Frequently asked questions

Yes. There is no tuition, no fee, and no application fee. We cover:

• •Travel to and from Tulsa, including flights
• •Housing on campus for the week
• •Every meal
• •All materials, lab supplies, and activities

You should not need to spend money to attend. If something about your situation makes that hard, email us and we will work it out.

TASC is a fly-in program. Students come from across the country: in ’26, from as close as Tulsa itself and as far as Fairbanks, Alaska. If you are flying, we book and pay for the flight and someone meets you.

If your family drives you, we reimburse mileage. We collect the details after you are accepted.

Everyday clothes and your own toiletries, and that is close to it. Laundry is available during the week. Bring a laptop if you want one, but you will not need it for any track, and we send a proper packing list once you are accepted.

Unfortunately, very competitive. Our goal at TASC is not to drive down acceptance rates. However, due to funding constraints and our belief in intense small-group learning, we can only accept a small cohort, turning away many qualified applicants.

Apply early in the window if you can, and see the question below about applying more than once.

Yes, and we strongly encourage it. Plenty of students apply two or three years running. When we see an application from someone who applied before, we read it as evidence of maturity and growth, and we pay attention to how you have developed in the year since.

Applying again after a rejection counts in your favor. Apply again.

No. Most students are nominated by a teacher, counselor, tribal education office, or community leader, but direct applications are read exactly the same way and every cost is covered either way. If you would like someone to nominate you, point them at the nomination page.

Basic information, at least two short essays of up to 500 words, optional supplements, and a short note on how you used AI if you did. Longer answers and extra answers are not favored.

One of the prompts you can choose is to make the most persuasive argument you can that TASC is not an effective use of MIT and the PKG Center’s funding. That is a real option and people have been admitted on it. All four prompts are listed on the eligibility page.

Yes. Use whatever tools you have, including large language models, teachers, and friends, and tell us about it in a short question at the end. We are trying to understand how you think and what you care about, so write authentically. That is also the more effective strategy.

No. Instructors teach to whoever is in the room, and students have arrived without calculus, without lab experience, and without having written any code, and done well. What we are looking for is curiosity you act on.

No, including for the AI track. You will be taught what you need.

There are four: Chemistry and Energy, DNA Technology, AI Engineering, and Fundamentals of Reality. You choose yours at the opening ceremony on the first evening, once you have met the instructors.

Two of them, DNA Technology and Chemistry and Energy, run real lab work in the science building.

Neither, by design. There are no tests and nothing goes on a transcript, which is what lets the week be genuinely exploratory. What you get out of it is the week itself, the people, and a letter-writer who knows you if you stay in touch.

Wake around 7:15 and breakfast with a short meeting to set up the day. A long track block through the morning, lunch, then a second track block. Late afternoon is a guest speaker, a workshop, or a game. Dinner at 5. Evenings are a workshop or a discussion, then something social, and lights out around 11.

A full real day, hour by hour, is on a week at TASC.

A residence hall on the University of Tulsa campus, with most students sharing a double. All meals are in the campus dining hall. Tell us about any dietary restrictions on your forms and we handle it.

Yes, it is yours. Most students find they use it less than they expected because the days are full.

There is some free time every day, and optional activities most evenings you can skip. The social half of the week is real: basketball on the first afternoon, a scavenger hunt, capture the flag, a trebuchet building contest, board games, karaoke, and a movie night.

Nobody does. The first afternoon is built around that: basketball, then speed friending, then a scavenger hunt, specifically so that 25 strangers have reasons to talk before the first evening. It works faster than you would think.

You can step aside from any particular activity if you need to. Tell a member of staff and stay with the group. This is a program ground rule, and using it is normal.

Staff are with students throughout the week, including MIT undergraduates, teaching assistants who were TASC students themselves, and PKG Center staff.

Tell us. Medical information, medications, and access needs are collected on the forms after acceptance, and you can email us before applying if you want to know whether something is workable. We would rather plan for it than have you rule yourself out.

Yes to both. Students keep their phones, and guardians get our contact details before the program along with arrival and pickup instructions. Guardian questions go to tasc-exec@mit.edu.