Harvard Summer School

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
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<p>I recently found out that Harvard offers a summer school program. I live in the area and I feel this would be a great opportunity to make some great connections and learn more about my dream college. Has anyone done this? The price is pretty demanding for my family and I see no financial aid opportunities on the website. Is it worth it?</p>

<p>I would also like to know the requirements to be admitted. I assume, since it is Harvard, that they do not accept everyone. I have not taken my SAT yet, will that be a problem?</p>

<p>Link: <a href="http://www.summer.harvard.edu/"&gt;http://www.summer.harvard.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

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<p>It’s not worth a big financial outlay if it stretches your family’s budget. Better to save that for your actual college tuition.</p>

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<p>I heard that the admit rate is lower for people who attended Harvard Summer School than the general applicant pool. But of course this is hearsay.</p>

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<p>^^ Going to Harvard SSP won’t get you in or keep you out of Harvard. It’s the sum total of who you are, what you’ve done and where you will likely be headed that will be assessed. In that context, if you attend SSP, it will be just one piece of the mosaic. </p>

<p>I feel that Harvard purposely sends mixed signals about whether it helps or not. While they overtly say it won’t increase your chances of admissions, they turn around and ask on the application if you’ve ever attended SSP and, if so, to have the transcript sent to their office. Clearly, mixed signals at the very least. </p>

<p>Harvard SSP is a money-maker for Harvard and despite their $36 billion endowment, they like making money as much as any other college, especially when it is costing them over $100k to educate each student and they are “only” charging $65k with 60-70% of the students receiving financial aid for this. So, it’s in their best interest to keep people guessing. I met a gas station owner at the beginning of two summers ago who was proudly sending his son off to Harvard SSP. He told me that he heard from Harvard itself, that they accept anyone who attends SSP. I tried to gently disabuse him of this idea and spare him his savings, but he would have none of it. His son is now at our state flagship school. Every year, there are scores of SSP’ers who ignore Harvard’s warning and believe if they can just walk on the hallowed grounds, they’ll be anointed with a first class ticket to ride the train later on. If Harvard really wanted to crush the myth, they would simply publish the actual admissions figures for SSP applicants which from what I gather pretty much mirror the overall figures with some adjustment for the self-selected and wealthier pool.</p>

<p>There are some ways in which SSP can help nudge your odds and Gibby has often pointed out one of them - get an A+ and see if the professor will write a recommendation for you. As he notes, this rarely happens so $10k+ for an extremely low odds strategy is quite a gamble. The other way is to take very challenging courses that help fill in an expertise in a particular area that you are building. You don’t have to go to Harvard to do this, but one could imagine that getting great grades at Harvard SSP, at the margin, will be ever viewed ever so slightly more favorably because it demonstrates you can handle their workload. Some eight-credit summer courses at Harvard are extremely brutal, btw. so go in with your eyes wide open.</p>

<p>So, if you have $10k (or whatever it is now) to spare and nothing more interesting to do then go ahead and take some courses. The experience will be challenging and rewarding but not likely to move the needle much, if at all, in your favor. If $10k is a stretch, then there are plenty of other much lower cost options out there that can be much more fruitful. Bon chance!</p>

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<p>^^ No one going to argue with this? I’m disappointed!</p>

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<p>It (meaning the post two above) makes perfect sense to me. It gives you an opportunity that has some value - if you’re the one bright shining star that makes the professor go “wow” - but the likelihood of that happening isn’t exactly bankable. I suspect the program is interesting and rewarding (perhaps even fun) on its own merits, entirely independent of admissions. Weighing value versus cost is an individual matter.</p>

<p>Oh yeah: for the rest of your life, you will always be able casually to drop into conversation, “When I was at Harvard …” Of course, you can do that if you just take a tour, though finishing the sentence is kind of tricky.</p>

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<p>

I’m sure the data exists. I am equally sure that nobody not employed with Harvard knows the results.</p>

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<p>@yoyo12121‌ I typed a long post about this somewhere but I’m too lazy to find it and copy & paste, so here’s a quick version of it.</p>

<p>Okay, I’ll bite. I attended Harvard SSP in 2013, and it was one of the most unforgettable experiences I have had so far. I was a Sophomore, and I did not take any standardized test at that time. The tuition is hefty, but I received 5k in scholarships, and I think around 2k in educational credits on tax returns. I took a 8 cred class, and it helped me to get a paid internship this past summer. I was paid pretty well (in the teens/hr), so essentially I paid everything off. Pretty cool.</p>

<p>I attended all the lectures, many of the office hours, all the lab sections, and talked with my professor multiple times outside of class. He asked me if I wanted a rec letter from him (of course, I did). He also counseled me on college choices and career perspectives. I tried my best and did pretty well. I loved the subject. I loved the way the professor teaches as well–the course is actually the main reason I had a 5 and a 800 on the AP and subject tests. </p>

<p>Of course, I didn’t just study. Heck, out of many people I know, I probably visited/traveled the most in the Boston area. Together with a friend (that I made first day in the program!), we basically gone to all the Museums, the freedom trail, several colleges, walked along the Charles at least once a week, tried all the best NE foods, gone to a concert, and even just walked listlessly to enjoy the Boston atmosphere. We had Otto’s (a pizza place next to Harvard) nights and Insomnia Cookies nights. I was in the Trivia Bowl (we made really far!) and helped someone practice for the Talent Show. I was in all the study breaks, and still took advantage of all the Annenberg Dining Hall foods. I learnt how to manage my own time, and made the best of the this experience.</p>

<p>I walked out with 8 credits, a letter of recommendation (and a professor as a friend!), many friends, and countless experiences. Was it worth it? Yeah. Yeah, it was. </p>

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<p>Having attended HSSP this past summer, I can also say that it was one of the best experiences of my life. It’s definitely a hefty sum to pay, but in the end it was definitely worth it. I took Intro to Comparative Politics and Intro to Historical Linguistics, and they were probably the best classes I’ve ever taken. My politics class in particular was amazing, and definitely made me want to pursue political science in college. Like the previous poster I also became friends with my professors, and am friends with one on Facebook.</p>

<p>I think what I’d say overall about HSSP is that you can make of it what you wish. There were definitely kids who didn’t study at all, and were there just to party and have fun. I, on the other hand, definitely became a Lamonster over the summer, and spent so much time on my classes. It was worth every second though. And I did have some time to go on trips to Cape Cod and such.</p>

<p>Overall, an amazing experience. I can’t say in particular how it might influence my admission chances, but I don’t think going to HSSP would hurt in any way.</p>

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<p>This is a good experience once offered but yes it is true Harvard does not accept anyone. Financial aid is offered and is over a seven weel period program from which you can choosse a four or eght credit course. Going to the summer program will not guarentee you any spot in a specific college however it will make your application seemingly persuasive</p>

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<p>^^ I can’t remember where I read this, but Harvard Summer School’s acceptance rate is somewhere north of 40% – so while they don’t accept everyone, their acceptance rate is on par with the University of Florida and not Harvard College.</p>

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<p>The dean, I believe, said the acceptance rate was about 35% for my year. It’s pretty easy for anyone (who took the application seriously) to get in, to be honest. Basically, it’s a great experience if you could get most of the fees covered with scholarships and you know how to make the best of the opportunity. </p>

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<p>^^ 35% acceptance rate means that most of kids attending won’t see a boost, if any, when applying to Harvard undergrad. It’s just not very selective, ESPECIALLY when compared to progams like TASP(5%) or RSI(3%).</p>

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<p>I’m not saying it would hurt your chances, but the benefits of attending HSSP, if there are any, are negligibly small. As I said, any EC that depends on your parent’s ability to pay is not that impressive. </p>

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<p>You need good grades and remarkable EC’s to get accepted to Harvard but an applicant with perfect GPA/SAT score PLUS a summer program from an ivy league in their application is like an icing on the cake with a cherry on top. I am not saying that if you attend Harvard HSSP you will automatically get admitted, but this tells the admission officers that you have had the experience of living in college and would be a great dorm room partner. At least that’s what I see on the Harvard SCEA decision page for class of 2019. Student with perfect SAT score and 4.2 GPA with no HSSP is rejected and a student with 2250/ no ranking and 3.8 GPA with a summer program at Princeton is accepted. I might be totally wrong on this arguement but i am just stating what I saw on the decision page. Colleges wants students who will not only bring diversity and uniqueness to the campus but also a great social life and would be a great room partner. I have done so much research over the application process in the ivies now that I might be completely wrong or incredibly right. In any case, Don’t just go to the HSSP for the sake of getting accepting, you can just attend a summer program at a local college and Harvard would still recognize that. I attended a summer program at SMU which is 45 minutes from my home in my sophomore year and it gave me a great exposure of campus life.</p>

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<p>

I’d posit that you are. Correlation does not imply causation. </p>

<p>Also note that the responses on the SCEA decisions threads are a small subset of accepted applicants.</p>

<p>Go to HSS if there are courses in which you are interested and your parents have $10K to spend for the experience. However, do not be deluded into thinking that this experience will boost your chances for admission to Harvard or any other top university.</p>