Avoid Cornell Summer College

<p>I went in 2006 and it was a serious waste of time and cash. The professors were unqualified visiting professors from **** schools. Going to Cornell summer college will in no way improve your chances of getting into Cornell. In fact, it might even hurt your chances. My highschool's college advising office told me that I was a shoe-in because of my stellar grades at summer college, great transcript, glowing recommendations, extra curriculars, standardized test scores, etc. Despite all that, I was rejected early decision! Eliminated from the regular admissions pool! No one else I know who went to summer college got into Cornell either. The whole thing was super expensive and totally lame. Look into going to another school for summer college it will probably be a much better experience. </p>

<p>!!!Bear in mind that people who respond to this post and say it is a good experience may be the same individuals who run the program!!! They mislead me and will try and mislead you as well. Don't let them take advantage of you. Go elsewhere and have a great productive summer.</p>

<p>hmmm…what program did you do?
I don’t think the purpose of SC is to improve your chances at Cornell. It seems to me that you fell in love with Cornell after SC (based on the fact that you applied ED…why apply if you had a bad summer experience?). There are many other reasons you could have been rejected. For me, I hope SC will help me decide if CU is the school for me and help me experience college life (I’m doing Hotel Operations Management this summer). I’m sorry you had a bad experience, but I don’t think this is the case for everyone. Did you at least have fun? Besides the visiting professors, what was bad?</p>

<p>lol Do you realize how bitter you sound?</p>

<p>this person is bitter because they were rejected. how on earth couldnt it help if you get a good grade. it clearly shows interest and that you can handle hard work. dont listen to them. and its really lame that they would bother posting that 3 years later. summer college is fun and will help out of course!</p>

<p>AND NO… i dont run the program :)</p>

<p>You are absolutely RIDICULOUS. First of all, the only way that doing it would hurt your chances would be if you went, got drunk every night and got bad grades, got caught drinking, and then got kicked out. Doing it and getting good grades can only HELP you.</p>

<p>It’s clear that for one reason or another, Cornell did not want you. However, I don’t believe this was because of Summer College. You obviously are bitter and want to blame summer college for your rejection, but there’s no way that it hurt you.</p>

<p>That being said, I did summer college in 2008 and I loved it! I have a TON of friends who went to Summer College and got accepted ED, and a ton who were accepted RD too! </p>

<p>My professor was an actual Cornell professor and he was really good!</p>

<p>I’m sorry you had such a horrible experience but it seems like you’re just a negative person. There’s a reason you were rejected ED and it’s NOT because of Summer College.
THX *****</p>

<p>I don’t run the program eitherrrr yo</p>

<p>while some are invited professors…if the OP would have done her homework…she would have known who the professors were (by looking at their CV)</p>

<p>Summer College is expensive, but classes do have regular Cornell profs. Indeed, if you do some searching on Cornell’s website, you’ll find that several of the Profs have won teaching awards from their (regular) Cornell students. Attending Summer College will not get you into Cornell, but should help you with the ‘Why Cornell?’ essay since you’ve been on campus for 3-6 weeks.</p>

<p>As a OOS parent, I recommend it highly (assuming you have the cash, since finaid is limited).</p>

<p>I spent my summer of 2008 at Cornell and I thought it was completely worth it. (I am not… associated with the program except as an attendee btw.)
It was definitely a great experience where I got to meet a lot of cool awesome people. The course itself – i learned a lot and enjoyed it. I felt the professor was great and it gave me a new view of what college would be like.</p>

<p>First post by OP, and he chose to start a thread about Cornell’s summer school?</p>

<p>I went in 2004 and had a blast. I did well and then got into Cornell two years later. From what I understand, doing well at summer college shows that you can handle college-level work, and so doing well would help you somewhat in the eyes of admissions officers.</p>

<p>I also agree with the post ydkj made that this comes out THREE YEARS after the program ends, after the OP was rejected from Cornell. We’re sorry it didn’t work out for you, but do your best with the options you have.</p>

<p>Oh, and I also am not affiliated with the program. AEM '09.</p>

<p>I do not think it will hurt your chances, but it is put in the same category of activities as things like having a summer job, or taking a class at a CC. It does not make you stand out, and it is primarily used as a marketing tool to convince students to apply. If you really want to do something over the summer to increase your chances, do something like RSI, or USAMO stuff.</p>

<p>All top schools run summer programs for high school students because they are cash cows; top quality programs, but cash cows none the less.</p>

<p>Any “college” program or class taken as a single concentrated experience will not carry the weight of the same class taken when one is taking 5 other classes plus ECs plus sports. </p>

<p>Summer HS classes will be taught by whoever is available: adjunct, TA, wondering mistral, esteemed professor’s wife. The college will of course ensure that the class is a quality experience (they have a reputation to uphold), but don’t think that wazzu professors will take time away from their research to teach high school students. </p>

<p>Attending XXXX elite college’s $$$$summer program will not give you a leg up on admission to said college. What you did or what you learned from your summer experience, spun into a stellar essay, will help.</p>

<p>Keep in mind that top colleges are not particularly susceptible to name dropping; save that for the folks back home.</p>

<p>whatever, i think everyone knows it’s a way for cornell to make money. why is that a bad thing? if you take advantage of the program, you will give yourself a leg up in admissions. there isnt a better program if you’re trying to see if cornell is the place for you. so definitely do it if you have the money and are interested in cornell</p>

<p>i will suggest that cornell summer college will serve you better to apply to other top schools…</p>

<p>but it could help if you take something specific to cornell (and maybe apply ED)…for example taking a class in the hotel school or in the ILR school…and write your essay inspired by your experience there…</p>

<p>the goal of summer college shouldnt be to load up on credits and prove you can handle college level work (that’s the job of your AP/IB and your SAT scores)</p>

IMO any summer program that costs money to attend (in other words, not a full scholarship) will not improve your chances a lot if at all. (The one exception is maybe SSP, but that is very expensive). These are mostly a money making venture for colleges, and their acceptance rates are sometimes higher than 50%!

Summer programs that actually help for college admissions are full scholarship programs like RSI, TASP, MITES, PGSS, NJGSS, etc. All of these generally have acceptance rate < 15%. These programs are like “mock” admissions, and the people who are lucky enough to get into any of these are extremely qualified applicants and show passion in one area or another. Many of the classes are not competitive, but cooperative; all you get back (besides experience and knowledge of a college) are STELLAR additional Letters of Recommendation.

If the program is held at a selective university, something like “Accepted with Full Scholarship to Carnegie Mellon Governor’s School” will look like a major achievement to the College Admissions Officers, especially those of top schools.

But then again, not all Ivy Leauge students attend summer programs. Some just do what they like to do, and exemplify that in their essays. In the end, passion is what gets people into college (as long as they have the academic credentials!).

Source: I am a PGSS (Carnegie Mellon Governor’s School) 2015 admit on a full scholarship (like all other admits to PGSS).

This thread is six years old…

OP, where in the literature did you ever read that attending Cornell Summer School for high school students would increase your chances of admittance? I think it’s very obvious that these programs are for summer enrichment and NOT for a leg up in admissions. My D did the UChicago summer program for two years because they had interesting programs that interested her, not so she could be admitted to UChicago. Sorry about your bad experience. I know many kids who do these programs and have had awesome experiences.

No one person is a shoe-in for an Ivy League school. They can be as selective as they want to be, and they often times are. Valedictorians get rejected left and right with ED.