<p>Thank you for all the advice! He has played his sport competitively for the last 4 summers, as well as worked as a golf caddy. This summer he is leaning toward taking a week long class at Michigan (we live close enought that the travel is not an issue) in financial markets as he is bouncing around between business school and pre-med. He is also planning to work at a Christian camp as a grounds crew member. This is unpaid and we do have to pay a small fee for room and board, but he is willing to do the work and excited about it. He will not caddy and will not play his travel sport. He will also be taking a summer class to get his second gym class requirement out of the way to make more room for classes during the school year. </p>
<p>I feel like this is enough. He is still being a kid and doing things he likes to do in his spare time, but showing that he does not sit around and play x box all summer When we first started to think about college he was all about the elite schools, but as we work our way through it we are realizing that there are a lot of really good schools where he may get some merit aid… they just may not be the top of the top like he first thought he needed.</p>
<p>This may be counter what’s written above, but my D1 did amazing things over her summers and I am not sure it made any difference, other than to fill in the blanks on apps. What did make a difference for her was spending a good part of the summer doing SAT prep–I know, no one wants to hear that–because her test scores skyrocketed from the hard work and that enabled her to consider certain schools and scholarships as a senior.</p>
<p>I think what is really impressive is when a kid WORKS all summer in an attempt to help out with their future. Most of the summer programs really are a solicitation of wealthy parents who think it will boost their kids applications. YES, there are certainly exceptions.<br>
One day I was looking at the ‘results’ thread for a certain Ivy League school, and the one thing that jumped out was that wealthy kids (many with super high stats) who had never held a job were rejected. Kids who had labored at menial mall or fast food labor for years were accepted.<br>
Then I also noticed that there were kids who did some impressive pre-med lab type internships, but those same kids also held on to their crummy jobs at Kentucky Fried Chicken or JusticeII. From my observation, spending three years working at McDonalds seems to hold far more weight then that impressive sounding leadership academy or Ivy sponsored summer camp. My guess is that AdComs like to see that your kid has some connection to the real world, and an ability to work hard, even when the work pretty much sucks.</p>
<p>I have to agree with Olipond–most of these summer programs are very expensive and the ad comms probably look at them and think, ok, your parents had enough money to send you to one of these, moving along…I think they are more impressed with a kid worked all summer or did volunteer work or a combination of that.</p>
When we first started to think about college he was all about the elite schools, but as we work our way through it we are realizing that there are a lot of really good schools where he may get some merit aid… they just may not be the top of the top like he first thought he needed.</p>