<p>I think it makes a huge difference. And I don't mean like visiting once or twice more than the average person or doing overnights or emailing your admissions officer. I mean doing a summer course or research at a school. At my school at least, 3 kids got into 3 very selective Ivies by taking classes there. Do you guys agree? This is sad...only rich kids have the money for 10,000 dollar summer courses...your thoughts?</p>
<p>Do not think it makes a bit of difference for any of the Ivy’s and very few top schools.</p>
<p>No, I fully disagree. They could care less about interest and all clearly state summer programs and any show of interest does not matter to them.</p>
<p>Ivy League doesn’t give a damn. </p>
<p>Except Brown. Collegeboard has it that Brown lists level of applicant’s interest as very important.</p>
<p>[College</a> Search - Brown University - Admission](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)</p>
<p>Emory University also cares about level of interest.</p>
<p>Of top schools, I feel like it might matter for Swarthmore. Swat has rejected or WL’d and never accepted all of even the most qualified applicants from my school for about 20 years. And then I got in (early notification even) after going to a weekend there whose attendees have a greatly increased acceptance rate.</p>
<p>But that’s a LAC. Ivies/top universities don’t care, for the most part. Certainly not HYPSMC.</p>
<p>I’ve actually heard MIT has a very selective summer program which drastically increases your chances.</p>
<p>Maybe I’m completely making this up. I remember hearing that somewhere, though.</p>
<p>The other thing to keep in mind is that a lot of schools, despite what they say, may take interest when students show they can pay. Even if you don’t think HYPS do, some of the smaller-endowment schools might. Especially the ones that offer ED–which is another (through the eyes of a cynic) good way to reduce the financial aid they’re paying.</p>
<p>Ivies know there are tens of thousands students interested in them, so I don’t really think showing interest is a big factor for ivies’ admission.</p>
<p>I mean, I know two kids going to Harvard and Penn next year who aren’t award winners/vals/23+ SAT scores. What they did have, though, were A’s in respective summer classes.</p>
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<p>People who get into the summer program have a drastically higher chance of getting into MIT. But I find it hard to believe that’s because the program increases your chances, rather than the same kind of people tending to be admitted to both the summer program and MIT.</p>
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<p>Quite a few of these schools offer financial aid for their summer programs.</p>
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<p>Yes there is such a program. It is called RSI and it is EXTREMELY competitive (50 students out of 1200 applicants) but it is also free and not really affiliated with MIT (its run by a non-profit).</p>
<p>Most of the programs affiliated with top schools have specific disclaimers about their programs–they do not increase chances of being accepted to the college. RSI may be an exception, but (as is the argument for all competitive summer programs) this may be a result of correlation rather than causation. RSI kids are incredibly gifted to begin with, likely more so than the average MIT applicant. </p>
<p>Honestly, as limabeans would say, the biggest advantage to these programs is that they demonstrate you have $X000 lying around.</p>