Placement in the program is competitive, with admission based on an essay, academic performance, and recommendations. The SSTP staff and cooperating University faculty members make final admission decisions. 



In most cases the mentors themselves review a hand-picked pool of applicants that I send them. They then get back me and if you are first on their list I contact you… if you are second or third on the list, I hold your application until I have an accept or decline of our first offer.

To be fair to the alternates, after the first offer is given students have three days to give us a verbal commitment to attend. Most who are offered positions accept them quickly but occasionally we get an indecisive student who has applied to multiple programs and who wants to wait to hear from everyone before making a decision. Obviously waiting weeks to fill a position is not an option for us. So if we have not heard back in four days we offer the position will go to the alternate. We honestly would rather fill the program with students that consider us their first choice anyway!