A bit late as a sophomore, but...

<p>Hi everyone! I've applied to a few places over the past few months, and the results aren't quite as nice so far. I didn't start looking until around February, so I missed out on many great programs like Yale's GS PLE! Gahhhhh! Anyway, does anybody know any decent ones I can still apply to for over the summer? I'm currently filling out my application for Carleton's, since I live in Minnesota. I was really thinking about applying to the online courses, since I just really love learning in general, but I heard that actually hurts in admissions! I think much of my momentum when I apply to 'dem selective colleges is going to come from the fact that I come from a low-income family, so now that I think about it, trying an expensive summer online course would look sketchy on my application, but I don't just want to spend $2000 on something I can't even put on the application (I know I'm a bit cynical for thinking of it that way). I really love Economics, so I'm thinking about applying to the Economics for Leaders thing (perhaps UCLA or Duke). Does anybody know if that program is worth it? Maybe I could just try to do some independent Economics research over the summer, do my high school's summer tennis camp, volunteer at the library (to read muahahahhahahaha) or hospital, occasionally work at Kumon (they already offered me the job :P), and study for the standardized test? What do you guys think? Thanks!</p>