Please also check the application FAQs on the state Governor's School website as well as the FAQs on the Governor's School application.

• QUESTION: What is the cost of the Governor's School of Engineering and Technology?
• ANSWER: There is no cost to students or their families. The entire cost of the experience (~$3,000 for tuition, room, and board) is sponsored by donations from corporations, foundations, alumni, and individuals. At the start of the program, students present a $65 check as a key deposit, which is returned (uncashed) at the conclusion of the program when keys and swipe cards are returned.
  
  

• QUESTION: What are the dates of the program this summer?
• ANSWER: The program will begin the morning of Sunday, June 28th, 2009 and conclude on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009. A research symposium highlighting the students' work will be held on the morning and afternoon of Wednesday, July 22nd. Parents, teachers, and friends are encouraged to attend in addition to the corporate sponsors, professors, and guests we invite. Please note that work on your research project will begin prior to the start of the residential program. You'll be expected to spend about 40 hours prior to June 28th reading scientific papers and writing up ideas relating to your project.
  
  

• QUESTION: How many students will you accept this summer?
• ANSWER: With the difficulty of fundraising this summer, we had to make a trade-off between the length of the program and the number of students we can invite to attend. As of this moment (mid-March), we can accept 52 students. If any of our outstanding sponsorship requests are granted, we will accept more students, up to a maximum of 80.
  
  

• QUESTION: When do I receive my decision letter?
• ANSWER: We will announce decisions on Friday, April 3rd by both email and postal mail. Note that postal letters will arrive early the following week and thus email will likely be the first notification you receive. PLEASE CHECK YOUR JUNK MAIL/SPAM FOLDER. (Last year, AOL, Yahoo, and Comcast all filtered our decision letters to applicants' spam folders, likely due to the large volume of email we sent out in a short time.)
  
  

• QUESTION: Which email address should I check for decisions?
• ANSWER: Check the email address to which we sent our February 10th and March 20th emails. If you did not receive the March 20th email, or prefer a different address, please let us know ASAP by emailing Blase, the Program Coordinator: blaseur (at) rci.rutgers.edu.
  
  

• QUESTION: Why does the Engineering and Technology Governor's School have so many more essays than {Insert Name of Other Governor's School}?
• ANSWER: Our admissions decisions are based heavily on your personality, interests, and reasons for wanting to attend Governor's School, as described in your essays. We really try to get to know you through your application. Since our Governor's School involves so much small-group collaboration, your personality, your ability to work with others, and your interest in engineering are more important than your standardized test scores (although we do expect those to be very high, as well). Also, keep in mind that studying engineering is a lot of work. If you can't be bothered to spend the time to write thoughtful essays for your application, how could we expect that you would be a valuable contributor to your teams during the program itself?
  
  

• QUESTION: What sort of students attend Governor's School?
• ANSWER: We try to craft a student body each summer that is diverse in myriad ways. Rather than being antisocial computer geeks, you'll find that our students are very interesting, outgoing, and multitalented... but also a little bit nerdy. Many of our students relish the fact that they're among peers who love math, science, and engineering, but also enjoy sports, music, art, and dancing. Outside of the classroom during our 2008 program, we had plenty of pick-up soccer games, a talent show, student-organized dances, music jam sessions, and a visual arts show of students' work. The only thing we can't guarantee you during the program is a consistent good night's sleep-- there's so much going on, you won't have time for it!
  
  

• QUESTION: Have I been selected as a {finalist, semifinalist}?
• ANSWER: Please note that this year's Governor's School admission process differs from those of 2007 and before. All students who received their high school's nomination and submitted completed applications are considered nominees. There is no such thing as a "semifinalist" this year, and our April decision letters reflect the only round of screening. All applicants will be notified by postal mail and email in April about their status. While your friends from previous years would have received letters from their county superintendent in January or February notifying them of their selection as a semifinalist, we do not screen at the county level this year.
  
  

• QUESTION: Will I be able to attend religious services during Governor's School?
• ANSWER: Yes. We arrange van trips on Sundays to local services, but can also make special arrangements (possibly with the assistance of the student's parents) for religious services.
  
  

• QUESTION: Are there class prerequisites for Governor's School?
• ANSWER: As long as you have taken honors math and science classes in high school, you'll be fine. Some of our elective classes may have further prerequisites, but everyone will be qualified for at least one class in each elective category.
  
  

• QUESTION: How much time do we have for sports/recreational activities?
• ANSWER: Not very much, but we do make sure that you have some free time. We give a significant amount of work, but it's almost entirely groupwork and generally very interesting and fun. The problems we give require a lot of thinking and very little rote memorization, and our instructors actually require that you work with other students to do it. We try to make our classes as hands-on and interactive as possible. We realize that this is summer, and that you certainly don't want to waste the great weather by sitting in the back of a dark lecture hall listening to someone drone on for hours. While we won't feel bad giving you a lot to do, we would feel bad if your projects, classes, and assignments were boring. By the same token, we do enjoy getting everyone out of the classroom to play soccer/frisbee/volleyball/etc, but this is a supplementary activity and won't be available every day.
  
  

• QUESTION: On the front of the application, we are asked to choose "three engineering disciplines." What are engineering disciplines? Does this mean elective classes?
• ANSWER: Engineering disciplines can broadly be defined as areas of engineering. Biomedical Engineering is a discipline. Computer Engineering is an engineering discipline. Aerospace Engineering is an engineering discipline. Nuclear Engineering is an engineering discipline, although one which we will unfortunately not cover at Governor's School. Simply choose the three you find most interesting or most want to learn about. To further explore the range of possibilities, try googling "engineering disciplines" or investigating the Rutgers School of Engineering Departments. Seriously, don't lose any sleep over this choice.
  
  

• STATEMENT: I have questions about Governor's School.
• ANSWER: Call or (even better) email Blase, the Program Coordinator. Phone: 732-445-5053x16, Email: blaseur (.AT.) rci.rutgers.edu, replacing (.AT.) with the @ sign. He's very happy to talk to you about the program and answer any questions you have.