<p>Wayneandgarth . . . had my Mom suggested to me to spend four weeks of my summer doing math/engineering (or anything other than going to parties), I would have thought she was nuts . . . my S on the other hand, was really excited about the idea. In a way, he kind of started it . . . he wanted to apply for an internship that would have meant a 150 mile roundtrip commute every day in the summer for a brand new driver that didn’t own a car! D’oh! So I started looking for camps at local colleges . . . just by chance I came across a list of programs in the US – I had no idea these things even existed. There are also tons of research internships if you live in the right area (ie, near military bases, etc.)</p>
<p>You might want to try a shorter camp this summer, just to see if he’s interested. Then see if he would go for a longer program later summers (most of them are for rising seniors, or juniors in some cases.) I highly recommend the Navy’s STEM program . . . [Naval</a> Academy Admissions STEM Camp](<a href=“http://www.usna.edu/admissions/stem.html]Naval”>http://www.usna.edu/admissions/stem.html) . The do have a week for your S’s grade level. It’s only 6 days and you only have to pay for transportation. They bus the kids to/from BWI. There is no recruitment involved, but S said most the kids were there because they planned on applying, even though that’s not the intent of the program. On the app, they do ask for height/weight and are very interested in athletic participation. It is selective – only 375 chosen from 4,000+ applicants. </p>
<p>He had the time of his life at both USNA and UMich . . . if he could have, he would have stayed! He has a bunch of kids he’s FB friends with, so he’s able to keep in touch. He is applying to a bunch of programs for this summer . . . he would be severely bummed if he had to stay home this summer!</p>