motivations. If you are looking for assistance with any of this, schedule a today to learn how we can make your life easier. We’re always happy to hear from you.
