FAQ: Perry Outreach Program (POP)
Applicants must be in high school. Students from all backgrounds are welcome to apply. Preference is given to older students, but underclassmen who are not accepted are encouraged to reapply for the program in the same location the following year.
A full Perry Outreach Program is 40 participants. We will accept 40 students and maintain a waitlist of 5-10 students. If one of the original 40 selected is unable to attend, a participant from the waitlist will be contacted.
POP programs are held at locations all over the country on Saturdays from September through June. There are no POP programs over the summer. Check our Program Calendar to find a POP near you. We generally return to the same program locations around the same time every year.
Good news! Our program is free! We work very hard, applying for corporate and educational grants, to make sure our programs stay that way. And for all those that say there is no such thing as a free lunch… Ours is. Students receive lunch during the program day.
Perry Outreach Programs occur on Saturdays and run from 8:30am to 3:30pm. Unless otherwise specified, parents are welcome to join us any time after 2:30pm.
Because the program is an immersive experience, we cannot allow participants to come for only part of the day. Please check your schedule carefully before applying to the program. Applying to the program when you already have a commitment takes a spot away from another participant who was interested and available.
You must apply to the program. Applications generally close one month before the program date. Your application will be reviewed by our internal team, and you will be notified of your acceptance status.
We evaluate applications based on interest in engineering, medicine, and STEM in general - not GPA or which high school you go to. Your background information is not considered as part of the application process, and we welcome all applicants.
For programs that are heavily enrolled every year, we do give preference to older students (juniors and seniors) who will not have a chance to reapply.
The essay questions are the only place on the application where you get the opportunity to tell us about yourself! It is best to view these essays as a chance to tell the admissions staff all about what a lovely, driven, passionate, smart, and interesting person you are. This is the place on the application to let us know that you are more than your name, email and high school. This is where you show us that you really are interested in engineering or medicine. Go ahead, tell us about you. We’re interested!
If it’s before the application deadline and you or your reference haven’t heard from us yet, don’t panic. We’ll be in contact if we need additional information. Do not worry – we may not contact your reference and that’s okay.
Tip #1:
PROOFREAD, PROOFREAD, PROOFREAD! And when you think you have the perfect essays… PROOFREAD AGAIN!
This may sound obvious, but our admissions committee sees hundreds of applications each year with spelling and grammatical errors that could easily have been prevented. You should use a computer with a keyboard and not a smartphone/tablet to submit your application. If necessary, write your essays in a separate word processing program and copy and paste your essay into the provided text box on the application. A word processing program will also give you a character count; the limit for our essays is 1000 characters
Tip #2: Think about it!
Take some time to reflect on your answers. It is better to think of and communicate a couple of good reasons you would like to participate in the Perry Outreach program than to give a one sentence answer with your first thought. For example, when you first hear about the program, your first response to “Why would you like to participate in the Perry Outreach Program?” may be “My teacher told me about the program and it sounds fun.” While that may be the immediate reason you would like to participate, it does not distinguish you from other applicants.
Tip #3: Flesh out your ideas.
Full, well-constructed paragraphs are far more likely to gain you admission than one sentence answers. Again, see tip #2. We want to see that this is something you are genuinely interested in doing. This is also the only place where you get a chance to let us know that you are a real human. Tell us something interesting about what has inspired you to look at engineering or medicine as a career!
Tip #4: Use complete sentences!
When discussing your short-term and long-term educational goals, it is better to describe these goals in sentence format rather than as a list. Even more impressive is if you include things you are going to do to achieve those goals. For example: “By studying each night and arranging time with my teachers outside of class to discuss my progress once per week, I intend on graduating at the top of my class. This will help me achieve my long-term goal of being accepted to a top university to major in cat wrangling.” Also, try to avoid using abbreviations for things that may be very familiar to you, but not familiar to someone else (AP and IB are commonly understood, but other specialized designations for classes you may attend are not).
Tip #5: Most importantly: Be Yourself!
Tell the truth. Don’t make up stories or make true stories “more dramatic” in hopes of grabbing someone’s attention. That said, you should also not be afraid to talk honestly about any hardship you may have encountered in your educational journey or home life. Be authentic in telling your experience, and the true you will shine through!
Please double check your personal information, especially your email.
If your email is mistyped or inactive, we won’t be able to contact you. You should receive an email confirmation that your application was received. If you don't receive it right away, check your spam folder. Sometimes school email settings will send us there.
Make sure that you received a confirmation email from us at the time of application. If your email was incorrectly entered (or our reply got caught in your spam filter!), you might have missed out on some essential information.
Check and make sure that the application deadline for your program has passed. Admissions decisions will not be made prior to the application deadline.
Wait at least 4 business days after the application deadline to allow us to make decisions. Some of our programs receive over 150 applications!
If you have done everything above and still cannot find any correspondence from us, you can email us at info@perryinitiative.org.
Unfortunately, we simply cannot accept all of applicants. Please do not take our admissions decision as a judgment of you as a student or as a person. In addition to your essays, there are other factors that contribute to our decision, including the number of students who reapplied.
You may request feedback on your application. If you send an email to us at info@perryinitiative.org, we can provide you with insight about your program’s applicant pool and how you can improve in the future.
If you are unable to make it to the program, lease email us at info@perryinitiative.org as soon as possible. We will be able to give your spot to a student on the waitlist.
If you notify us ahead of the program (or day of the program, in case of sudden illness) that you are unable to attend, you are eligible to apply again for next year’s program. You do need to fill out the application again. While you will be given preference in admissions, you are not guaranteed admittance.
If you did not notify us ahead of time and simply no showed on the day of the event, you will be disqualified from admission to all future Perry Initiative events.
That's great. We're so glad that you had a great experience at POP. While POP is a one-time exposure program, we encourage you to do the following:
- Stay connected with us on social media. There are internships, webinars, and lots of other great community resources.
- Participate in a Perry Virtual Experience. These are for high school and college students and are a bit more engineering-focused.
- Get Involved! Volunteer for POP the next time it's in your area. Tell your teachers and friends about the program.
Have more questions? Contact us here.
