The Atlas Fellowship
For curious students who want to understand how the world works—and change it.
The Atlas Fellowship is winding down.
Dear Atlas Fellows, parents, and supporters,
After careful deliberation, we have decided not to run any future Atlas Fellowship programs.
It was a difficult decision, but I believe it is ultimately the right one because:
• I hoped to scale our program to hundreds of talented students per year. The funding landscape for programs like Atlas has changed and is unlikely to support such scaling.
• Our program succeeded at empowering exceptional young talent to pursue ambitious projects aimed at large-scale problems—but we succeeded to a lesser degree than I initially hoped.
• With rapid advances in AI capabilities, I and other staff think we will have a greater impact by ensuring advanced AI is developed safely, and we plan to pursue career opportunities in this area.
This is not a decision we are taking lightly. We reached this conclusion after long conversations with fellows and advisors, thorough evaluation of our program impacts, and careful consideration of alternatives.
While I feel confident that this is the right decision, it is not an easy one. I have personally found the Atlas programs to be incredibly exciting and inspiring environments, unlike anything else I’ve experienced in my life before. I am immensely grateful to:
• the instructors who came up with uniquely challenging and inspiring sessions that covered important gaps in our education system,
• the staff who supported our operations and allowed for unique experiences by fulfilling unconventional requests,
• our funders, who trusted and encouraged us to ambitiously pursue and implement a novel program,
• the parents for their trust and support,
• and most importantly, our brilliant fellows who made our programs truly magical and surprised me again and again with wonderful and fun moments, challenging me intellectually and allowing me to learn from them.
If you are a current high schooler who was hoping to apply to Atlas, here are a few ideas for how you can get exposure to aspects of Atlas:
• Have a look at our community opportunities,
• Read some of the books from our library,
• Go through our list of resources.
Even though the Atlas programs are over, the Atlas spirit lives on—in the analytical thinking that will help us make sense of the world, in our future work on large-scale challenges, and in our fellows community that will allow us to find allies and friends—hopefully for a lifetime.
Thanks—it’s been an incredible adventure!
3, 2, 1, progress,
Jonas
Co-founder, Atlas Fellowship
Fellows (up to 100 students) receive:
• A $10,000 scholarship
• A community of curious people who investigate challenging questions and build ambitious projects
• A completely free 11-day program on topics like AI, epistemology, and personal growth in the San Francisco Bay Area, taking place July 15–26 and August 8–19
Finalists (up to 100 students) receive:
• A $1,000 scholarship
• A free book from the Atlas Library
• High school students aged 13-19 from across the world (including people on gap years).
• We encourage students to apply if they worked on challenging projects, have explored intellectual topics, or did well on olympiads or competitions.
• If you come from a nontraditional background, please apply!
The first stage takes just 30–60 minutes, the full application (with two written stages and 1–2 video interviews) takes 5 hours.
This is not a college application: we are looking for fresh and weird arguments, analytical thinking, and solutions to fun puzzles—not polished essays.
Applications are currently closed. Sign up for newsletter to be notified if we open applications again.
Fellows are invited to a fully-funded program in the San Francisco Bay Area.
How can you make the most of college? What can Bayes’ theorem teach us about generating knowledge? When will large language models win gold in the IMO? And what can we learn from China’s history about ending global poverty?
We aim to understand the forces that shape the world and the ways people have come to understand how the world works.
We don’t just want you to memorize a collection of facts—we want to help you improve your ability to confront tangled data and draw your own conclusions from it.
This year’s program will have a special focus on artificial intelligence.
Empower exceptional students to understand and change our future.
Together, we then apply these analytical tools to global challenges that we think are important, such as global poverty, existential risks to humanity, risks from advanced AI, or the reform of economic institutions.
But most importantly, we hope that Atlas Fellows will discover important problems and solutions beyond our own understanding. We believe that thoughtful young people can fix the parts of our civilization that are broken—so we want to raise their ambitions and empower them with tools, resources, and a community.
The Atlas Fellowship is a highly selective scholarship for students interested in science, philosophy, and the future.
The Atlas Fellowship is funded by Open Philanthropy, a large philanthropic organization in the US.
What I liked the most about Atlas was feeling the spirit of continuous desire to discover, present in everything from the application to the summer program itself. The selection process drew me in through articles making me question things I usually took for granted.
Inspired by the Atlas content about artificial general intelligence, and the agency and ambition the fellowship espoused, I helped develop a proposal for an international AI verification agency as part of a report for the UNDRR.
The summer program was among the most valuable 10 days of my life. We thought about ‘big if true’ ideas, played board games and laser tag, found arbitrages in prediction markets, played around with AI models, debated our wackiest beliefs, and made damn good friends with unique, unusually thoughtful people from all across the world.
Atlas contains the highest concentration of smart, thoughtful, and interesting high school students in one place I’ve encountered. The program will have a lasting impact on my decision-making, rationality, and confidence to discuss my opinions openly, both from the lesson content and the wonderful conversations with instructors and fellows. I made a video about my experience at Atlas!
I found in Atlas the spirit of an ongoing desire to discover. It made me question beliefs I took for granted and exposed me to ideas in rationality, AI safety, and the world’s future, constantly inspiring me to learn about things outside my existing interests.
Fellowship Award
Receive a $10,000 scholarship for use on education and professional development-related expenses such as tuition, tutoring, project equipment, or travel to conferences.
Discuss artificial intelligence, US-China relations, futures studies, and your career plans with 20–30 other Atlas Fellows at an 11-day program in the San Francisco Bay Area. The program runs July 15–26 and August 8–19, and if we receive many high-quality applications, also November 6–17 and December 16–24. Food, housing, transportation, visas, and all other costs to participate will be covered.
You’ll have the opportunity to join an 8-week Atlas Project with other Fellows: read and discuss essays about meaning and belonging, model infectious diseases with mentorship from a professor, or study deep learning with the support of a top-rated tutor. Projects are set up and run by Fellows, with support from the Atlas team.
Join our daily active Discord server with Atlas Fellows from current and previous application rounds. Find co-founders and collaborators, or discuss topics such as recent developments in artificial intelligence, global supply chain resilience, or public goods funding.
Access a fund that offers fast grants and investments to help Fellows learn, experiment, and launch innovative projects and start-ups.
For investments, we partner with Metaplanet VC. We can make grants and investments in the United States and many other countries, but we may occasionally decline awards to comply with the local laws of specific countries.
Work with experienced mentors who try to help you identify ambitious, impactful work and internship opportunities that are a good fit for your skills and interests. Receive support for applying to top US and UK colleges, and advice for making the most of college.
Receive free hardcopy books from our library, covering topics from math and science to how to make better decisions to the history and future of humankind.
2023 Application Timeline
Stage 1: Preliminary Application
Time Commitment: 30–60 minutes
Applicants will know if they’ve proceeded to Stage 2 within three weeks of submitting. Applications are evaluated on a rolling basis, so we recommend completing Stage 1 earlier, leaving more time for Stage 2.
We accept late applications until May 14. You will still be required to complete stage 2 by May 16.
Stage 2: Written Application
Time Commitment: 2–5 hours
Are aliens more likely to enjoy the taste of our food or the sound of our music? In Stage 2, you’ll write short written answers and get a taste of the content at Atlas. If you enjoy thinking about the questions and concepts in the application, you’ll probably enjoy our in-person program.
Stage 3: Interviews
Time Commitment: 30–90 minutes
Selected students will participate in a 30 minute individual video interview, and possibly further individual or group interviews. Applicants will be able to select a time slot that works best for them. No preparation is needed.
Fellows Selected
June 10 2023
All applicants will be notified of their application status. Fellows will receive instructions on how to sign up for the summer program and claim their $10,000 scholarship.
Promising Candidates
Students who possess some of the traits and inclinations listed below, or are determined to develop them, will be great fits for the Atlas Fellowship. A promising applicant probably possesses at least three of these traits, though we expect many exceptions and these are merely guidelines.
Indicators of this include working on a passion project that displays deep knowledge or skills, conducting original research, winning competitions (in debating, coding, etc.), STEM olympiad medals, or exceptional competitive exam performance (PSAT 1420+, SAT 1500+, ACT 34+, or similar). That said, even if you’re from a nontraditional background and haven’t had the chance to excel in any of these ways, just try the problems in our application—if you can solve them, you’ll do well on our application!
Do you seek out ideas that challenge your opinions? If you find evidence that contradicts your opinions, do you eagerly update your beliefs? Do you enjoy learning and exploring?
Start your application
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