EA - [Atlas Fellowship] Why do 100 high-schoolers need $50k each from Open Philanthropy? by Sparcalum2

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: [Atlas Fellowship] Why do 100 high-schoolers need $50k each from Open Philanthropy?, published by Sparcalum2 on February 4, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.Note this is a sincere question. Not intended to cause controversy. It was inspired by this post questioning another OP Grant.Full DisclosureI applied to the Atlas Fellowship but was rejected. However, I attended SPARC, a free in-person program that teaches rationality tools to high schoolers (and follows a similar structure to Atlas Fellowship's camp). I'm friends with many Atlas Fellows.What is the Atlas Fellowship?For those newer to the EA Community, the Atlas Fellowship is a competitive program for high schoolers. If you are awarded it, you receive,A $50k scholarship (or $12,000 for Atlas India).Atlas Fellows can spend this money on anything considered an "academic expense". This includes travel expenses if justification can be provided.A fully-funded 11-day summer program in the Bay Area in a large former fraternity on UC Berkley's campus.College admissions preparation for top universities. (The admissions tutors are paid $200-300/hr).Access to the $1m Atlas Fund to learn, experiment, and build impactful projects.For 500 finalists, they receive $1,000 and 5 free books.Total Cost of Prizes$50k x 100 + $12k x 20 + $1k x 500 = $5.74mThis does not include the instructors, venue, or travel costs.What made me write this post?This came to my attention after reading EA London's monthly newsletter. It highlighted new grants that Open Philanthropy made. I learnt that OP made an additional $1.8m grant to the Atlas Fellowship in December 2022This is on top of a $5m grant they made in March 2022 and a $5m grant that the FTX Future Fund made.There is much discussion (even amongst Atlas Fellows) that it is not a good use of money and that high schoolers don't need $50k scholarships; therefore, I felt raising this question is worthwhile and of interest to the wider community.Questions I have for Open Philanthropy and the Atlas FellowshipWhy do high schoolers need $50k scholarships? If the reason is to attract talent, why is this required when programs such as SPARC and ESPR do an excellent job of attracting talented high schoolers?Note that SPARC and ESPR have been running for close to a decade. Many alumni go to top universities worldwide (MIT, Stanford, Oxford, etc.)I estimate each Atlas Fellow costs $80-90k, given you need to divide the total costs by the number of fellows (i.e., instructor cost should be considered).If the answer is to attract better talent, is there a significant difference in talent between Atlas Fellows and those attending SPARC and ESPR that makes this $80-90k money worthwhile? (Note that this would be over 20 lives saved through the Against Malaria Foundation).Why was a $50k scholarship offered if a $25k scholarship would attract, say, 80-90% of the same applicants?I suspect that a $5k unconditional grant that they can spend on whatever would attract just as many quality applications and be much cheaper.What is the breakdown of the socioeconomic background of Atlas Fellows? What countries are all Atlas Fellows from? What about the finalists?Atlas says they're doing "talent search". This connotes finding talent from under-resourced communities or poor students. Do the statistics match this?From friends who are Atlas Fellows, they said many Atlas Fellows do not require the scholarship as their parents earn a lot and can already pay for college. This makes me question why some people are accepted as $50k to the Against Malaria Foundation, which would save over ten lives. (Even more, if you consider it $80-90k). What are the Atlas Fellows spending the money on if their parents have more than enough to pay for college?What measures do they have to identify talent that ot...