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Good point!</p>
<p>BTW, summer is a great time to spend with friends. This opportunity will not last forever, do not underestimate it, use it to its fullest, it is very worthwhile to consider. This is in addition to some daily (2/day sometime) sport practices, competitions, music / art lessons,…etc. that continue thru every summer anyway in year around activities.</p>
<p>Well, maybe the friends are all off doing their own “incredible ECs”!</p>
<p>Many students unfortunately do not have the financial luxury of spending their summers “with friends” at the mall or wherever. Many need to earn money for school. And IMO, if I were looking at 2 equally qualified candidates and one spent the summer practicing their sport/instrument and hanging with friends, and the other spent it practicing their sport/instrument and working in a store or a lab or camp, I know which would look more attractive to me.</p>
<p>So, if these kids are doing all these wonderful summer enrichment activities, when do they get to be kids? I would discourage my kids from doing too much of this as these are the last years of their life that they will be able to enjoy the freedom of youth until they retire. Sure, some volunteer work, etc. is a great idea but to spend your entire summer locked up in a lab somewhere does not sound all that appealing.</p>
<p>
lol, that sounds like the kid is a lab rat or guinea pig or something. These aren’t likely to be 40+hr/week opportunities. Some “kids” want to play stickball and some “kids” want to shadow a doctor or work in a lab. And it doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive. I also think there is a vast difference between what one might feel are good summer experiences/opportunities for a 15 yr old vs a 17 yr old.</p>
<p>I agree they don’t have to be mutually exclusive and that was my point. Others, however, have stated that that is all their students will be doing. Our kids will have a great mix of volunteer work, summer jobs, EC’s and just time to hang around with friends. Their summer EC’s include all of their friends (marching band) so that is as much fun as it is work.</p>
<p>The mom of one of Ds friend in middle school held a huge rummage sale to raise money for her daughter to attend a soccer program in New Zealand.
She was a single mom & very committed to making sure her daughter didn’t miss out on anything. ( I thought she was over compensating a bit- but who am I to judge?)</p>
<p>While teams & clubs at my daughters high school often had car washes & other fundraisers,that was the first time I had heard of an individual doing fundraising for a private trip. ( If you don’t count the kids going door to door selling magazines to " win a trip to Disneyland")</p>
<p>The thing with some of these opportunities though is that they are set up by Americans, they attract mainly kids from the US, & while they might actually be in Mexico or Australia- it’s not as diverse an experience as advertised. They might as well attend soccer camp in Austin.</p>
<p>"locked up in a lab somewhere does not sound all that appealing. "</p>
<p>-Actually it is incredible experience, my D. has spend few years doing that. She is NOT too much into research, she likes to work with people, she prefers clinical experiences, but she absolutely loved working in the Med. Lab. If anybody has this incredible chance which is NOT easy to obtain even for college kids with great LORs and perfect GPAs, please, do not think twice, grab it, say YES right away, this opportunity will be gone next moment if you hesitate as most of them require connections if it is outside of your school (college).</p>
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Where did you see that, steve? Can you link it? I agree that a student’s summer should be a balance of work and “play”, for lack of a better word. It doesn’t have to be so tightly scheduled that they don’t have time to come up for air. Most students will, especially if they are home, find time to spend with their friends who are also home. Its all about balance.</p>
<p>& attending soccer camp in Austin is fine! 
I just think it should be transparent about what they are getting. I hear stories about lack of supervision or safety concerns even for expensive programs. The money received doesn’t seem to be related to the quality of the experience.</p>
<p>But we still don’t know the details about OPs kid. It can be harder to find a job when you aren’t 16, but it can be good to have * some sort* of structure for at least part of your summer.</p>
<p>My daughter attended a service/activity trip out of country last year. We both totally get how it’s seen. That being said, she had the time of her life. She did volunteering in a community and got a much needed wake up call on the reality of life for those not in the US, and she got to see a part of the world I wouldn’t necessarily visit. She also made great friends who are still in touch.</p>
<p>She’s going this year to another part of the world for 2 weeks. She loves these trips, and I honestly don’t feel like she gets a vacation and I don’t - it’s a different experience I wouldn’t give her. Frankly, I’m exhausted from working, I want to go where I’ll be able to relax.</p>
<p>However, I never would ask anyone, even grandparents to help fund it. Is it a wealthy kid trip? Probably, but it doesn’t invalidate the experience. If we have the money and choose to spend some it giving her the love of travel and an international exposure I don’t have a problem with it. </p>
<p>I have a real hard time with kids raising money for personal trips that probably benefits them more than whoever they go assist.</p>
<p>Exactly, eyeamom. Enrichment/travel programs can be wonderful, if they are affordable. If they are not affordable they should not be pursued. There was a poster on another thread who spent a few weeks overseas last year. He had virtually nothing good to say about the experience (sad) and now is talking about being unable to meet the few thousand dollar gap to attend college. Have to wonder if the money spent on the summer program, even if it seemed like a wonderful opportunity at the time, could/should have been saved for college expenses.</p>
<p>In our neighborhood, if a kid wanted to “raise” some funds, he or she could print out a flyer offering to rake yards, do spring cleaning, or walk dogs and probably make some pretty good money. This is not an option everywhere. For a well-liked kid, some people would be overly generous to help fund a program.</p>
<p>There was a Miss Manners column about “fundraising” for personal experiences like this. She likened it to “begging.” If you have the money and like the program, pay for it yourself. The student can work and save a portion of the money.</p>
<p>On the other hand I feel if a student is accepted into a competitive summer program that is paid for (MITES, SAMS, etc.) and needs help with other expenses, fundraising is appropriate as there is merit involved.</p>
<p>IMO a family trip would cost less and be more memorable than an overpriced People to People type of experience. Working and volunteering in one’s community is probably looked upon most favorably by colleges if that is your angle.</p>
<p>OK. I’m baffled. Why do people assume that fundraising equals begging? Doesn’t fundraising involve some sort of exchange of labor/services ? I had no problem buying cupcakes from a neighbor’s teen who was fundraising for a backpacking trip in the Sierras. What am I not getting here?</p>
<p>Fundraising is usually done to support a charity/non-profit entity. Raising money to fund your own trip with donations feels a bit like begging. WORKING to fund the trip is entirely different. So exchanging labor/services isn’t fundraising in my book - it’s just earning money that the person can use however they would like.</p>
<p>Thanks suzy100. I see the difference.</p>
<p>To be fair to the OP, she seemed to be talking about sources of scholarship funds. Not about begging from the neighbors. (Which I agree is obnoxious.) When she comes back and reads this thread, she might be somewhat stunned. ;)</p>
<p>No idea what program the OP’s D is interested in but often the costly ones are overseas volunteer opportunities. So often what underlies them are for-profit businesses that sell the equivalent of cool teen summer camp in a wrapping that parents will swallow for the price tag: helping humanity and looking good on a college resume. I want to refute these two marketing ploys:</p>
<ol>
<li>There are more than enough real life, far closer to home, ways to help humanity— just take a visit into your nearest big city, local hospital, library, charity, or school and ask around. You can readily volunteer time far closer to home and save a lot of ‘funds’ and carbon emissions in the process. And if your heart is really set on helping the truly impoverished in the developing world, find creative ways to work closer to home and mail your money to the most effective charities. </li>
</ol>
<p>Contrary to the brochures, the third world doesn’t need a lot of rich teenagers coming to build stuff (in these regions, labour is sadly the one thing that is in extremely cheap and in plentiful supply!).</p>
<ol>
<li>The consensus seems to be that these programs on one’s college resume do not convey compassion so much as this: your family had enough wealth to send you overseas to purchase some very cool volunteer hours for college apps. </li>
</ol>
<p>I think it would be far more impressive for a young person to demonstrate initiative, creativity and passion by finding a neglected cause to support and creative ways by which to support it. But it is far more difficult than writing a check.</p>
<p>I realize this does not address the OP’s question, but I thought I’d throw that out there in case it does match the OP’s daughters summer program and there isn’t a great way to afford it.</p>